‘It's a public, I reckon’: Publicness and a Suburban Shopping Mall in Sydney's Southwest

Abstract

This article seeks to present Polish achievements where research on the subject of shopping centres is concerned. The Polish research in this sphere is found to be both interdisciplinary and located within the sphere of interest of economists, sociologists, urban planners and geographers, among others. It is often therefore hard to determine which studies can be considered geographical. Are these ones dealt with by geographers, though often drawing upon the research of other academic disciplines? Or studies led by other researchers, but incorporating a geographical context? The subject of the development of modern commercial spaces (supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores, shopping centres, etc.) only appeared in the academic studies of Polish geography in the late 1990s, i.e. the time during which shops representing parts of foreign chain stores began to develop rapidly on the Polish market. In the Polish literature on shopping centres, the issues discussed most often concern the introduction of foreign investments into Poland, location (and relevant location factors), impacts on the functional and spatial structure of cities and urban renewal processes in what are mainly post-industrial areas, methods of spending free time, and the role and appropriation of public space. It is clear that the issue has not yet been exhausted, and that many challenges remain for the scientists, including geographers, who are willing to face them. One of the author's tasks is therefore to inspire and encourage geographers to explore further these new spaces that have appeared and are continuing to appear, not only within the functional and spatial structures of cities, but also in suburban areas. Key wordsshopping centre • geographical research on commerce • the influence of the shopping centre • hybrid space 522

Café Society

“…The fact there does exist the foundations of a national caf é culture has meant that developers are now able to incorporate features of this cultural artefact into newer retail spaces, although purists would argue that the suburban mall caf é could only ever be a facsimile of the authentic caf é . The fact remains that shopping malls remain for many, particularly the old and the young, as relatively regulated havens from the "unpredictability" of the outside environment (Tyndall, 2010). Although this is in contradiction to idea of a true public realm, which encourages the citizen to become comfortable with the unfamiliar, in the absence of a more utopian vision for the suburbs, people as active agents are able to reinterpret and resist (de Certeau, 1984) the dominant uses of spaces (Tyndall, 2010).…”

“…The fact remains that shopping malls remain for many, particularly the old and the young, as relatively regulated havens from the "unpredictability" of the outside environment (Tyndall, 2010). Although this is in contradiction to idea of a true public realm, which encourages the citizen to become comfortable with the unfamiliar, in the absence of a more utopian vision for the suburbs, people as active agents are able to reinterpret and resist (de Certeau, 1984) the dominant uses of spaces (Tyndall, 2010). It would be both arrogant and simplistic to imagine that in these environments caf é s could not play host to at least a parochial, if not a fully public realm .…”

Centra handlowe jako przestrzenie hybrydowe

“…W literaturze przedmiotu określa się centra handlowe m.in. jako "przestrzenie prywatne udostępnione publicznie" (Chmielewski 2004), "przestrzenie prywatne publicznie użytkowane" (Hopkins 1991), "prywatne przestrzenie publiczne" (Racoń--Leja 2007), "prywatne przestrzenie konsumpcji" (Bauman 2000), "substytuty przestrzeni publicznej (…), które nie są przestrzeniami publicznymi, lecz terenami prywatnymi, jedynie publicznie użytkowanymi" (Ghirardo 1999), "hermetyczne atria próbujące naśladować otwarte przestrzenie publiczne", "przekryte przestrzenie publiczne" 3 (Racoń-Leja 2007), "przestrzenie quasi--publiczne" (Pancewicz 2010;Tyndall 2010), "publiczno-prywatne hybrydy" (Kohn 2004). Ten krótki przegląd określeń terenów centrów handlowych pokazuje, że często nie są one traktowane jako czysta forma przestrzeni publicznej, tylko jako obszary, na których doszło do "zawłaszczenia przestrzeni publicznej (…), komercjalizacji przestrzeni" (Mironowicz 2010), "uzurpacji funkcjonalnej polegającej na zawłaszczaniu przestrzeni publicznych przez inwestorów prywatnych" (Kwiatkowski 2010).…”

‘You’re all so close you might as well sit in a circle … ’ Carceral geographies of intimacy and comfort in the prison visiting room

“…Just as geographers have contested the public/private binary, arguing for more fluid categorizations (Allen 2006;Fenton 2005;Kumar and Makarova 2008;Tyndall 2010), so criminologists and carceral geographers have pointed out the complex nature of these distinctions in custodial contexts (e.g. Dirsuweit 1999;Milhaud and Moran 2013;Moran, Piacentini, and Pallot 2012).…”