Tomasz Kaczmarek , Magdalena Karczewicz (p)

Sander Van Lanen

see extended abstract

Malgorzata Twardzik (p)

Magdalena Karczewicz

Shopping malls have become an inseparable element of modern agglomerations and large cities in Poland. They derive from the tradition of former town marketplaces, around which trade was developed and the life of local community flew. Modern shopping malls are becoming important centres of social life, serving for commercial, entertainment, recreational, cultural, educational, integration as well as socialising purposes. Their comprehensive trade offer makes it possible to shop, cafés are a place for meeting friends, cinemas, discos, bowling alleys ensure entertainment, and playgrounds for children provide a response for the needs of the youngest visitors. More and more often municipal offices and public utility establishments are located at shopping malls, you can also find places of religious worship. The most recent investments are becoming elements of municipal infrastructure even more, as they integrate within their space office and hotel spaces and residential premises. Entertainment parks, theme parks, galleries or theatres constitute an inseparable part of new shopping malls, and development of the entertainment and cultural, and commercial offer is one of the ways of competing with the traditional city centre and developing e-trade. In this way, they have become a place where entire families spend their free time. Shopping malls in the Silesian Voivodeship have a significant impact on smaller settlement units located in outer areas of agglomerations. It consists mainly in changes related to social, economic, as well as functional and spatial spheres. Research conducted (2016-2017) directly among residents and entrepreneurs made it possible to identify consequences of the functioning of shopping malls in the region. Studies shows that shopping malls take over more and more functions of higher order and restrict the economic activity in outer areas of agglomerations. Their social impact refers mainly to inhabitants of towns and rural areas influenced by agglomerations. By providing a comprehensive, attractive and modern commercial, service and entertainment offer, shopping malls have become a commonly visited and used place. At the stage of the irrepressible process of suburbanisation of rural areas surrounding large urban agglomerations and structural changes in towns, it is difficult to conclusively assess the consequences of the operation of shopping malls in outer economic areas. Opinions of residents are positive and indicate many benefits. The impact of shopping malls on small towns and rural areas located in the outer economic area is, in terms of time and form, a very dynamic process which requires further systematic research.

Sander Van Lanen (p)

Malgorzata Twardzik

When anchor tenant Tesco Supermarket closed its store in Ballymun, Dublin, the neighbourhood shopping centre started a trajectory of closures, vacancies and decline. The decision of Tesco to abandon the shopping centre in the neighbourhood on the northern edge of Dublin followed falling revenues during the recession in Ireland and the empty shopping centre became central in local narratives of austerity and recession. Building on interviews conducted with young adults from Ballymun, the importance of the shopping centre is traced through neighbourhood inhabitants’ experiences and interpretations of its closure. Assessing the role of shopping centres through narratives surrounding closure rather than establishment illuminates qualities that otherwise remain hidden. The lifeworld disturbance initiated by a centre’s removal reveals otherwise taken-for-granted and pre-conscious experiences of the shopping centre, which are forcefully removed from the locality by its closure. These narratives reveal that the neighbourhood shopping centre has an impact beyond the provision of products, as source of employment or space of business. Rather, its presence spoke to experiences of inclusion, sense of place and neighbourhood vitality. The disappearance of a function shopping centre, then, does not only remove its direct services from the locality, but destabilises neighbourhood identity and feelings of belonging.