The emotional sight of neoliberalized port infrastructure in the city of Poti, Georgia

This article traces an ethnography-based analysis of the historical Poti port as it has been socially imagined through the lenses of ideological transformations. Situated at a nexus of Black Sea trading infrastructure, the city of Poti has been known as the gateway of Georgia, between Asia and Europe. The port, in its current location since the late nineteenth century, has been an economic asset to colonial powers (Russian Tsarist, Soviet state-socialist) and neoliberal economic agendas. Its infrastructure, which encompasses a specific field of trading and transit functions, encapsulates a social layer while affecting the daily lives of inhabitants. People’s reflections on either development or decay can evoke emotional perceptions of and reflections on this urban infrastructure. Living and producing infrastructure, gazing at constructed landscapes and associating oneself with particular spatial reflections all have an immersive effect on the city’s morale, evoking feelings of pride, shame and uncertainty. Thus, I aim to present in what sense the port is attached in people’s reflections to these emotional domains. I contend that specific neoliberal ideological experiences set the area of Poti port morally and socially apart from the inhabitants’ everyday reflections.