ABSTRACT

This chapter acts as an important antidote to the spectacular urbanism outlined in the previous chapter. The focus here is on ‘ordinary’ or ‘mundane’ consumption, ‘everyday’ urban spaces, activities and social relations. This includes discussion of ‘inconspicuous’ consumption spaces such as car boot sales, charity shops, retro/second-hand clothes shops, markets, supermarkets and the home. Mundane and everyday worlds are shown to have hidden codes and languages every bit as exotic as spectacular spaces, places and formal retailing, if not more so (Crewe 2000). Moreover, the ways in which people engage with the spectacular urban landscapes in ordinary and mundane ways will be highlighted (de Certeau 1984; Lefebvre 1971). This chapter will unpack the ways in which individual agency relates to consumption practices, and thus highlight the weakness in more structurally biased urban studies of archetypal urban spaces/places and identities, lifestyles and forms of sociability.