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- Cassinger, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Consuming place, contesting spatial imaginaries
- 2020
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Ingår i: Research in Consumer Culture Theory. ; 3
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The last few years has seen the emergence of anti-consumption narratives (Chatzidakis and Lee, 2012; Cherrier, 2009), which contest the marketisation of places, and the way that property and space are currently organised by their exchange values, rather than use values (cf. Visconti et al., 2010). Anti-consumption acts disrupt key social imaginaries of places and are apparent in demonstrations and protests around the world related to macro societal issues, such as globalisation, climate crisis, migration, overtourism, and social inequalities (see Colomb and Novy, 2016). Such narratives do not only challenge the intensified commodification of space, but also the way that “socialities, subjectivities and spatialities are constituted in space” (Mansvelt, 2005, xvi). This special session extends previous research in consumer culture theory on how anti-consumption acts challenge established imaginaries of place (Chatzidakis et al., 2012; Chatzidakis and Lee, 2012; Visconti et al., 2010) by focusing on the performativity of spatial imaginaries. Spatial imaginaries are here thought of as collectively shared performative discourses that intervene and shape social reality via embodied, material practices (Watkins, 2015; Butler, 1993). The aim of the session is to examine spatial imaginaries that contest conventional strategies of organising places according to a consumerist logic for increased economic growth. The session focuses on spatial imaginaries that challenge the spatial status quo and provoke new ideas of what it means to inhabit places. Each of the three papers in the special session address the logics and consequences of spatial imaginaries for the practices and organisation of place in various ways. The first paper investigates how consumerist imaginaries of urban space are symbolically and materially reconsidered in citizens’ protests acts against the bourgeoning touristification of inner cities in Europe. Informed by a relational and material understanding of space and theories on the public sphere, the temporalities and spatialities of public protests are analysed as ways of re-gaining the lifeworld from the material and expressive colonialization of tourism-consumption. It is argued that in order to preserve the public sphere, urban governing strategies are shifting focus from spatial imaginaries of consumerism to imaginaries of the lived city of dwellers. The second paper problematizes the affective resonance and intensities of urban crowds, by exploring the role of individuals’ moods (anxiety, apathy, stress, rage and boredom) in enhancing or disturbing spatial atmospheres. It argues that diverse co-located and intersecting mobility practices create affective intensities that simultaneously carry the potential of the urban buzz and the risk of coalescing into enduring anomalies in spatial imaginaries. But where might spatial reimaginings take us? The third paper addresses this question with the concept of ’fourth space’ as a virtual space of ’possible places’. Virtual spaces are understood as a plethora of ‘possible spaces’, where it is possible to foresee alternative futures and inhabit revolutionary imaginaries.
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| 4. |
- Lichrou, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Roundtable: Critical inquiries into places of consumption and consumption in places
- 2020
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Ingår i: Research in Consumer Culture Theory. ; 3
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A growing body of consumer culture theory (CCT) research has pointed to the way that places are increasingly conceptualised and commodified as brands and consumption objects (Lichrou et al., 2008; Giovanardi et al., 2018). Research has explored consumers’ experiences with different kinds of spaces and places, including retail settings (e.g. Penaloza, 1998; Kozinets et al., 2004; Maclaran & Brown, 2005), natural and cultural attractions (e.g. Arnould and Price, 1993; Chronis et al., 2012), public (e.g. Visconti et al., 2010; Chatzidakis et al., 2012; O’Leary et al., 2019) and private places (e.g. Costa, 1989; Hirschmann et al., 2012) and virtual spaces (e.g. Denegri-Knott & Molesworth, 2010). Earlier accounts almost entirely focused on compartmentalised spaces and commercial arenas as containers of consumption, but more recent research examine the mutual constituency of consumption and space. For example, attention has turned to the interplay between consumers’ embodied spatial practices and the construction of place and space (Lucarelli & Giovanardi, 2016; O’Leary et al., 2019). However, further consideration of how consumer imaginaries and practices produce and transform places is called for (cf. Chatzidakis et al., 2018; Chatzidakis et al., 2012). Moreover, more consideration should be given to critical perspectives on the relational construction of consumption space.Places around the globe are currently reimagined as spaces of consumption (Miles, 2010, Massey, 2005), where sensations, dreams and play are mobilised with the sole aim of creating profit (Amin & Thrift, 2002). These processes often transform places into commodified and exlusionary spaces that can be detrimental for those living in them (Kearns & Philo, 1993, Lichrou et al., 2014; Kavaratzis et al., 2017). The commodifying logic of the economic politics of places diminishes the spaces where people lead their everyday life, make decisions, and cope with things other than the purely economic (Habermas, 1987). Such spaces are, as De Certeau (1984, 87) puts it, “haunted by countless ghosts that lurk there in silence to be “evoked” or not”. Yet, places are important sites of human activities beyond the commercial realm. The mobility of global capital, investments and growing volumes of international visitors and migrant labour have put these livehoods under multiple spatial and social pressures (ranging from crowding and environmental degradation to gentrification, and displacement), which has fuelled the upscaling of responsible or political consumerism and morally conscious policy agendas.This roundtable discussion brings together researchers representing different critical perspectives on place consumption. The aim is to provide an opportunity to talk about the meaning and implications of critical theory for the conceptualisation, analysis and collection of data regarding consumption in and of place (Chatzidakis et al., 2018) on multiple scales, ranging from micro-level practices to macro-level perspectives. More specifically, the discussion focuses on the conjunction of commodified and lived space, as well as on the complexities and social imaginaries arising in shared spaces. By virtue of the critical inquiry, the aim is to identify the empirical potential and conceptual possibilities embedded in such hybrid spaces, with regard to sustainable and inclusive place consumption and governance.
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