Sonia Bookman - Brands and the City

Brands and the City

From commercial retail environments to branded urban villages, brands are now salient features of contemporary cityscapes and are deeply entwined in peoples everyday lives. Drawing on extensive empirical material and recent theoretical developments in the sociology of brands, this book explores the complex relationships between brands, consumption, and urban life. Covering a range of brands and branding in the city, from themed retail stores to branded cultural quarters, it considers how brands provide new ways of mediating identities, lifestyles, and social relations. At the same time, the book reveals how brands are bound up with forms of socio-spatial division and exclusion in the city, defining what kinds of practices, images, or attitudes are acceptable in a particular place, while constituting cultural boundaries that keep certain people and activities out. With attention throughout to the social and cultural implications of the presence of brands in urban space, Brands and the City examines how people engage with brands, and how brands shape urbanites experiences and sense of self, society, and space. An extensive exploration of the processes through which brands are integrated into cities, their effects on everyday life and their role in the policing and governance of urban space, this book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in urban studies, consumption and branding.

Sonia Bookman is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Manitoba, Canada.

Cities and Society

Series editors: Chris Pickvance
Professor of Urban Studies, University of Kent, UK

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.

This series welcomes books that contribute to a sociological understanding of the city.

The following list of possible topics is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Boosting Competitiveness Through Decentralisation
Aylin Topal
(Ashgate, 2012)

Brands and the City: Entanglements and Implications for Urban Life
Sonia Bookman
978-1-4094-6084-8
(Routledge, 2018)

First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2018 Sonia Bookman

The right of Sonia Bookman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bookman, Sonia, author.
Title: Brands and the city: entanglements and implications for urban life / Sonia Bookman.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; NewYork, NY: Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Cities and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017037396
Subjects: LCSH: UrbanizationSocial aspects. |
Consumption (Economics)Social aspects. | Branding (Marketing)Social aspects. | Sociology, Urban.
Classification: LCC HT153 .B658 2018 | DDC 307.76dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017037396

ISBN: 978-1-4094-6084-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-56988-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra

I would like to acknowledge the many individuals who have contributed to this project. Several colleagues, friends, and academics have read and commented on the original book proposal and various drafts of different chapters, including Liz Millward, Susan Frohlick, Cheryl Martens, Andrew McStay, Scott McCulloch, Tina Kehler, and Sheryl Peters. I am thankful for the many discussions I have had with colleagues and friends about some of the ideas presented in the book and the writing process, including Andrew Woolford, Laura Funk, Jeff Masuda, and Mara Fridell. The series editor, Chris Pickvance, provided very detailed, helpful comments that have ultimately made this a much better book. I would like to thank the invaluable work of several research assistants who helped conduct interviews, direct participant observations, and assemble the bibliography, including Iqbal Ahmed Chowdhury, Michelle Gorea, Brittny Liewicki, Jenna Jones, Meaghen Boiteau, Katelyn Mackenzie, and Amanda Nelund. Discussions about urban brands and branding with students in my Cities and Urban Life class and Consumer Culture seminar over the past few years have been a great source of inspiration and insight throughout this project. Finally, the original research conducted for this book was funded in part by several organizations, including the University of Manitoba University Research Grants Program (URGP), and the Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the Manitoba Research Alliance for Transforming Aboriginal and Inner-city Communities.