Spaces for Consumption
- Steven Miles - University of Brighton, UK, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Ronan Paddison, University of Glasgow
"This is a great book. Powerfully written and lucid, it provides a thorough introduction to concepts of consumption as they relate to the spaces of cities. The spaces themselves - the airports, the shopping malls, the museums and cultural quarters - are analysed in marvellous detail, and with a keen sense of historical precedent. And, refreshingly, Miles doesn't simply dismiss cultures of consumption out of hand, but shows how as consumers we are complicit in, and help define those cultures. His book makes a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary cities, but is accessible enough to appeal to any reader with an interest in this important area."
- Richard Williams, Edinburgh University
Spaces for Consumption offers an in-depth and sophisticated analysis of the processes that underpin the commodification of the city and explains the physical manifestation of consumerism as a way of life.
Engaging directly with the social, economic and cultural processes that have resulted in our cities being defined through consumption this vibrant book clearly demonstrates the ways in which consumption has come to play a key role in the re-invention of the post-industrial city
The book provides a critical understanding of how consumption redefines the consumers' relationship to place using empirical examples and case studies to bring the issues to life. It discusses many of the key spaces and arenas in which this redefinition occurs including:
- shopping
- themed space
- mega-events
- architecture
Developing the notion of 'contrived communality' Steven Miles outlines the ways in which consumption, alongside the emergence of an increasingly individualized society, constructs a new kind of relationship with the public realm.
Clear, sophisticated and dynamic this book will be essential reading for students and researchers alike in sociology, human geography, architecture, planning, marketing, leisure and tourism, cultural studies and urban studies.
In Spaces for Consumption Steven Miles develops a penetrating critique of a key shift characterising the contemporary city. Theoretically informed, the other strength of the volume lies in the wealth of examples that are drawn upon to show how cities are becoming spaces for consumption, which has itself rapidly become a global phenomenon.
This is a great book. Powerfully written and lucid, it provides a thorough introduction to concepts of consumption as they relate to the spaces of cities. The spaces themselves - the airports, the shopping malls, the museums and cultural quarters - are analysed in marvellous detail, and with a keen sense of historical precedent. And, refreshingly, Miles doesn't simply dismiss cultures of consumption out of hand, but shows how as consumers we are complicit in, and help define those cultures. His book makes a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary cities, but is accessible enough to appeal to any reader with an interest in this important area.
Spaces for Consumption is a very important book, and perhaps the most instructive English book in urban studies published in the last five years. Its theoretical framework is rich and diversified; many quotes borrowed from other publications (either in cultural geography, urban studies, cultural studies, or sociology) are almost like little treasures because of their diversity and usefulness. Spaces and Consumption is the kind of book that puts names and concepts behind ideas and trends.
This is an excellent book for developing a knowledge of theory and process. The chapter on Themed Parks is connected with branding but does not make a strong enough link to branding as discussed in Marketing literature. Hence, business students may not appreciate the value of this text.
\
More of a social science student cohort.
Specific chapters will be useful for particular research options.
I've adopted this text, but not for the class originally intended (Global Economic Dev.). I found it very useful in providing a strong and consistent, well supported argument on consumption that I found most relevant to my course on Global Cities--Los Angeles course. This is not really a book that can be assigned in pieces to a course, but rather, needs to be assigned in its entirety for its full impact.
The book offers a critical analysis of the space of cities, arguing that contemporary cities are ideologically consumeristic in character. Rich details on consumption in difference spaces are perceptive and informative. It is an enjoyable reading too.
This is a fantastic resource on the city. Miles goes beyond looking at the pervasive nature of consumption that has, in the past few decades, succeeded in reshaping the contemporary city and its architecture, and looks at how it produces new ontologies and realities.
\
The book comes alive when the epiphenomena of consumption take centre stage: the emergence of the curated city offering experience and spectacle as a form of commodity; as well as the rise of new synthetic forms of community engendered by the marriage of virtual forms of social media and the real instantiations of these experiential and spectacular environments.
In-depth analysis of recent and current spatial transformations and their economic reconfigurations. Valuable as context and/or primary analytical tool.
Excellent book on both space/place in urban sociology and the consumptive aspects of the modern economy. Students would find a number of articles interesting, but the broader discussion around globalization would be lost in favor of focusing on a few topics. Good book for course on McDonaldization or Consumptive Spaces.
\
Thanks
