Consuming the city: public fashion festivals and the participatory economies of urban spaces in Melbourne, Australia

Journal article


Weller, Sally. (2013). Consuming the city: public fashion festivals and the participatory economies of urban spaces in Melbourne, Australia. Urban Studies. 50(14), pp. 2853 - 2868. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013482500
AuthorsWeller, Sally
Abstract

This paper examines how the conduct of a local festival of fashion retailing—the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival—reinvigorates the commodity fair format of older times. The paper takes a longitudinal view of the festival’s evolution and draws on Lefebvre’s spatiology, complemented by Terranova’s approach to the participatory economy, to explore how it produces monetary value as it produces space. The discussion highlights the contradictory nature of event processes, arguing that they reinforce dominant representations of the city and extend retailers’ reach into public space, but at the same time undermine spaces of business activity. The paper suggests that the event’s use of participatory economies of cultural mobilisation are similar to the tactics of social movement activism, but that in this context mobilisation works to support the value-capturing strategies of local retailers and to reinscribe urban spaces as spaces of consumption.

Keywordscommodity market; festival; industrial practice; retailing; social movement; spatial analysis; urban economy
Year2013
JournalUrban Studies
Journal citation50 (14), pp. 2853 - 2868
PublisherSage Publications Ltd.
ISSN0042-0980
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013482500
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84884870402
Page range2853 - 2868
Research GroupInstitute for Religion, Politics, and Society
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
EditorsA. Cumbers
Permalink -

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/863yz/consuming-the-city-public-fashion-festivals-and-the-participatory-economies-of-urban-spaces-in-melbourne-australia

Restricted files

Publisher's version

  • 81
    total views
  • 0
    total downloads
  • 1
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month
These values are for the period from 19th October 2020, when this repository was created.

Export as

Related outputs

Becoming precarious? Precarious work and life trajectories after retrenchment
Barnes, Tom and Weller, Sally. (2020). Becoming precarious? Precarious work and life trajectories after retrenchment. Critical Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920519896822
The urban and regional impacts of plant closures: New methods and perspectives
Beer, Andrew, Weller, Sally, Barnes, Tom, Onur, Ilke, Ratcliffe, Julie, Bailey, David and Sotarauta, Markku. (2019). The urban and regional impacts of plant closures: New methods and perspectives. Regional Studies, Regional Science. 6(1), pp. 380 - 394. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2019.1622440
Just transition? Strategic framing and the challenges facing coal dependent communities
Weller, Sally. (2019). Just transition? Strategic framing and the challenges facing coal dependent communities. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy. 37(2), pp. 298 - 316. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654418784304
Evidence in the networked governance of regional decarbonisation: A critical appraisal
Weller, Sally and Tierney, John. (2018). Evidence in the networked governance of regional decarbonisation: A critical appraisal. Australian Journal of Public Administration. 77(2), pp. 280 - 293. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12244
De facto informality? Rethinking the experience of women in the formally regulated workplace
Heap, Lisa, Barnes, Tom and Weller, Sally. (2018). De facto informality? Rethinking the experience of women in the formally regulated workplace. Labour and Industry. 28(2), pp. 115 - 129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2018.1463481
Globalisation, marketisation and the transformation of Australia's electricity sector
Weller, Sally. (2018). Globalisation, marketisation and the transformation of Australia's electricity sector. Australian Geographer. 49(3), pp. 439 - 453. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2017.1385117
What is to be done? Reflections on Brian Palmer’s ‘Approaching Working-Class History as Struggle'
Weller, Sally. (2018). What is to be done? Reflections on Brian Palmer’s ‘Approaching Working-Class History as Struggle'. Dialectical Anthropology. 42(4), pp. 477 - 480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-018-9510-0
The geographical political economy of regional transformation in the Latrobe Valley
Weller, Sally. (2017). The geographical political economy of regional transformation in the Latrobe Valley. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies. 23(3), pp. 382 - 399.
Fast parallels? Contesting mobile policy technologies
Weller, Sally. (2017). Fast parallels? Contesting mobile policy technologies. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 41(5), pp. 821 - 837. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12545
Accounting for skill shortages? Migration and the Australian labour market
Weller, Sally. (2017). Accounting for skill shortages? Migration and the Australian labour market. Population, Space and Place. 23(2), pp. 1 - 14. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1997
Neoliberalism in question
O'Neill, Phillip and Weller, Sally. (2016). Neoliberalism in question. In In S. Springer, K. Birch and J. McLeavy (Ed.). The Handbook of Neoliberalism pp. 123 - 133
An argument with neoliberalism: Australia's place in a global imaginary
Weller, Sally and O'Neill, Phillip. (2014). An argument with neoliberalism: Australia's place in a global imaginary. Dialogues in Human Geography. 4(2), pp. 105 - 130. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614536334
De-industrialisation, financialisation and Australia's macro-economic trap
Weller, Sally and O'Neill, Phillip. (2014). De-industrialisation, financialisation and Australia's macro-economic trap. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 7(3), pp. 509 - 526. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsu020
Actually existing political economies
Weller, Sally and O'Neill, Phillip. (2014). Actually existing political economies. Dialogues in Human Geography. 4(2), pp. 165 - 167. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614536345
Family or enterprise? What shapes the business structures of Australian farming?
Weller, Sally, Smith, Erin F. and Pritchard, Bill. (2013). Family or enterprise? What shapes the business structures of Australian farming? Australian Geographer. 44(2), pp. 129 - 142. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2013.789592
Commentary: Alice Bryer's politics of value creation
Weller, Sally. (2012). Commentary: Alice Bryer's politics of value creation. Dialectical Anthropology. 36(43132), pp. 51 - 54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-011-9237-7
The regional dimensions of the 'transition to a low-carbon economy': the case of Australia's Latrobe Valley
Weller, Sally. (2012). The regional dimensions of the 'transition to a low-carbon economy': the case of Australia's Latrobe Valley. Regional Studies. 46(9), pp. 1261 - 1272. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2011.585149
Financial stress and the long-term outcomes of job loss
Weller, Sally. (2012). Financial stress and the long-term outcomes of job loss. Work, Employment and Society. 26(1), pp. 10 - 25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017011426307
Gentrification and displacement: The effects of a housing crisis on Melbourne's low-income residents
Weller, Sally and van Hulten, Andrew. (2012). Gentrification and displacement: The effects of a housing crisis on Melbourne's low-income residents. Urban Policy and Research. 30(1), pp. 25 - 42. https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2011.635410