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- Convenors:
-
Lisa Wiklund
(Ethnology)
Helene Brembeck (University of Gothenburg)
Niklas Sörum (Gothenburg Research Institute)
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- Stream:
- Urban
- Location:
- VG 4.103
- Start time:
- 28 March, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Our ambition with this panel is to analyze the various ways that place and city space contribute to shape 2nd hand markets, and vice versa, through a variety of place-making practices, and how the role of destination and place can be understood in relation to retro-fying practices.
Long Abstract:
Our ambition with this panel is to analyze how place, the city and urban space are performative on the re:heritage market (Appelgren and Bohlin 2015); a broader definition of the 2nd hand market and consumption field, focusing on small-scale entrepreneurs and shops, from flea markets, thrift stores, second hand- and retro shops, to more exclusive vintage boutiques, a sector that has undergone a rapid growth the past decades (e.g. Crewe, Gregson and Brooks 2003; Duffy, Hewer and Wilson 2012; McColl et al 2013). The panel sets out to study the place-making activities that (co)articulate goods, retail, consumers and location(s); i.e. how the the role of destination and place can be understood on the 2nd hand market, place here both referring to a relatively fixed, bounded and geographical sense of place and to a more open sense of place as an "ever-shifting social geometry of power and signification" (Massey 1994:3). Retail architecture also tend to become complex, focusing on place-making and the creation of shopping-friendly atmospheres. The 2nd hand market's development and new location in many local high streets (previously a retail category found on the peripheries of cities) are shaping "alternative" geographies of retailing and consumption (Crewe 2000). The role of place, location, destination and its relation to the city or urban space as such has only started to be explored. The panel welcomes contributions on the various ways that place and city space contribute to shape 2nd hand markets, and vice versa, through a variety of place-making practices.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Departing from the notion of ‘urban glue’, this paper will present the outline of a certain chain of competence and venture that is particularly apparent in urban 2nd hand districts: the real estate owner; the building craftsman; the market for reused building material; the conservation consultant.
Paper long abstract:
This paper presents research on the various ways in which urban spaces, in terms of the city fabric itself, are transformed in parallel with the emergence of the urban 2nd hand markets of concern. Departing from Thrift's (2008:211) notion of "urban glue" - the on going "activities of repair and maintenance" that are taking place in the city and that make it hold against both exploitation and entropy - our research has identified a certain chain of competence and venture that is particularly apparent in Gothenburg's retro-districts. The chain consists of the real estate owner; the building craftsmen devoted to traditional building techniques at the expense of regular modernization; the market for reused building material and details; the conservation consultant that mediates between the other. Together they enable the transformation of ordinary old buildings, street and entire quarters into places where history and historical layers are materially enhanced and communicated through renovation, restoration or reconstruction. These places, in terms of entire buildings, facades or shop interiors, provide a performative infrastructure for the second hand market, and thus can be seen as yet another layer of circulation on the re:heritage market. The research also concerns the specific market for the reuse of old building material (windows, doors, bricks or doorknobs): its spectrum of providers and consumers, its goods and its ideologies and ethics.
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents the dual practices of styling and experiencing homeliness as found in three "retrofied" shopping streets in Gothenburg, a processes rendering objects of the past, as well as the shops and streets an aura of warmth and coziness.
