ABSTRACT
Over the past couple of decades we have seen the re-emergence of city centres as
focal points for a specifically urban way of life, as they provide the prime context
within which consumer experiences are both constructed and acted out. With the
commodification of the city such consumption has become both an economic and
a cultural touchstone of an urban society, seen as providing a bridge between the
individual and experience of the urban environment. Over the past decade in partic-
ular, consumption has come to be seen as both a means and a motor of urban
social change, with the increased commodification of culture perceived as central
to our understanding of the postmodern city (Wynne & O’Connor 1998).
