Sociology 152a

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Sociology 152a

• Class 2September 19, 2005.

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Put your love of arts, museums to good use The
Londoner. Aug. 24/05. P. B5

• One of the permanent collections of Museum
  London defines London before city incorporation
  in 1855 with traditional objects juxtaposed
  against features obvious to London in present
  day.
• Currently seeking volunteers for tour guides,
  under the guidance of the curator of education.
• Contact Bev Bourque, visitor services
  coordinator, phone [phone] or
  bborque_at_museumlondon.ca
• Tours for the general public available throughout
  the year.

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Tomlinson Globalised Culture The Triumph of
the West? (1999)

• Two stages of globalized culture (p. 89)
• Early globalisation beginning in the 17th c.,
  with exploration and colonization of the world by
  European powers
• Characterized by visions of greatness, of
  civilizing the world, and winning more souls for
  Christianity
• E.g. Song Rule Britannia
• Late globalisation free trade multinationals
  spreading/ relocating around the world
• Focus on dystopian aspect, seen as a threat
  rather than a promise
• E.g. loss of distinctiveness of different
  cultures, homogenization, Disnification

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Global Culture not really global

• Although it has reached almost all areas of the
  globe, it is the global extension of Western
  (Eur. NA) culture (p. 89).
• What is Westernisation?
• Spread of the consumer culture of Western
  capitalism
• e.g McDonalds, Coca Cola, Levi Jeans
• styles of dress
• What designers fashions are adopted globally?
• Pattern of cultural experience dominated by the
  mass media
• e.g. CNN, Fox
• Acceptance of technological culture of the west

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Not all aspects of the West can be found
throughout the world today

• Why? Cultural protectionist legislation (p. 90)
• e.g. in Islamic societies, an acceptance of the
  technological culture of the West and aspects of
  its consumerism may coexist with a rejection of
  its sexual permissiveness and secular outlook
• e.g. Canadian legislation which requires a
  certain amount of Canadian content in the mass
  media of communication
• Regulated by the government appointed Canadian
  Radio and Television Commission

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Dialectic conception of cultureflow and counter
flow (p. 91)

• Non-western cultures can dynamically resist
  globalised culture
• e.g. world music originates in the periphery of
  the world and becomes popular in the centre
• Canadians prefer Tim Hortons to Krispy Kreme,
  although Starbucks is bigger than both of them
• gives rise to a hybrid, mestizaje, cut-and-mix
  culture

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2nd stage of globalization may bring decline, and
not triumph of the West

• The Wests success in spreading its culture
  around the world means that it is no longer
  unique
• Everyone can own Western culture and can
  reinterpret and recreate it
• E.g. Kwakiutl in B.C. are reconstructing their
  traditional culture using classical
  anthropological studies of their ancestors (p.
  94)
• Other aboriginal people are making land claims
  based on anthropological literature
• Western culture has lost some of its power over
  other cultures, and is actively opposed by people
  called terrorists by the current US
  administration (p. 93)

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Parts of what used to be called the Third World
more advanced than the West

• May be a complex causal relationship between the
  rise and decline of such regions connected by a
  globalised capitalist market
• E.g. so called Asian Tigers
• Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore
• With high gas prices, the Big 3 US car companies
  have announced that they will put more R D into
  hybrid cars using alternative fuel
• Toyota is already way ahead of them

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Capitalism has no loyalty to its birthplace (p.
93)

• Outsourcing
• the transfer of production out of the West to
  places where cost are lower
• E.g. Information Technology production and call
  centers have moved to India
• Western capital has been moving very quickly into
  China
• Kings joint program with a Chinese university in
  economics is a local manifestation

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Capitalism may also fail Westerners

• "How the Free Market Killed New Orleans" by M.
  Parenti
• The free market played a crucial role in the
  destruction of New Orleans and the death of
  thousands of its residents. Armed with advanced
  warning that a momentous (force 5) hurricane was
  going to hit that city and surrounding areas,
  what did officials do? They played the free
  market.They announced that everyone should
  evacuate. Everyone was expected to devise their
  own way out of the disaster area by private
  means, just as the free market dictates, just
  like people do when disaster hits free-market
  Third World countries.
• When an especially powerful hurricane hit Cuba
  last year, the Castro government, abetted by
  neighborhood citizen committees and local
  Communist party cadres, evacuated 1.3 million
  people, more than 10 of the country's
  population, with not a single life lost, a
  heartening feat that went largely unmentioned in
  the U.S. press.

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Global culture is ubiquitous

• But do we feel we own it?
• How many people have a Western cultural identity?
• How many people are proud of Western culture?

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Part 3 Symbolic Economies

• The symbolic economy approach is concerned with
  the relationship between culture and power.
• The two have been strongly interconnected in the
  reshaping of cities through urban development.
• Only papers by Crawford and Fainstein are
  required reading

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Crawford The World in a Shopping Mall

• Malls are a new and very common architectural
  form
• West Edmonton Mall (WEM) is the largest in world
• in 1992 when article was published
• Claims to contain entire world
• But, the malls mixture of stores make it like
  every other shopping mall
• But shoppers come from all over the world
• 70 of malls visitors are from outside of
  Alberta
• They spend enough to generate profits of 300 per
  sq. ft., more than twice the return of most
  malls.
• More than 15,000 people employed at the WEM and
  they also spend free time there

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Where are shopping malls?

