The mallification of urban life in Ankara: the case of Ankamall

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2008
Akçaoğlu, Aksu
This study investigates the emergence of a shopping mall based urban life in Ankara. As the city is under the siege with the mushrooming growth of shopping malls, the urban life gains a new attribute. The economical, social, and cultural institutions and activities of the city are collected under the roof of the mall, and distinctions out of the shopping mall are formed and reproduced around the consumption activities of the mall. Based on a qualitative research which was conducted in ANKAmall, this study investigates the shopping mall experience of the different segments of population in terms of income group, age, and gender. Shopping malls present an idealized urban life in Turkey by providing individuals to articulate with Westernization, modernization, and globalization processes in their everyday lives. While the everyday life goes under transformation in the shopping malls through the juxtaposition of irrelevant spheres, they also become the center of attraction for different segments of population despite their restrictive dynamics such as socio-technological control. The subject of the mallified urban life is the consumer, while its culture rests on the intersection of modernization and globalization.

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Citation Formats
A. Akçaoğlu, “The mallification of urban life in Ankara: the case of Ankamall,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2008.