ABSTRACT
Throughout this book we have attempted to ground our understanding of the relationship between shopping, place and identity through detailed empirical research in two North London shopping centres. As a result, our findings contrast with some of the more ungrounded speculations about contemporary consumption which have tended to see ‘identity’ as inherently plural and free-floating and ‘consumption’ as a hedonistic pursuit of a virtually limidess range of lifestyle choices. Our approach has been rooted in the material culture of specific places: the shopping centres themselves and the neighbourhoods and communities around Brent Cross and Wood Green. Through shopping in these particular places, consumers are involved in a creative reworking of gender, ethnicity, class and place. Whether shopping on their own or with others, they are making significant social investments in a relatively narrow set of family and domestic relationships as well as making economic choices about the utility of particular goods. In this final chapter we draw out some of the more general conclusions of our research in terms of the mutual constitution of place and identity, the advantages of using multiple methods, and the significance of our findings with respect to future policy and future research.
