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The Shopping Mall As A Public Space
The Shopping Mall As A Public Space
In a society where buying everyday goods has increasingly become linked to driving to a mall or shopping centre, and where more and more time is spent such places, (claimed to be on the cost of life on the streets), it has become important to question how public, shopping malls in fact are. To seek for an answer this essay compares two definitions linked to public space. These are Hajer & Reindorps definition of Public Domains and Michael Walzers definition on open-minded and single-minded spaces. These expressions will be used, along with an overall definition of public space. To prepare the reader for the subject a brief historical overview of the subject is given and some facts provided. Hereafter a shopping mall is briefly examined, where after it is possible to compare the findings and have a final discussion rounding up the topic.
Content Definitions on Public Space Brief History of the Shopping Mall Malls Today Case Study of Weimar Atrium Discussion Conclusion
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of the unions can enter, though with a small cover charge. Such centres provide art workshops, sport facilities, theatre, education etc. Even though they are intended for the members of the unions these places are so popular that they attract many others, successfully creating exchange inbetween social groups. Further Hajer & Reijndorp explains that for people to be able to engage in various activities, they should be allowed enough personal freedom and liberty. If a place is under surveillance such personal freedom is reduced, which might limit people from making everyday abnormities and limit the function of the place as a public domain.
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Since Gruen designed the first shopping mall in America, they have become amazingly widespread and popular. Throughout the second half of the 0th century shopping malls have been multiplied throughout any American city of some significance, and also emerged rapidly in Europe, being present almost everywhere there are customers at the turn of the millennium. Today one of the largest shopping complexes in the world is located in the King of Prussia suburb of Philadelphia. However, several Asian malls are advertised as having more visitors. Beijings Golden Resources Shopping Mall, opened in October 004, being the worlds largest, at 600,000 m. These days shopping malls are no longer left alone at the suburbs; rapidly they are changing the morphology of city centres and downtown areas. The majority of British shopping centres are in fact located in town centres, usually inserted into old shopping districts, and surrounded by 5 subsidiary open air shopping streets .
Notes 4 From Department Store to Shopping Mall p 9-14 Jarbuch Fr Wirtschaftsgeschichte 2005/2 (JfW) A Viennese Refugee and the Re-forming of American Consumer Society (JfW) p 91-102 5 Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org 6 Public life as consumerism (JfW) p 71-86 7 Public life as consumerism (JfW) p 84
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in one shop without the necessity of interaction among buyer and seller. With the lack of dialogue the department stores had to learn new ways to advertise for their products, and soon discovered the importance of marketing8. Today the physical order of malls enforces a spiral of desire, imposing a need to buy. The weightless realm receives substance only through the commodities it contains [Crawford9].
from around the world but the very evolution of consumer society, which is quintessentially a trans-national project [JfW 2005/2 p. 10]. Not only are malls alike, also airports, train stations, entrances of large hospital and cultural complexes, like museums, have become indistinguishable from malls. In such places shops have become a vital mean for the overall feasibility. Further the city centres have overtaken many identities of the malls. These places are characterised as centres of consumption, providing similar shops and brands found in malls, guarded security patrols, and camera surveillance. Following the same premises as malls according to security, rules, surveillance, and advertisement, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference.
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activity does not necessarily involve any form of interaction among people. To enhance profit this anonymity and friction free lack of interaction is highly valued by mall owners. The less time people are distracted the more time they have for purchase. Guards and surveillance create a sense of security preventing any unexpected activities. Returning to convenience, covered malls are favourable in areas where weather conditions can be a nuisance. Air conditions creates a comfortable temperature, artificial lighting provides sense of openness, and escalators eases mobility; all contributing to a vast exploitation of energy. Economically and redesign-wise malls can cause problems to. As shopping centres are hard adjustable re-use and re-development is difficult. If malls are not feasible and closed they become great problems for their surroundings. Not only are they designed mono-functional, they also consume a great amount of space, which can create a large hollow. On the Contrary, malls in function can also provide similar effects outside of opening hours. To this comes that a great amount of visitors will create increased traffic in the area, and a demand for parking facilities. As malls generally are privately owned, the management understand only economical success or failure. This meaning that they do not necessarily have any obligation to provide any functions or services of which they do not profit5. Small retail located outside, faces difficulties competing with malls, as large chain-shops can compete with dumping prices. When competition is eliminated, e.g. the local groceries closed, people are forced to commute to the mall, which can be proved time consuming and difficult if not owning a car.
