The city is no longer simply an expression of who or what we are, but also a venue for consumption experiences, experiences that tie us to the capitalist priorities that underpin our social norms, writes Steven Miles in ‘Spaces for Consumption’ (www.sagepublications.com). As cities struggle to construct an identity in a world of de-industrialised decay, the attractions of consumption, often masquerading as culture, have become highly irresistible for policymakers, commercial developers and planners, he adds.
Maximisation of consumption
Describing the city as a unit for the effective maximisation of consumption, the author notes that in a world in which basic necessities are more readily satisfied than they were in the past and in which consumption generally exceeds physiological need, the role of consumption as a means of self-actualisation becomes increasingly crucial, as does the city as an arena within which that self-actualisation can be achieved.
He acknowledges, however, that the seductive vision of the city that is promoted as a means of reasserting the legitimacy of the post-industrial city can be fundamentally incompatible with that city’s lived reality. For instance, “the idealised consumer which a city purports to attract is very different to the consumer of limited resources who accounts for a large proportion of the city’s ‘indigenous’ population. Moreover, what consumption offers and what it conceals are never one and the same thing…”
Marketisation of the city
Miles observes that local governments and councils are compelled to reinvent their cities as commercial entities, and themselves as a key player in the marketisation of the city alongside a whole suite of entrepreneurial and public-private relations. “There is no choice but to compete, but this choicelessness creates a city driven by marketing needs rather than one driven by the needs of its residents,” he cautions.
A chapter titled ‘creating cities’ speaks of how competitiveness is about transforming the city into a place in which it is cheap to do business, where the entrepreneurial city offers a means of generating employment, most notably in the service industries. Seeing the city as ‘the spatial expression of globalisation,’ the author highlights how a knowledge-based economy accelerates the need for face-to-face contact and for a situation in which professional services are concentrated in a common locale, making trade as easy as possible.
Make creative classes feel at home
It can be gloomy to read that the move towards an entrepreneurial city can be a move away from urban planning, ‘for ephemerality and eclecticism of fashion and style rather than the search for enduring values, for quotation and fiction rather than invention and function, and, finally, for medium over message and image over substance,’ as in a quote of David Harvey in the book.
Thankfully, the author emphasises the need for successful post-industrial cities that offer a diversity of amenities and experiences, an openness to diversity and the freedom for creative people to validate their creative identities. He cites Richard Florida’s ‘human capital’ theory of regional development that is underpinned by the suggestion that creative people require ‘quasi-anonymity.’ That is, they prefer the flexibility of weak community ties as opposed to the constraints imposed by strong community ties, explains Miles.
For Florida, quality of place is more important than quality of life; and the job of an effective post-industrial city is to create the conditions in which the creative classes can feel at home, he interprets. “This can be achieved by offering an appropriate built environment; by a city offering a diverse population and by implication, by vibrant social interaction and an animated street life.”
The bottom line is that cities need a people climate even more than they need a business climate, is a snatch of Florida’s insight quoted in the book. He elaborates how this means supporting creativity across the board in all the various facets and dimensions – ‘and building a community that is attractive to creative people, not just high-tech companies.’
Recommended read.
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