• North America has 28,500 shopping malls,
  originating in the 1950s
• Malls dominate retail sales, accounting for more
  than 53 of all purchases in Canada and the US.
  (p. 127)
• Real estate developers do demographic surveys to
  figure out the catchment area of each mall
• i.e. those who are likely to shop there
• As a result, malls are most densely located in
  the richest markets which are in cities and their
  suburbs
• The poorest areas have the least shopping malls
• In the US, West Virginia

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Mall form exported to rest of world

• By 1980, the US landscape crowded with malls
• Later, exported to third world countries
• Local developers provide enclosed shopping malls
  (p. 129)
• My Mexican research shows that developers are
  based in capital cities and have corporate ties
  with US mall developers
• For whom? Upper and middle class consumers

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People now spend enormous amounts of time in malls

• Typical mall visit in 1960 took 20 min. and now
  it is nearly 3 hrs. (p. 130)
• Social analysis of what is happening in this time
• The Gruen transfer
• The moment when a destination buyer, with a
  specific purchase in mind, is transformed into an
  impulse shopper
• People seem to enjoy mall shopping
• The best measure of social consciousness is now
  the Index of Consumer Sentiment, which charts
  optimism about the state of the world in terms of
  willingness to spend. (p. 129)

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Retail magic (p. 131)

• Unlike earlier shopping experiences where
  haggling was common, and buyer socially engaged
  with seller, shoppers now mainly look
• Enclosed shopping malls suspend space, time
  weather\
• Indirect commodification
• Process by which nonsalable objects, activities
  and images are purposely placed in the
  commodified world of the mall
• Adjacent attraction
• the most dissimilar objects lend each other
  mutual support when placed next to each other
• E.g. placing an ordinary pot in a window display
  of a Moroccan harem transforms the pot into
  something exotic, mysterious, and desirable

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What is the key to shopping center success?

• J. C. Nichols, generally regarded as the father
  of the shopping center for his role in developing
  Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, regarded which
  of the following as a key to success (p. 133)
• A. excellent architecture
• B. strategies to ensure local political support
• C. adequate ceiling heights
• D. abundant or unlimited parking
• E. adjacent attraction

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Public life in the pleasure dome of the mall

• 1st step recreating a second nature indoors
• 2nd step recreating the city
• To create essentially a fantasy urbanism devoid
  of citys negative aspects weather, traffic, and
  poor people
• Conflict between public and private space
  Supreme Court in US decided malls had a legal
  right to be defined as a private space, allowing
  bans on any activity the owners deemed
  detrimental to consumption
• Justice Thurgood Marshalls dissenting opinion
• Since the mall had assumed the role of a
  traditional town square, as its sponsors
  continually boasted, it must also assume its
  public responsibilities (p. 134)

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Malls resegregate urban shopping areas (p. 135)

• Repackaging the city in a safe, clean, and
  controlled form gave the mall greater importance
  as a community center.
• Malls reproduced a central business district in
  the suburbs
• Heavily patrolled malls now provide a safe urban
  space with a clientele as homogeneous as that of
  their suburban counterparts. In many cities, the
  construction of urban malls served to resegregate
  urban shopping areas.

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What is wrong with this passage on p. 137?

• But if mall décor and design are not specific
  enough to tell young blacks or the homeless that
  they are not welcome, more literal warnings can
  be issued. Since statistics show that
  shopping-mall crimes, from shoplifting to
  purse-snatching to car theft increased, the
  assurance of the malls sealed space is no longer
  adequate.

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The WEM portrays illegal aspects of street life
as an attraction (p. 137)

• the ambiguous aspects of a lively street life
  are vicariously acknowledged, at a nostalgic
  distance to be sure, by Bourbon Streets
  collection of mannequins, depicting the street
  people of New Orleans. Frozen in permanent poses
  of abandon, drunks, prostitutes, and panhandlers
  act out transgressions forbidden in the malls
  simulated city.
• For many suburbanites, malls are a desirable
  alternative to the socially and economically
  troubled urban downtowns they fled.

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Different malls for different classes (p. 136)

• In the richest markets, luxury malls like the
  Rodeo Collection of Beverly Hills, offer
  expensive specialty goods
• in sumptuous settings, more like luxurious hotels
  than shopping malls.
• At the other end of the market, outlet malls sell
  slightly damaged or out-of-date goods at discount
  prices
• Since low cost is the major attraction,
  undecorated, low-rent buildings only enhance
  their utilitarian atmosphere

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The world as a shopping mall.

• Ending the article, the author gives many
  examples of how new museums have adopted the form
  of the shopping mall
• Recall this for your written assignment and test
  it in your museum visit(s).
• The world of the shopping mallrespecting no
  boundaries, no longer limited even by the
  imperative of consumption, has become the world
  (p. 138)

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Dual view of todays shanty towns (from Wilsons
article)

• Local governments
• Recognize the power of self organization,
  diversity
• Legalize invaded land
• Provide services where possible
• Build on greater fulfillment of family obligations

• Planning Literature
• Contempt for the poor
• Emphasized social problems
• Have imposed western planning with its emphasis
  on zoning, segregation, the individual and
  surveillance

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Video Mixed Feelings San Diego/Tijuana(Produc
ed/Directed by Phillip Rodriguez)

• What comparisons between the two cities are made?
• What is a master plan community?
• What is emergency architecture?
• What is prototype architecture?