Shopping, Identity, and Place

Abstract

The (almost) universal extension of capitalist production and distribution processes has spread the “culture of consumption” to virtually every corner of the globe. This chapter discusses the relationship between spaces of consumption—shopping malls in particular—and the processes of identity construction. It begins with a brief review of the first works to examine consumption and its spaces without viewing them as neutral backgrounds where the distribution of goods would take place, but rather as physical and symbolic spaces in their own right. Further on, recent approaches that have been most influenced by symbolic interactionism are also analyzed. These perspectives, by putting the actor’s point of view and their concrete daily practices at the center of research, understood the processes of identity negotiation and the practice of shopping as an ordinary, contextual, and situated activity.