Geographies of Reconnection at the Marketplace

Abstract

Since 2009, Vilnius’ urban landscape has been transformed by the rapid growth of farmers’ markets, mirroring tendencies in other parts of Europe and Northern America. Existing research has found that farmers’ markets foster social and spatial embeddedness, meaning locally based relationships characterized by trust and reconnection. In contrast to these findings, I argue that social and spatial embeddedness are not guaranteed outcomes of market transactions in Vilnius farmers’ markets. To explain this discrepancy, I argue that farmers’ markets should be understood as unbounded places that are relationally constructed with other retail places, and produced by historical trajectories of production and consumption.

Keywords:

• farmers’ markets
• embeddedness
• Vilnius
• alternative food networks
• public markets

Acknowledgements

Thanks to anonymous reviewers for their comments, and to Ulrike Plath and Diana Mincyte for their encouragement and invaluable advice. All errors remain my own.

Notes

1. I use the term “public market” or simply “market” to refer to bazaars, open-air and urban markets.

2. Because this research ended in 2013, recent changes that have occurred in Tymo Turgus are not part of this analysis.

3. See Mažeikis (2004) for a general discussion of markets in Lithuania.

4. See Klumbytė (2009) on changing consumption practices.

5. See also Skulskis et al. (2011) on organic products.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies and the International Research & Exchanges Board. The Hella Mears Graduate Fellowship provided additional support to me to write this article.

Notes on contributors

Renata Blumberg

Renata Blumberg received her PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota in June 2014. In the fall of 2014, she began a new position as assistant professor of Health and Nutrition Sciences at Montclair State University. Thus far, she has studied alternative food networks in Latvia and Lithuania, and has paid particular attention to their sociospatial dimensions.