A CITY WITHOUT STRANGERS : SHOPPING MALL AS A SEMI-PUBLIC SPACE

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Authors

POSPĚCH Pavel

Year of publication 2009
Type Article in Proceedings
Conference CITY : VARIABLE NOT/OBVIOUS
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Field Sociology, demography
Keywords public space; stranger; privatization; shopping mall
Description This paper is a contribution to the contemporary debate on the changing nature of city public space. A theoretical assumption about the decline of traditional public space and the rise of the privatized space is examined using the example of a shopping mall, a place which has become nearly synonymous to the concept of a privatized public space. Three forms of social control are identified when examinig the rules of conduct in these spaces: social control by direct surveillance, social control by architecture and social control by normalization. It is argued that these forms together give rise to a new kind of city space, one that is free of otherness and strangers.

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