http://www.communitymaps.org.uk/version6/includes/MiniSite.php?minisitename=Plan%20Zheroes%20Stop%20Food%20Waste&minisite_group=plan%20zheroes
Fascinating!
Fascinating!
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Segregation and parallel communities
I have recently started field work in Tottenham, walking along the high road and drawing it, talking to people, and trying to find ways in to the place and its people. Ultimately, I am intending conduct some focus groups and interviews (all very spatial, of course) to begin to uncover what the high street means to people, what role it plays in their lives.
But how does one go about 'meeting people'? Such a simple phrase, so difficult to actually achieve. Of course, you meet people when you walk into a shop, you can converse with people at bus stops - but they are very brief, fleeting exchanges, Also, particularly in shops when one is, say, buying a chocolate bar, the interaction is very scripted, almost pr-ordained. It is not done to make in-depth conversation with a shopkeeper about the nature of the high street; people behind in the queue start to get huffy; and most shopkeepers (apart from the odd particularly friendly and verbose one) do not really want to have a long conversation with someone they do not know, they save their sociable chat for people they see regularly, or have some other connection with outside the customer/shopkeeper relationship.
So, I have done several things. First, I started eating in cafes, staying for one hour and observing what happened while I was there; who came in and out, who spoke to whom. I also attempted, futilely, to chat to people; but the decorum attached to adjacent tables is such that one simply does not lean across and make conversation with one's neighbour, and everyone would look at you askance if you join someone else's table if there are tables free.
Second, I have transferred the usual salon treatments I have (leg waxing, eyebrow threading) to Tottenham High Road. I said to myself, as I walked along the high road, that I would walk into the FIRST place I saw which offered eyebrow threading. However, an interesting this happened: I discovered that I was less keen to enter some beauty establishments than others. The first place I passed had only four women inside, and all seemed deeply engaged in conversation with one another. I was too shy to enter, fearful that I would be intruding on their conversation, and I couldn't pluck up the courage. This salon is shown here:
So, I proceeded until I found a place which was more similar to salons where I have been before. This one was staffed with a mix of women, and was much bigger. No-one appeared to be having a private conversation. The women who did my eyebrows was Turkish, and extremely friendly. I was not shy of this woman because I have been to Turkey on several occasions, and have met many Turkish people.
I have learned two things from this initial foray into Tottenham. First, that the parallel communities are stark, especially in hairdressing/beauty salons. As you pass by, you look in, and everyone looks like they are of the same ethnic origin, wearing similar clothes, and like they know one another. This seems to be less so with nail salons, which appear to have more of a mix of people.
The second thing I have uncovered is the relationship between the setting, and the people, and the likelihood that I will enter a particular high street establishment. It is previous experience of a similar setting which seems to be the most pertinent aspect of my decision, rather than necessarily the people inside. For example, I am very happy to enter a shop which sells beauty and hair products for black women, even though I myself am white, because I always used to use such as a teenager to buy colourful hair extensions. However, I am reluctant to enter a nail parlour, because I have never had my nails one professionally before. This seems to have something to do with the topic of the setting, ie. I have had my legs waxed before, and there are certain procedures which leg waxing involves, which do not change - regardless of the place the waxing happens (for example, I had my legs waxed in Seven Sisters by a woman whose English was very difficult for me to understand; but it didn't matter because we both knew what was happening and we both adhered to the unwritten leg-waxing code. In contrast, the nail parlour is a mystery to me; I am disconcerted by not knowing the unwritten nail-code, or any of the language (for example, I do not know what a set of acrylics is, really, how they're attached, or how much they should cost).
It is interesting to wonder to what extent these types of feelings are universal amongst people and what factors persuade them to overcome their fear and enter unfamiliar setting. I wonder if thus says something about why the high street chains have such an enduring popularity; they are eminently predictable in their context, the staff are predictable, and the experience does not vary from place to place.
But how does one go about 'meeting people'? Such a simple phrase, so difficult to actually achieve. Of course, you meet people when you walk into a shop, you can converse with people at bus stops - but they are very brief, fleeting exchanges, Also, particularly in shops when one is, say, buying a chocolate bar, the interaction is very scripted, almost pr-ordained. It is not done to make in-depth conversation with a shopkeeper about the nature of the high street; people behind in the queue start to get huffy; and most shopkeepers (apart from the odd particularly friendly and verbose one) do not really want to have a long conversation with someone they do not know, they save their sociable chat for people they see regularly, or have some other connection with outside the customer/shopkeeper relationship.
So, I have done several things. First, I started eating in cafes, staying for one hour and observing what happened while I was there; who came in and out, who spoke to whom. I also attempted, futilely, to chat to people; but the decorum attached to adjacent tables is such that one simply does not lean across and make conversation with one's neighbour, and everyone would look at you askance if you join someone else's table if there are tables free.
