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Friday 14 April 2023
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W-12
URB06
Shopping Centres in Northern Europe: their Emergence and Impact
Västra Hamngatan 25 AK2 135
Klara Arnberg, Katarina Mattsson :
The Floating Shopping Mall: Notions of Gender, Sexuality, and Nation in the Marketing of Ferry Lines between Sweden and Finland 1970-2020
In the paper we trace the development of the ferries as mobile spaces for consumption and pleasure travel with a focus on the period 1970-2020. Since the second world war, frequent passenger ferry-travel has been an essential element in the day-to-day contacts between Finland and Sweden. As an unsustainable but ... (Show more)In the paper we trace the development of the ferries as mobile spaces for consumption and pleasure travel with a focus on the period 1970-2020. Since the second world war, frequent passenger ferry-travel has been an essential element in the day-to-day contacts between Finland and Sweden. As an unsustainable but cheap form of leisure, ferry cruising represents the main form of vernacular connectedness between the densely populated areas of Finland and Sweden with 8–10 million passengers annually during the three most recent decades.
Since the expansion of the traffic in the 1970s, taking the ferry has been associated with the promise of dancing, flirting and potential sexual encounters. Today the biggest ferry cruises include indoor “shopping streets”, several restaurants and bars, dance floors and entertainment areas, indoor and outdoor pools and spa sections. Contemporary trends include an interesting segmentation of ferry cruise tourism with a range of thematic concepts targeting different segments of the markets, such as “single cruises”.
In the paper we explore how notions of gender, sexuality and nation was reproduced and negotiated in the marketing of ferry lines between Sweden and Finland 1970-2020. By using a multimodal critical discourse analysis, we explore how cultural meaning of discourses has been co-constructed through written texts and visual images. In the analysis, we focus on how marketing has constructed the attractiveness of ferry traffic: how was the ferry cruise experience presented? Who has the advertisements addressed and how? How have notions of gender, sexuality and nation been conveyed and co-constructed in marketing of ferry cruises over time?
Theoretically we understand ferry cruises as a “floating shopping mall” that are in constant motion. As an effect, the profitability of the ferries has increasingly relied on onboard consumption and the phenomena of captive consumers. Moreover, it has been the spatial liminality of the ferry cruises that have opened up for embodied pleasures such as eating, drinking, dancing, relaxing, shopping, and also involving in sexual encounters. Thus, as in other parts of pleasure-based travel such as all-inclusive tourism, cruising became invested with desires for “fun, pleasure and entertainment” and include aspects of gender, embodiment and sensuality. (Show less)
Per Lundin :
The Political Economy of the Swedish Shopping Centre
The first Swedish shopping centres were established in the 1950s and the early 1960s. They were either centrally located or at the heart of the new suburbs. They were quite small and accessible by foot and public transportation. By the end of the 1960s, a new type of shopping centre ... (Show more)The first Swedish shopping centres were established in the 1950s and the early 1960s. They were either centrally located or at the heart of the new suburbs. They were quite small and accessible by foot and public transportation. By the end of the 1960s, a new type of shopping centre was established. These were placed in the periphery of cities and towns in conjunction with the large motorways being built. Although a number of them were constructed the following years, they were also hotly debated and successfully resisted. Constructions plans were often vetoed by authorities or politicians. This was in line with the rationale of the welfare-oriented city building regime that had emerged after the Second World War. This was a regime that placed the public citizen (samhällsmedborgaren) at centre stage.
In the 1990s, however, the number of shopping centres exploded, and already by the end of the decade a majority of the shopping trips went to a shopping centre with the car as the preferred means of transport. How did this ‘silent revolution’, as it has been depicted, came by? What kind of political-economical forces shaped this development? Were there alternative political economies?
This paper considers how the once hegemonic welfare-oriented city building regime broke down during the 1980s and was replaced by a market-competition regime the following decade. Food prices were a central concern for this emerging regime. The market-competition regime, this paper argues, aimed to shape a new consumer-minded citizen. With the emergence of the market-competition regime, the checks on the retail-driven city building disappeared with dramatic changes of the urban fabric as a result.
Roughly at the same time as the market-competition regime gained ground, environmental concerns became more and more pronounced. Several actors promoted what can be depicted as an environmentally-oriented city building regime. In many respects it served as a continuation of the earlier welfare-oriented regime. Its promoters saw city building as a balancing of several goals. This shall be contrasted with the single-mindedness of market-competition regime. In order to succeed with its holistic view on city building, this alternative regime would have needed the tools of the earlier welfare-oriented regime. But they had been dismantled. (Show less)
Tiina Männistö-Funk :
The Break-through of “Car Markets” in Finland
“Car market”, in Finnish “automarketti”, describes a large supermarket or shopping centre located outside the urban and suburban centres and designed for easy access by car. First of these was opened in Finland in August 1971 as a 4000 square meter Sokos Market was opened near the city centre of ... (Show more)“Car market”, in Finnish “automarketti”, describes a large supermarket or shopping centre located outside the urban and suburban centres and designed for easy access by car. First of these was opened in Finland in August 1971 as a 4000 square meter Sokos Market was opened near the city centre of Turku. Until then, shopping possibilities had been available where they could be easily accessed by foot, bicycle, or public transport, i.e. in historical city centres and in the new 1950s and 1960s suburban centres.
In Finland, private motorization happened relatively late, but fast. It coincided with a dramatic change of societal structure. Finland was predominantly agrarian until after the Second World War, but in the 1960s small farms typical of the Finnish societal structure became unprofitable, resulting in large-scale migration from the countryside to the industrial cities of southern Finland and Sweden. The same decade also marked the creation of Finnish consumer society in which the car was one of the most important consumer products. In 1955, only every 50th Finn had a passenger car, in 1965 every tenth and in 1974 every fifth. Still, when the first car market opened it offered free bus rides from the central market square for those without a car.
This paper considers the historical discussion around Finnish “car markets” from the perspective of urban mobility and urban environment. Car markets have been the source of discussion and dispute ever since the first ones were planned. I will study different actors and their arguments during the first phase of car market planning and realization. Urban planners and architects, politicians, activists, and consumer organisations expressed their own views, often critical to car markets. The strongest driving force behind the car market planning were the large retail chain companies that had significant influence in shaping the Finnish consumer market. They now wanted to mainly attract car-owners who were seen as the best and most affluent customers. Inspiration was received especially from Swedish retail planning, and study trips were organized to learn from it.
Discussion around the car markets was interesting as it brought together the two contradicting tendencies of the 1970s: A growing concern for environment and a growing drive towards a motorized consumer culture. Decisions made in this era had a lasting impact on the urban structure and mobility in Finland, leading towards decentralized cities and growing car-dependency. The so-called car markets have become a defining feature of Finnish consumer culture, but discussions around them continue still today, concerning especially their influence on historical city centres. (Show less)
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