Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Praxitopia : How shopping makes a street vibrant

Aslan, Devrim Umut LU orcid (2021)
Abstract
During recent decades, shopping’s geographical manifestations have altered radically and the presumed ‘death’ of town centre retailing has become a public concern. The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of this decentralisation of retail and its effects on city life have been studied comprehensively. However, to date, few studies have examined the changing dynamics of non-mainstream shopping geographies, particularly local shopping streets. How shopping is enacted in such places, and shopping’s part in shaping them, has been largely overlooked. Aspiring to fulfil this knowledge gap, this dissertation examines shopping activities on Södergatan, a local shopping street in a stigmatized ‘super-diverse’ district of Helsingborg, Sweden... (More)
During recent decades, shopping’s geographical manifestations have altered radically and the presumed ‘death’ of town centre retailing has become a public concern. The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of this decentralisation of retail and its effects on city life have been studied comprehensively. However, to date, few studies have examined the changing dynamics of non-mainstream shopping geographies, particularly local shopping streets. How shopping is enacted in such places, and shopping’s part in shaping them, has been largely overlooked. Aspiring to fulfil this knowledge gap, this dissertation examines shopping activities on Södergatan, a local shopping street in a stigmatized ‘super-diverse’ district of Helsingborg, Sweden known as Söder, and contributes to the literature on shopping geographies by drawing on a sociocultural perspective.
The study draws on practice theory and focuses on shopping as the main unit. The analysis is built on a sensitivity to the interrelationships existing between social practices and place, emerging from the epistemic positioning resulting from the identification of 'modes of practices'. In order to grasp the enmeshed character of shopping, which is complicated by cultural, spatial, temporal, material, and sensorial layers, video ethnography was employed as the primary research collection method, in combination with go-along interviews, observation and mental-mapping.
The research reveals five major modes of shopping practice which jointly represent a typology for understanding shopping in terms of being enacted in the street; i.e. convenience shopping, social shopping, on-the-side shopping, alternative shopping, and budget shopping. This thesis also shows that the bundling of these modes of shopping shapes the street into a vibrant part of the city by interrelating with the shopping street’s sensomaterial and spatiotemporal dimensions in complex and multifaceted directions. Consequently, the local shopping street is conceptualized as a praxitopia, a place co-constituted through social practices.
(Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Abstract
De senaste årtiondena så har shoppingens geografiska manifestationer förändrats i grunden. Den förmodade ”döden” som har förutspåtts för shopping i stadskärnor har blivit alltmer angeläget. Vetenskapliga studier har undersökt de sociala, kulturella och ekonomiska orsakerna till shoppingens decentralisering och dess effekter på stadslivet. Få studier har dock hittills fokuserat på den förändrade dynamiken i icke-traditionella shoppingområden eller på lokala shoppinggator. Hur shopping utförs på sådana platser och hur shopping samtidigt formar dessa platser, har förbisetts av tidigare forskning. Med ambitionen att fylla detta kunskapsgap, har denna avhandling som mål att undersöka shoppingaktiviteter på Södergatan, som är en... (More)
Abstract
De senaste årtiondena så har shoppingens geografiska manifestationer förändrats i grunden. Den förmodade ”döden” som har förutspåtts för shopping i stadskärnor har blivit alltmer angeläget. Vetenskapliga studier har undersökt de sociala, kulturella och ekonomiska orsakerna till shoppingens decentralisering och dess effekter på stadslivet. Få studier har dock hittills fokuserat på den förändrade dynamiken i icke-traditionella shoppingområden eller på lokala shoppinggator. Hur shopping utförs på sådana platser och hur shopping samtidigt formar dessa platser, har förbisetts av tidigare forskning. Med ambitionen att fylla detta kunskapsgap, har denna avhandling som mål att undersöka shoppingaktiviteter på Södergatan, som är en lokal shoppinggata på Söder i Helsingborg. Detta område anses mångkulturellt och har till viss del blivit stigmatiserat. Avhandlingen bidrar med ytterligare kunskaper i ämnet shoppinggeografier genom att utgå från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv.
