ABSTRACT

In Retail and Social Change Steven Miles, presents a cross-disciplinary analysis of the evolution of retail and how in both its material and virtual guises it has come to reframe our relationship with the social world. Retail has become increasingly influential in homogenising the urban experience. And yet in reacting to trends in virtual consumption retailers are also becoming more and more conscious of the need to engage with consumers in more sophisticated ways. Retail and Social Change will interest students and scholars in geography, cultural studies, sociology, marketing and business studies interested in how and why retail pervades both our physical and emotional lives in increasingly unexpected ways. It will provide a lively, comparative and thought-provoking contribution that interrogates the implications of retail change, for what it means to be a citizen of a consumer society in the twenty-first century.

chapter 1|15 pages

Introduction

Retail and social change

chapter 2|15 pages

The individualised consumer

chapter 3|15 pages

Shopping for identity

chapter 5|14 pages

The supermarket

chapter 6|16 pages

Out-of-town retail

chapter 7|16 pages

Experiential retail

chapter 8|14 pages

Tourism and authenticity

chapter 9|16 pages

Retail online

chapter 10|10 pages

Conclusion

The artifice of social change