Transaction Spaces

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS Stockholm Studies in Human Geography 18 Transaction Spaces Consumption Configurations and City Formation Lukas Smas Stockholm University Abstract Consumption forms and is formed by the city. How, when and where commodities are transacted is essential in this urban drama of mutual relation- ships. This thesis explores how consumption and everyday life in cities are interrelated. The specific objective is to analyse how commodity transaction situations are configured and constrained in time and space, and, how consumer service spaces are formed in and are part of city formation. Transac- tions are conceptualised as economically and socially situated material projects constituted by consumers, commodities and producers. Commodities and values are transferred and created through transaction spaces. The theo- retical perspective is framed around consumption and production of spaces, and particularly informed by Hägerstrand’s time-geographical thinking and Lefebvre’s work on urban space. Methodologically different examples of consumption projects and spaces are used to discuss configurations and formations for commodity transactions. The thesis stresses material and time-spatial constraints for commodity transaction and it discusses the blurring of boundaries between what conven- tionally has been separate social and economic activities and places. Chang- ing transaction configurations and the formation of consumer service spaces in the city are explored through analysis of different consumption places and commodities such as books, coffee and clothes and property development projects in Stockholm city centre. Transaction configurations display geographical and historical continuities and changes as well as time-spatial flexibility and spatial fixity. Transactions spaces are continuously formed and reformed through processes embedded in the global cultural economy, urban development and politics, as well as through people’s everyday life. Producers’ strategic production and consumers’ tactical appropriation of transactions spaces are accentuated as crucial in the spatial practice of transactions, places and city formation. Keywords: consumption, transactions spaces, city formation, everyday life, commodities, urban development, consumer services, re- tail, spatial practices and representations, time-geography, Stockholm ©Lukas Smas and Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis 2008 ISSN 0349-7003 ISBN 978-91-85445-87-5 Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice US-AB, Stockholm 2008 Distributor: eddy.se ab, Visby Cover photograph: Hötorget, Stockholm, © Smas 2008 Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Consumption and the City..................................................................................... 10 1.2 Questioning Transactions ..................................................................................... 14 1.3 Methodological Outline.......................................................................................... 16 2. Geographies of Urban Consumption .......................................................... 20 2.1 Urban Consumer Society ...................................................................................... 21 2.2 City Formation Processes ..................................................................................... 28 2.3 Geographies of Consumption ............................................................................... 35 3. Conceptualising Transaction Situations ..................................................... 42 3.1 Transacting Commodities ..................................................................................... 43 3.2 Situating Transactions in Time-Space................................................................... 55 3.3 Representations and Spatial Practices.................................................................. 63 3.4 Exploration Through Examples ............................................................................. 72 4. Transaction Configurations in Practice ....................................................... 80 4.1 Configuring Transactions ...................................................................................... 81 4.2 Transferring Books and Coffee ............................................................................. 95 4.3 Spatialities of Shopping for Clothes .................................................................... 109 4.4 Time-spatial Flexibility and Places ...................................................................... 117 5. Formation of Consumer Service Spaces.................................................. 121 5.1 Formations in Stockholm..................................................................................... 122 5.2 Spacing Consumer Services............................................................................... 138 5.3 Refashioning City Properties............................................................................... 147 5.4 Challenging Prospects ........................................................................................ 159 6. Conclusions ................................................................................................ 162 6.1 Historical and Material Practices ......................................................................... 164 6.2 Capitalising Transaction Spaces ......................................................................... 167 6.3 Places of Everyday Tactics ................................................................................. 170 References...................................................................................................... 174 List of Figures Figure 1. Photograph from the Block Arcade in central Melbourne, Australia................... 11 Figure 2. Commodity transactions situated in the urban drama of cities........................... 13 Figure 3. The contextual embeddedness of transaction projects...................................... 44 Figure 4. A visualisation of the formation of space and place........................................... 71 Figure 5. A time-spatial typology of consumer transaction configurations ........................ 86 Figure 6. The four transaction archetypes related to consumer service producers........... 90 Figure 7. Photograph of Apple store in central San Francisco, US................................... 94 Figure 8. Photograph of Coffee cup in Gallerian, Stockholm city centre......................... 107 Figure 9. Photograph of Akademibokhandeln’s paperback department, Stockholm ....... 108 Figure 10. Photograph from a designer collection launch at H&M in Stockholm............. 114 Figure 11. Photograph of Sergels torg and Kulturhuset, Stockholm ............................... 123 Figure 12. Map of Stockholm city centre ........................................................................ 124 Figure 13. Photograph of Hötorgscity and Drottninggatan from above, Stockholm......... 127 Figure 14. Photograph of the pedestrian mall Sergelgatan, Stockholm .......................... 128 Figure 15. Photograph (i) of indoor passage at Hötorgshusen, Stockholm..................... 133 Figure 16. Photograph (ii) of indoor passage at Hötorgshusen, Stockholm.................... 133 Figure 17. Photograph of outdoor passage between Hötorgshusen, Stockholm ............ 134 Figure 18. Photograph of the five building blocks Hötorghusen, Stockholm city............. 149 Figure 19. Photograph of the H&M-building during construction, Stockholm .................. 156 Figure 20. Photograph from inside the H&M-building, Stockholm................................... 156 List of Table Table 1. Stockholm in numbers: population, dwellings, employments, workplaces ........ 125 All photographs and figures by Lukas Smas (except Fig. 11). Acknowledgments The journey of writing this thesis and doing the doctoral research project has been both challenging and rewarding. It has been a material, social and men- tal journey that changed my mind, my thoughts and my belief, and way of being in the world. The physical and social journey, during which I met many new and good friends, has taken me to various cities in Sweden, twice to Oslo, to San Francisco and around Australia, and back again to Stock- holm. I would like to acknowledge all the people who, during this journey, sup- ported, inspired and challenged me. First, I want to thank the one who changed my world and my everyday life – thank you Sofia for being there. Then I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my excellent super- visors for all their support and encouragement. Thank you Brita Hermelin and Bo Lenntorp for your unfailing belief and helpfulness, for critically and constructively commenting on and scrutinising everything that I have handed to you and for making every meeting both rewarding and challenging. There are a few people who have directly helped me in the process of completing the thesis, whom I would like to recognise; Gunnel Forsberg for commenting and reading the manuscript several times in the end and Eric Clark for critically discussing the work at the final seminar. I would also especially like to express my gratitude to Jonas Bylund for all the insightful and personal discussions and comments on everything. Thanks also to all the others, who are too many to name but nonetheless as important, who have reflected on earlier versions, connected papers

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