Denna studie baseras på ’practice theory’ och fokuserar till största delen på shopping som analysenhet. Analysen bygger på intryck från de växelvisa förhållanden som existerar mellan sociala praktiker och fysiska platser. Den epistemologiska utgångspunkten kommer från identifikationen av praktikversioner; ’modes of practices’.
Den huvudsakliga metoden som användes var videoetnografi, som även kombinerades med ’gå-brevid’ intervjuer, observationer och ’mentala kartor’. Med dessa metoder kunde shoppingens mångfacetterade karaktär studeras. Shoppingens sammansättning är komplex givet dess kulturella, spatiala, temporära, materiella och sinnliga lager.
Studien identifierar fem shoppingssätt vilka tillsammans skapar ett ramverk som kan användas för att förstå shopping som ett fenomen som utförs på gator. Dessa fem shoppingsätt är bekvämlighetsshopping, social shopping, vid-sidan-om-shopping, alternativ shopping och budget-shopping. Studien visar även att en sammanföring av dessa shoppingsätt formar gatan till en levande stadsdel genom dess ’sensomateriella’ och ’spatiotemporala’ dimensioner i komplexa och multifacetterade riktningar. Detta innebär att den lokala shoppinggatan blir en praxitopia, en plats som samskapas genom av sociala praktiker. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • Professor Pink, Sarah, Monash University
organization
alternative title
Praxitopia : Hur shopping gör en gata levande
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Shopping, Consumption, Place, Cities, Practice Theory, Video Ethnography
pages
297 pages
publisher
Lund University
defense location
Online, Zoom link: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/64859890756?
defense date
2021-06-24 10:15:00
ISBN
978-91-7895-822-1
978-91-7895-821-4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8fbeb645-1eb1-4d2b-9a85-71423756123c
date added to LUP
2021-05-26 12:54:39
date last changed
2021-06-10 13:45:57
@phdthesis{8fbeb645-1eb1-4d2b-9a85-71423756123c,
  abstract     = {{During recent decades, shopping’s geographical manifestations have altered radically and the presumed ‘death’ of town centre retailing has become a public concern. The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of this decentralisation of retail and its effects on city life have been studied comprehensively. However, to date, few studies have examined the changing dynamics of non-mainstream shopping geographies, particularly local shopping streets. How shopping is enacted in such places, and shopping’s part in shaping them, has been largely overlooked. Aspiring to fulfil this knowledge gap, this dissertation examines shopping activities on Södergatan, a local shopping street in a stigmatized ‘super-diverse’ district of Helsingborg, Sweden known as Söder, and contributes to the literature on shopping geographies by drawing on a sociocultural perspective.<br/>The study draws on practice theory and focuses on shopping as the main unit. The analysis is built on a sensitivity to the interrelationships existing between social practices and place, emerging from the epistemic positioning resulting from the identification of 'modes of practices'. In order to grasp the enmeshed character of shopping, which is complicated by cultural, spatial, temporal, material, and sensorial layers, video ethnography was employed as the primary research collection method, in combination with go-along interviews, observation and mental-mapping.<br/>The research reveals five major modes of shopping practice which jointly represent a typology for understanding shopping in terms of being enacted in the street; i.e. convenience shopping, social shopping, on-the-side shopping, alternative shopping, and budget shopping. This thesis also shows that the bundling of these modes of shopping shapes the street into a vibrant part of the city by interrelating with the shopping street’s sensomaterial and spatiotemporal dimensions in complex and multifaceted directions. Consequently, the local shopping street is conceptualized as a praxitopia, a place co-constituted through social practices.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Aslan, Devrim Umut}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-7895-822-1}},
  keywords     = {{Shopping; Consumption; Place; Cities; Practice Theory; Video Ethnography}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Praxitopia : How shopping makes a street vibrant}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/98652928/praxitopia.pdf}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}