Strawberry business in Baikalsk: Meanings and contradictions

Abstract

“The end of the combine’s era” in Baikalsk meant the redistribution of opportunities and hopes - some left the city, others stayed searching for ways to earn money. Informal economic practices include renting housing to tourists, collecting and selling wild berries and herbs, catching and selling fish, growing and selling strawberries. In strawberry business, there are new ‘players’, garden tools and methods of processing, and the information and expert field is also expanding. By 2021, Baikalsk became a city of the qualified specialists in the field of strawberry cultivation. The article presents the results of the study of the strawberry business transformation: who is now engaged in this business, what are new meanings of such activities, why the strawberry ‘theme’ remains at the visual level, quite formal for urban identity, despite the strawberry business’s stable place in every family.