Glocalizing Malls in the Global South: Shopping Centers, Cities, and Consumers in Chile, Turkey, and India

• In Event: Consumption, city and citizenship in compared contexts, new approaches to consumption in everyday life.

Abstract

Most research on shopping centers uses U.S. suburban malls as the prototype for studying malls elsewhere. In this comparison of shopping centers in Chile, Turkey, and India, we argue that malls in the Global South diverge from the U.S. prototype. In the U.S., malls followed Keynesian post-war policies subsidizing suburbanization, while malls in these three countries developed in the 1980s and 1990s after government-imposed free market policies. Moreover, malls in these countries operate in cities with large informal economies and ample public transit, integrating them into urban areas. Finally, in contrast to the U.S., malls in Chile, Turkey, and India are enmeshed in public debates about how Western consumer culture influences their societies. Against claims that neoliberal policies promote the duplication of U.S. malls in the Global South, we argue that malls in the Global South reflect processes of glocalization whereby local cultures integrate imported goods, images, and retail forms.

Author

• Joel P Stillerman, Grand Valley State University