local cheese, vine, and beer. On the top storey a catwalk had been built where the Thuringian nominees of Miss and Mister Germany were to be selected. There is access to the Atrium, with connecting underground parking, everyday from early morning, before the shops open, till after midnight, when the bowling centre closes, on weekends even longer. The mall is fairly empty after the shops are closed, and not many cars use the parking afterwards either. I spend the afternoon taking a few pictures and observing people gathering around the catwalk and surrounding the food-stands. At a glance it seemed as if I were at a vibrant marketplace, though a pretty tidy one. People were taking photos, of the models in swimsuits, enjoying their beverages, and the most important, of course spending money. The following day I returned to take a few more pictures, when I met four teenagers sitting at the floor by one back entrance to the mall. This was located at the end of a corridor, creating its own separate room, connecting the mall to Brennerstrasse, a quiet, blind, road. This entrance is not used by many people, so as I came about one of the teenage boys was showing of to the girls by making a handstand. I had a chat with the guys and asked to take a photo of them. This was alright, so I made them pose for me. After my first photo, I asked the boy who had done the handstand, to do it again, so I could take a photo of him. It must be said that we were completely alone, and that there were no others who used this corridor in the whole time as I was there. Well one minute after I took the photo, a security guard came and threw us all out of the mall. We tried to ask for an explanation, but the only thing he could say was that we behaved inappropriate, and if I wanted to take photos I should talk to the management. Apparently the photo policy changes when taking pictures of activities not arranged by the management, or in other words, activities that are not boosting sales. The teenagers told that they used to hang out in the corridor, because they liked to observe people, and met friends who came to the mall. They were not welcome to hang out at the benches inside the mall, because they felt too supervised by the guards. In the corridor they felt like they were more tolerated; apparently not enough to make handstands.
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0500 Discussion
To summarise the case study, Davis can be quoted; the mall uses Jeremy Benthams 9th century design of the panopticon prison [Davis 1992 p. 240]. It is evident that malls make great use of security cameras and guards, to be able to control activities to the managements appreciation. The security guards monitor every movement, just as Orwells big brother. Even though the watch tower is not located centrally, as in the panopticon prison, the effect is similar. Customers know there is the possibility that they are being watched, or at least they discover it immediately if they engage in any abnormal activity.
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forced to allow activities to take place that are not in the interest of managements. Coming to political activities, New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that malls had such important role in the decline of down town public places that they had to allow free speech, which covers demonstrations and leaflet in malls8.
even if this means excluding the marginalised, thus generating most profit. If the problems of malls have to be resolved it is not up to the managements to take the initiative, but by elected politicians and most important; the customers. Maybe the major problems with malls are not, which kind of space they provide or how they are designed, but what is more important is their impact on their surroundings and to which extent they dominate the urban pattern. As it can be concluded that malls are neither offering open-minded public space nor functions as public domains, it is important that creation of such malls in urban areas is not on the cost of such places elsewhere. Even though inner-city malls can generate activities in the city core, they should not become the dominating part, eliminating activity on the streets. Contrary the amount of visitors they attract, and profit they generate, can have a positive impact on the surroundings, which also can foster new activities and ideas if provided with enough open-minded space. Thus malls should not be totally dismissed, but merely adjusted in the urban fabric, of which all layers of society can benefit (naturally this is much easier said than done). Providing security and conformity, malls indulge operations based on consumerism and peoples prejudice and fear of the unknown. These tendencies of advertisements, surveillance, and segregation can be traced to expand throughout modern city. What is disturbing is not the fact that the privately owned malls are centres for commerce driven by economical desires; no what is alarming is the mallification of the urban public areas. These areas should be accessible for all but becomes more and more victims of commercialisation, surveillance, and segregation. Influenced by the economic success of malls, public space is set aside and become the victim.
0600 Conclusion
The findings of the case study and arguments of literature, makes the limited amount of rights in malls evident but by no means surprising. As malls are privately owned, their managements can not be blamed to aim for profit and do everything to achieve their goals. After all it is in their interest to cater for the customers and provide the shopping experience that satisfies the majority,
Notes 18 PruneYard Case, http://www.empowermentzone.com/leaflet.txt Anti war demo, http://www.reason.com/news/show/29728.html
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Literature
Bauman, Zygmunt Postmodernity and its discontents 1997 Polity Davis, Mike City of Quartz 99 Vintage Hajer, M & Reijndorp, A In search of new public domain 000 Nai Publishers (JfW) Jarbuch Fr Wirtschaftsgeschichte 2005/2 Akademie Verlag Kolhaas, Rem JunkSpace Archplus 49, April 000 Misik, Robert Simulated cities, sedated living 006 Eurozine (Article) Smiley, David J. Sprawl and public space: Redressing the mall 00 National Endowment for the Arts Sorkin, Michael Variations on a Theme Park Hill & Wang 1992
Web
Anti war demo, http://www.reason.com/news/show/29728.html PruneYard Case, http://www.empowermentzone.com/leaflet.txt Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org
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