Second, I have transferred the usual salon treatments I have (leg waxing, eyebrow threading) to Tottenham High Road. I said to myself, as I walked along the high road, that I would walk into the FIRST place I saw which offered eyebrow threading. However, an interesting this happened: I discovered that I was less keen to enter some beauty establishments than others. The first place I passed had only four women inside, and all seemed deeply engaged in conversation with one another. I was too shy to enter, fearful that I would be intruding on their conversation, and I couldn't pluck up the courage. This salon is shown here:
So, I proceeded until I found a place which was more similar to salons where I have been before. This one was staffed with a mix of women, and was much bigger. No-one appeared to be having a private conversation. The women who did my eyebrows was Turkish, and extremely friendly. I was not shy of this woman because I have been to Turkey on several occasions, and have met many Turkish people.
I have learned two things from this initial foray into Tottenham. First, that the parallel communities are stark, especially in hairdressing/beauty salons. As you pass by, you look in, and everyone looks like they are of the same ethnic origin, wearing similar clothes, and like they know one another. This seems to be less so with nail salons, which appear to have more of a mix of people.
The second thing I have uncovered is the relationship between the setting, and the people, and the likelihood that I will enter a particular high street establishment. It is previous experience of a similar setting which seems to be the most pertinent aspect of my decision, rather than necessarily the people inside. For example, I am very happy to enter a shop which sells beauty and hair products for black women, even though I myself am white, because I always used to use such as a teenager to buy colourful hair extensions. However, I am reluctant to enter a nail parlour, because I have never had my nails one professionally before. This seems to have something to do with the topic of the setting, ie. I have had my legs waxed before, and there are certain procedures which leg waxing involves, which do not change - regardless of the place the waxing happens (for example, I had my legs waxed in Seven Sisters by a woman whose English was very difficult for me to understand; but it didn't matter because we both knew what was happening and we both adhered to the unwritten leg-waxing code. In contrast, the nail parlour is a mystery to me; I am disconcerted by not knowing the unwritten nail-code, or any of the language (for example, I do not know what a set of acrylics is, really, how they're attached, or how much they should cost).
It is interesting to wonder to what extent these types of feelings are universal amongst people and what factors persuade them to overcome their fear and enter unfamiliar setting. I wonder if thus says something about why the high street chains have such an enduring popularity; they are eminently predictable in their context, the staff are predictable, and the experience does not vary from place to place.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Mapping the Riots
Here's an interesting thought:
This is a screenshot from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-incident-map, focussed on north London, around Tottenham Hale. There is a clear correlation between the high streets and the rioting activities, particularly around the A10 just south of Tottenham Green, where three separate serious incidents occurred on the main road.
The reasons for this concentration on high streets is likely to be severalfold. First, the ease of access by transport/car/foot. Second, for looting, high streets are more plentiful than suburban residential roads. Third, unlike an industrial estate (as exists close to Tottenham Hale station), a high street has lots of ways to escape and a crowd can break up very quickly as it scarpers up streets off the surrounding streets.
The Guardian is at present, in conjunction with the LSE, carrying out a study in which participants in the riots will be interviewed, and the 2.5million Tweets about the riots will be analysed http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots. It will be very interesting to find out how far the rioters traveled to access the place of rioting, as clearly everyone did not just step outside and begin rioting outside their own front door.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Tottenham Hale Retail Park: A Study in the City as Shopping
Having resolved to visit Tottenham Hale twice a week, I began yesterday, under grey skies and showered lightly with drizzle.
Tottenham Hale is both a pilot study and a case study for the research project. I am using it both to test research methods, and as one of three case studies which represent typical conditions in London. Its typicality lies in its swathes of housing constructed for 19th century commuters; its railway and tube links (it is approximately a 30 minute journey to Victoria) and the fact that it has grown with and from the high road which connects it to the centre. The texture of identikit streets of housing also relate to secondary high roads, which connect the roads which radiate from the centre.
Like innumerable London suburbs (for example, there is a similar place in Charlton, and another in North Greenwich), a big chunk of Tottenham Hale has been filled with a mecca for the shopper, particularly the shopper who wishes to purchase everything for £1; or who wants to find their clothes and shoes in the same store where they buy their groceries . . . it is a retail park.
Tottenham Hale Retail Rark is grey (as all retail parks seem to be), and consists in large sheds, filled with oversized stores, tastefully arranged around a sea of car parking, with 620 spaces in all. The ASDA is the biggest one I have ever seen, and there are 21 other chain stores and restaurants available to choose from: Argos, B&Q, Boots, Burger King, Carpet Right, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, Comet, Costa, Coffee, Halfords, JD Sport, KFC, Lidl, Next, 02, PC World, Pound World, Pizza Hut, Staples and Subway.
