Bazaar as a Metaphoric Platform for Dialogues in Addressing Politics of Nomadic Identity and Radical Disagreement

Prevailing rationalist peace practices neglect antagonism, an essence of collective identities, and seek peace through harmony that contradicts the principle of agonistic pluralism as a critical condition for co-existence and denies inevitable multiplicity of identities. The authors thus promote ‘de-romanticized’ view on peace that does not “delude about the possibility of a rational consensus which would banish antagonism forever” (Mouffe, 1994) but emphasizes situated agreements among the actors in their everyday interaction based on the mutual recognition of differences and right to exist. The paper asks what forms of dialogue support such transformation. If antagonism or radical disagreement, as Ramsbotham argues, are regarded as the essence of conflict and the conflict is not about misunderstanding and incompatible interests that can be solved by compromise, there is a need to replace traditional problem-solving approach (Habermasian dialogue) with problem-finding approach (Bakhtinian dialogue). However, in pragmatic terms, there appears a question how does this substitution in the approach allow for nomadization of antagonist identities. Drawing on practices and narratives registered in multicultural bazaars, this paper aims to grasp theoretically an original form of dialogic platforms that enables nomadization and hybridization of identity constitution against the backdrop of protracted conflict situations in which antagonism is deeply embedded and pluralism of identity narratives is regarded as a source of ontological insecurity. The authors particularly focus on the materiality of the processes constituting situated identities that take place in specific spaces of local markets and are driven by the actors’ interests of wellbeing. They argue that such environment provides a distinct platform for everyday interaction among diverse local people by means of which their collective identities are hybridized as being affected by persistent inflows of ‘the exterior’ and eventually nomadic identities are constituted. This papers adopts pragmatic approach and builds its theorization upon empirical evidences from the South Caucasus bazaars collected through original ethnographic research conducted in the Marneuli district of Georgia as well as various research accounts from across the region. The authors attempt to metaphorize “bazaars” in a practical way to be applied in peace supporting interventions that would better address everyday needs of local people affected by conflict.