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Accepted Paper:
The City of Eternal Promises - Informal Economic Practices in the Port City of Poti, Georgia
Esma Berikishvili
(Ilia State University)
This paper discusses how the Georgian port city Poti deals with the results of transformation brought by the famous ‘Rose Revolution’ and how locals create new and re-create old informal economic and cultural practices in order to live beyond the state.
Paper long abstract:
In the context of development and change this paper discusses how the inhabitants of the small port city of Poti deal with the results of transformation brought by the famous Georgian “Rose Revolution '' in 2003. For the purposes of this work, I look at one of the aspects of new institutionalist reforms implemented by the revolutionary government that was directed towards negotiating the sea between private fishing companies and local fishermen and study how this reforms altered the everyday practices of locals and led to reinventing old and establishing new informal economic practices as a response to the new neoliberal regime. In order to place the Georgian case in the global context, I study what is the role of Anchovy production for the Georgian economy. Tracing the route of the fish from Georgia to Turkey and then to the global market, I show what role does Georgian Anchovy play in the global economic chain, how and if Georgia benefits from the resources offered by the Black Sea. Using the theory of informal economy I discuss how port city dwellers maintain their contact with the sea in order to reclaim their rights to the sea resources and accordingly their rights for the better future.