Walking about, I was clutched with an urge to pick up a few things 'while I'm here', as though things are not available to purchase in other locations. Oddly, a high street full of shops does not have this effect on me, I am more inclined to buy what I need, have a coffee and go home. A similar thing happens to me when I go to a giant supermarket to do some shopping . . . and I come away with lots of things which I did not intend to buy. I was trying to unpick why this might be, and I have concluded that it is because both supermarkets and retail parks and physically unpleasant places to be. The massive car park, the over-scaled grey facades; the life here is about purchasing and delivering goods, and about nothing else.
I watched some staff members from the shops come outside to smoke, and loiter by the blank walls, conversing with each other, but they were the only people who paused on the footpaths, everyone else escaped the oppressiveness as soon as possible, ducking inside the stores to relieve the unpleasantness of the place with the buzz of purchase. There is nowhere to sit, unless inside the Costa, drinking an extremely expensive hot beverage (a flapjack and a cup of tea cost me about £3.50).
In its anti-social-life design, the retail park successfully encourages visitors to focus solely on spending their money.
This morning on the Today Programme, Mary Portas (Queen of Shops) was discussing her proposed review for the government on the future of the local English high street, which is becoming empty of independent shops and becoming a 'ghost town'. Evan Davies suggested that the internet is killing the high street, but it seems more likely that prior to the explosion of internet shopping, it was retail parks and giant supermarkets which sucked the life (and continue to suck the life) out of town centres.
Thinking about the future for shopping in cities, most high streets have typologies which can support a range of uses, responding flexibly to economic changes. In contrast, everything about the retail park is focussed on consumption, and specifically consumption in high-rent, massive chain stores. If you build a place which can only be for shopping, and then invent a way for people to buy things more cheaply . . . then you have dug your own grave. The internet is the 'retail park' of the present era; it is easier, and cheaper than the high street, but it has none of the other constituent parts for the support and structuring of social and civic life.
Tottenham Hale is both a pilot study and a case study for the research project. I am using it both to test research methods, and as one of three case studies which represent typical conditions in London. Its typicality lies in its swathes of housing constructed for 19th century commuters; its railway and tube links (it is approximately a 30 minute journey to Victoria) and the fact that it has grown with and from the high road which connects it to the centre. The texture of identikit streets of housing also relate to secondary high roads, which connect the roads which radiate from the centre.
Like innumerable London suburbs (for example, there is a similar place in Charlton, and another in North Greenwich), a big chunk of Tottenham Hale has been filled with a mecca for the shopper, particularly the shopper who wishes to purchase everything for £1; or who wants to find their clothes and shoes in the same store where they buy their groceries . . . it is a retail park.
 |
| The stunning Retail Park: a Great Shopping Experience for All The Family |
Tottenham Hale Retail Rark is grey (as all retail parks seem to be), and consists in large sheds, filled with oversized stores, tastefully arranged around a sea of car parking, with 620 spaces in all. The ASDA is the biggest one I have ever seen, and there are 21 other chain stores and restaurants available to choose from: Argos, B&Q, Boots, Burger King, Carpet Right, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, Comet, Costa, Coffee, Halfords, JD Sport, KFC, Lidl, Next, 02, PC World, Pound World, Pizza Hut, Staples and Subway.
Walking about, I was clutched with an urge to pick up a few things 'while I'm here', as though things are not available to purchase in other locations. Oddly, a high street full of shops does not have this effect on me, I am more inclined to buy what I need, have a coffee and go home. A similar thing happens to me when I go to a giant supermarket to do some shopping . . . and I come away with lots of things which I did not intend to buy. I was trying to unpick why this might be, and I have concluded that it is because both supermarkets and retail parks and physically unpleasant places to be. The massive car park, the over-scaled grey facades; the life here is about purchasing and delivering goods, and about nothing else.
I watched some staff members from the shops come outside to smoke, and loiter by the blank walls, conversing with each other, but they were the only people who paused on the footpaths, everyone else escaped the oppressiveness as soon as possible, ducking inside the stores to relieve the unpleasantness of the place with the buzz of purchase. There is nowhere to sit, unless inside the Costa, drinking an extremely expensive hot beverage (a flapjack and a cup of tea cost me about £3.50).
In its anti-social-life design, the retail park successfully encourages visitors to focus solely on spending their money.
This morning on the Today Programme, Mary Portas (Queen of Shops) was discussing her proposed review for the government on the future of the local English high street, which is becoming empty of independent shops and becoming a 'ghost town'. Evan Davies suggested that the internet is killing the high street, but it seems more likely that prior to the explosion of internet shopping, it was retail parks and giant supermarkets which sucked the life (and continue to suck the life) out of town centres.
Thinking about the future for shopping in cities, most high streets have typologies which can support a range of uses, responding flexibly to economic changes. In contrast, everything about the retail park is focussed on consumption, and specifically consumption in high-rent, massive chain stores. If you build a place which can only be for shopping, and then invent a way for people to buy things more cheaply . . . then you have dug your own grave. The internet is the 'retail park' of the present era; it is easier, and cheaper than the high street, but it has none of the other constituent parts for the support and structuring of social and civic life.
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