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Accepted Paper:

Flea markets as drivers of urban culture, commerce and sustainable cities  
Helene Brembeck (University of Gothenburg) Niklas Sörum (Gothenburg Research Institute)

Paper short abstract:

Recently there has been a growing interest in flea markets as sites of consumption, innovation, sociality and culture. This paper highlights these sentiments as dimensions of sustainable cultural densification in possible future work with sustainable cities.

Paper long abstract:

Recently there has been a growing interest in street/flea markets and Sophie Watson has argued for the centrality of such markets as sites of trade, social innovation, urban regeneration, healthy eating, environmental sustainability and social interaction. As such flea markets could have a role to play in new sustainable cultures through forms of densification: bringing people together, acting as 'community builders' that initiates civic activity and values, somewhere to meet and learn about new cultures. Flea markets are also centers of commerce and economic exchange and can support the local economy and offer access to cheap and recycled commodities; they can act as significant cultural and tourist attractions; and they can support action that benefits the environment. This paper highlights these sentiments as dimensions of sustainable cultural densification in possible future work with sustainable cities. The object of study is a large recycled storage building now housing an in-door flea market in Gothenburg. The building is also decorated with graffiti art. Through ethnographic fieldwork including interviews, hearings, workshops, archive studies, video and photo we aimed at the objective to understand the functions and meanings through: local accounts to analyze what and how people talked about it; some minor geographic data collection in order to study the spatial distribution of sellers and visitors of the market; and responses to outside forces, in particular local city redevelopment plans and a demolition threat. Results tell of a non-segregated space where cultural expressions lived in the heart of an institution's (public) space without restrictions.

Panel P45
Second-hand and vintage as the circulation of material culture: ownership, power, morality
  Session 1