Royal Geographical Society-Institute of
*Apologies for cross-posting*
Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers' Annual Conference, 26-28 August 2009, Manchester.
Call for Papers
Retail and the city: The urban geographies of retailing
Sponsored by the Economic Geography Research Group
It has been more than a decade since Wrigley and Lowe (1996) called for the formation of a ‘new retail geography’. Following this call-to-arms, economic geographers have brought attention to issues such as the spatial switching of retail capital, the regulation of retail activity and the role of institutional actors in the production of new retail spaces. However, the majority of research within the ‘new retail geography’ has focused mainly on the global and national scales of the organisation of retail activity and overlooked the study of retail activity at the urban scale, a field of study, which has for long been associated with research within the positivist retail geography paradigm.Concurrently, many urban geographers have shed light on the changing aesthetics and regulation of downtowns and urban centres, the contested nature of public space, the neoliberalisation of urban politics, and the practices of urban regeneration and
gentrification. Despite the insights of each approach and the connections between the two ‘sub-disciplines’, new retail geographers and urban geographers rarely talk to each other. As a result, a thorough understanding of urban retailing remains elusive. This session provides a space for researchers from both sub-disciplines to come together to discuss retailing in the city, empirically and theoretically, with the hope of finding a constructive framework through which urban retail geographies can be understood in future research. Empirical and theoretical papers are welcome on the following topics, with studies of Global North and Global South cities equally valued:
· The spatial switching of retail capital in (and beyond) the urban landscape;
· The histories of retailing and retail development in the city;
· The politics of urban retail development: Regulating, promoting, participating in and protesting against retail development in the city;
· Urban competitiveness and retail investment;
· Retail-led regeneration and retail gentrification;
· Street vending and informal retailing in the city;
· The regulation of outdoor and indoor commercial space (e.g. mall management, Business Improvement Districts, Town Centre Management, historical
centre preservation schemes);
· The role of professionals (e.g. planners, consultants, architects and realtors) in shaping the urban retail landscape;
· The implications of the ‘credit crunch’ on urban retailing.
If you would like to present, please send a title and abstract (max. 200 words) to Ian R. Cook ([log in to unmask]) or Georgios Tzimas ([log in to unmask]) by Wednesday 21st January 2009.
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