“The Container is almost Infinitely Expandable”: The Role of Materiality in Entrepreneurship in the North
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The article is devoted to the practices of entrepreneurs from the “northern far reaches” – villages with difficult and unstable logistics, which is typical for many parts of the Arctic. The article analyzes three examples from different regions: from the Nenets Autonomous District, from the west (Yenisei River basin) and the east of Taimyr (Khatanga River basin). The research data is observations and interviews collected during the summer navigation in the ports of loading, Arkhangelsk and Krasnoyarsk, as well as on board of a cargo ship and during unloading goods in the village. It is shown that the issue of materiality in purchasing, packing and unpacking cargo in the village turns out to be central for this professional group. Northern logistics impose a number of specific constraints on what goods can end up on the shelves of a village store. There are different kinds of cargo inside the container, among them beneficial goods, goods of obligation and goods of friendship in such a balance of the material and social that it remains potentially profitable for the entrepreneur. The range of goods delivered to the village is the result of an established convention regarding the necessary minimum between the entrepreneur and the local community. The amount of cargo placed in the container is not strictly fixed. It depends on the possession of practical skill in handling the goods. A unique competence in this professional community is that, due to extensive experience, the uncertainty regarding the transformation of cargo in transit is amenable to forecasting and planning. Understanding the rationality behind a private entrepreneur's decision to purchase certain goods sheds light on which goods, due to their material properties, are excluded from circulation and their availability in the villages can be attributed solely to alternative sources of obtaining goods.
Author: Valeria V. Vasilyeva
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404444751