Drifting in a Global Space of Textile Flows: Apparel Bazaars in Poland's Łódź Region

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of globalization and the circulation of money, goods and people on the functioning of post-socialist apparel bazaars in Poland's Łódź region. The theoretical backbone of the study is presented first, followed by an introduction to the general phenomenon of the bazaar. The following sections then address the temporal, spatial and institutional contexts of the development of the Łódź region's textile industry, and how the more recent opportunities, constraints and threats of globalization have been perceived and maintained by key players at the PTAK Bazaar. We argue that local economic development, in which the bazaar plays a crucial role, is scale-dependent. No longer the subject of a topo-cratic, hierarchical policy as it was under the socialist regime, current performance is the result of both vertical and horizontal power geometries.

Notes

The Schengen Agreement and its effects on bazaar customers was the subject of a previous paper (cf. van der Velde & Marcińczak, 2007).

Interviewed on 1 June 2005.

The authors would like to thank Anna Kwilman, student from the University of Łódź, who did the actual questioning.

Interviewed on 3 June 2005.

Interviewed on 3 June 2005.