Paper long abstract:
This paper departs from the concept of reheritage and the market for reheritage products that has grown rapidly the past decades (Appelgren & Bohlin 2015). The focus is on the dual practices of styling and experiencing homeliness found in a study of three shopping streets in Gothenburg. The paper starts by presenting the blurring of the borders between shop and street, where interiors are moved outside the storefronts to provide inviting homelike sceneries and interiors are made into appealing social places for chatting, drinking and relaxing. It then moves to a focus on the many devices specifically used to attract consumers in terms of what we call 'affective captation' (authors in press): meaning "seducing" as in diverting someone from his or her path, that is supporting/eliciting feelings of homeliness. This concept borrows from Massumi's (2003) work on affect and Cochoy's (2007) on market attachment. By the use of affective captation we show how homeliness (attraction, cosiness), online as well as offline, is performative in the double sense of mood (the personal felt sensation or feeling involving consumers' personal memories or previous experiences and so forth associated with objects, commercial environments and modes of exchange) and mode (the staged, calculated, provoked, carefully selected and performed assemblage of marketised homeliness/cosiness/ attractive atmosphere. Furthermore, the creating of this special atmosphere can be understood as a practice of distinguishing the reheritage market from the mainstream market through creating alternative values with the help of these specific placemaking practises.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores how urban territories can be understood as phenomenological landscapes of affordances to people seeking things and materials to appropriate, use, share or circulate.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores how urban territories can be understood as phenomenological landscapes of affordances (Ingold) to people seeking things and materials to appropriate, use, share or circulate. It places practices of rummaging, scavenging, gathering, collecting and salvaging in the urban landscape within the context of the emerging society of reuse, circulation and sharing. Things and materials that have been disposed, discarded or forgotten are conventionally understood to clutter the urban landscape. As useless and valueless things and materials they are categorized as dirt, waste and junk, constituting a cultural "rewilding" (DeSilvey) of the urban landscape or a neglected lingering of the past in the present (Appelgren). However, new regimes of value are emerging with alternative economies aiming at making use of pre-used and second-hand things, rather than consuming newly produced items. This paper analyses how certain sites and areas of the city constitute particularly fertile localities for harvesting abandoned things and cast off materials, and how these geographical sites interrelate with larger socio-economic transformations of the urban landscape.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on how urban middle class dwellers, through practices of ”care”, negotiate their own implication in processes of value creation occurring when domestic objects and furniture are shifted from rural areas to become attractive retro or vintage items in the city.
Paper long abstract:
That things may increase in value simply by being shifted between social domains has long been known to social scientists (e.g. Appadurai 1986, Kopytoff 1986, Gregson & Crewe 2003). With the sharp rise in popularity of retro and vintage, this dynamics is increasingly tapped into by a growing range of Swedish small-scale retailers as well as ordinary city dwellers. Objects are obtained at low prices in the countryside, at rural flea markets and auctions, then sold as valuable commodities in urban vintage and retro shops, or displayed as collectables and status symbols in urban middle class homes. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with consumers of secondhand material culture in Gothenburg, Sweden, this paper explores how they negotiate their own implication in such processes. While expressing disdain at the exploitative practices of retailers, they negotiate feelings of desire and guilt as they, too, take advantage of the economic gain made possible by differences in knowledge and cultural capital associated with place, class and geographical mobility. The paper suggests that expressing care and love for objects, and to shop "with feeling", in contrast to "soulless" transactions of a merely economic nature, becomes a strategy to handle such dilemmas, and to navigate through the affective and moral force field in which old things become valuable assets.
Paper short abstract:
This study aims to contribute towards our understanding of the conditions under which second-hand and charity trade operate. Which values are expressed in re-use and charity practices? How are these values transformed into strategies in urban retail planning?
Paper long abstract:
This study aims to analyse how second hand and charity retailers are incorporated into urban retail planning practices. The trade in pre-owned goods represents an economic grey area as well as constituting an important part of the informal economy. The existence of both types of retailer within an urban space can communicate specific values and imagery. Stores which sell pre-owned goods, and which dedicate themselves to re-use and charity, have their own specific historiography. In the Western welfare context, however, re-use obtains a specific significance via the transformation of the pre-owned which took place during the post-war era . By identifying how the trade in pre-owned goods is organised from a retail planning perspective, this study aims to contribute towards our understanding of the conditions and opportunities under which second-hand and charity trade operate. Which values are expressed in various re-use and charity practices? How are these values transformed into sense-making strategies in retail planning practices?