ABSTRACT
Recently described as 'the secular cathedrals of the late twentieth century, dedicated to the twin gods of commerce and profit' [Gardner and Sheppard, 1989: 97], shopping centres rank among the most revered, reviled and indeed researched retailing phenomena of our time. An enormous number of words have been processed and paper consumed by commentators on the development [Gayler, 1984; Morgan and Walker, 1988], planning [Davies, 1984; Schiller, 1985], management [Martin, 1982; McKenna, 1985], impact [Guy, 1987; Howard, 1989], evolution [Brown, 1989a; Rogers, 1990], aesthetics [Maitland, 1985; Scott, 1989] and almost every other feature of this particular retailing institution [for example, Dawson, 1983; Casazza and Spink, 1985].
