Space Matters: Marketplace and Interactional Order in the Nepalese “Manpower Bazaar”

Abstract

Spatial dynamics of market interactions are underexplored in the sociological study of markets. This ethnographically informed study dives into the intricate workings of a marketplace of migrant recruiters in Nepal, colloquially known as Manpower Bazaar. While spatial clustering of firms is often associated with efficiency or organizational design, this research reveals that their role extends far beyond these aspects. The study underscores the significance of interactional order within marketplaces where designed order is absent. In the early stages of market formation, a marketplace plays a pivotal role in fostering a unique market culture by shaping social norms, facilitating interactions, and standardizing behavior. Furthermore, Manpower Bazaar serves as a site for examining questions related to access, inequalities, uncertainties, and the survival of market actors. Tracing patterns of provisional alliances among competing recruiters, or what I refer to as fission and fusion in the market, the study highlights the complexity of the marketplace dynamics, including the consequences of spatially enabled market interactions on nonfirm actors around whom the marketplace is structured—the migrant workers. Reminding how space matters in the study of markets, this article contributes to our understanding of marketplaces, intermediation, and cross‐border migrant labor markets.