1、The Negotiated City Image Andre Jansson Introduction The city is the prime locus of modern consumerism. First of all, it is the space in which most commercial centre are concentrated shops, restaurants, cultural establishments, sports arenas and so on. Urban areas are the locations of economic and s
2、ymbolic exchange. Secondly, the city environment provides a forum for cultural impressions and expressions. As noted in the classical writings of Simmel and Benjamin, the metropolis incorporates an entire system of rooms, stages and passages where the reflexive individual can gain symbolic experienc
3、es, as well as manifesting his or her identity. Thirdly, since the major cities also incorporate a majority of the culture industries, including most media firms, advertising agencies and design companies, they are also the epicenter from which a great share of the symbolic flows emanate. In contemp
4、orary society, significant shares of peoples cultural horizons are shaped by the images and messages arising in metropolitan contexts, many of which are geographically distant. Finally, in the shape of travel destinations, cities are turned into the objects of direct consumption. The dominant image
5、of the city, in terms of historical narrative, personalities, buildings, companies, etc., is normally consumed in a manner influenced by commercial actors, reinforced by mediated signs. Professional image-makers are continuously working on the symbolic refueling of the city-as-commodity . However, t
6、he creation of the city image is not only a matter of cultural policy. What the city actually becomes, and how different groups experience it, depend upon the activities of social actors as well as systemic forces. For example, even though there are strong hegemonic forces, founded upon alliances be
7、tween political, cultural and econ-omic actors, supporting a dominant image of the city, alternative and oppositional groupings are always challenging such points of view (see Figure 1). Currently, the clearest examples are definitely the international reclaim the streets and reclaim the city moveme
8、nts (see Klein, 2000). And during the past few years, top-level political meetings such as the ones in Seattle, Prague, Goteborg and Genoa have led to world-wide media exposure of the intensified struggle over urban space in general and certain city images in particular. Most of the research for the
9、 present study took place in the city of Goteborg, Sweden. However, as far as the aim of this article is concerned, the specific city is not important as such. The aim rather is to illustrate how any city image may be encoded, decoded and re-encoded through various forms of lifestyle practices. In p
10、articular, the article will focus upon three different modes of consumption, corresponding to Halls notion of dominant, oppositional and negotiated readings. This is not to say that cities necessarily contain any clear-cut preferred meaning. As has just been argued, the city image is 浙江农林大学本科毕业设计（论文
11、） 2 a complex and dynamic structure, whose encoders are found throughout society. All readings are somehow negotiated. Nevertheless, from a Marxist point of view one may argue that different ways of encoding and re-encoding the city hold different positions relative to the socioeconomic structures o
12、f society. Developing this approach, it is interesting to see what happens to this structure in the post-modern era. The City of Goteborg In spite of the general approach, a few introductory words should be said about the particular environment and image of Goteborg. The city has about 500 000 inhab
13、itants and is located on the Swedish west coast. Historically, the image of Goteborg is marked by its ports, its ship-yards and its mechanical industries. Being the nations face towards the North Sea and the Atlantic, this is the city from which the trans Atlantic steamers once departed. It is also
14、the home of companies like SKF and Volvo. However, like many other industrial cities, Goteborg has during the past three decades gone through a kind of identity crisis. Most of the ship-yards have closed down； the ports are not as busy as they used to be； and Volvo Cars is now a luxury brand within
15、the Ford Motor Company. This identity crisis is also expressed through several post-industrial tendencies. Industrial areas, notably the former ship-yards, have been transformed into office space, apartments and hotels (like Docklandsin London) and working-class neighbourhoods have been restored and
16、 gentrified. There is also a very dominant cultural policy taking form. The new image of Goteborg is that of the event city a city that will attract major cultural events, sports events and industrial exhibitions. At the same time, contemporary image creators, architects and city planners are carefu
17、l to preserve the historical heritage of Goteborg. The modern narrative is the anchoring of the post-modern image. The Empirical Study The study to be presented is based on both qualitative and quantitative interview data. First, an analysis has been made of ualitative interviews gathered within the
18、 research project Cultural Identities in Transition (CIT). A total of 41 respondents in the Goteborg region were interviewed about their lifestyles in general and media consumption in particular. The interviews were carried out during 1997/98 at four different locations: the inner city； the affluent
19、 western suburbs； the northern working-class suburbs； and, a rural village about an hours journey from Goteborg. The reason for choosing particular districts was not primarily about enabling comparisons between neighbourhoods although such comparisons often prove to be fruitful. The specific neighbo
20、urhoods were not of interest per se. However, starting in different neighbourhoods was a good way to structure the material, due to the segregated character of larger cities like Goteborg. Then, in all districts, 浙江农林大学本科毕业设计（论文） 3 respondents were gathered of different age, gender and occupation. I
21、n this analysis, the focus is upon those respondents who more or less actively take part in urban life. These are all found within the wider metropolitan area of Goteborg, rather than in rural villages. Nevertheless, the material is extremely rich and it is impossible to present it fully in a short
22、article. Therefore, in order to keep the discussion as clearcut as possible, the arguments are illustrated by means of just a few interesting cases. Secondly, in order to locate the qualitative results within a more general pattern, the study utilises 1997 data gathered from the annual Orvesto Konsu
23、ment survey, conducted by the Sifo research institute. The survey is based on a quite extensive questionnaire covering a broad range of topics, focusing upon values, opinions, lifestyle practices, consumption habits, brand preferences, media habits and so on. Since the Orvesto survey compiles the an
24、swers from about 30 000 respondents (a representative selection of the Swedish population between 15 and 79 years of age), the material can also be broken down into a great number of sub-categories without losing statistical significance which is a great advantage for those who want to identify and
25、describe particular market segments. For the present purpose, only some basic tables are presented, illustrating how differ-ent value orientations or what Sifo terms RISC segments correspond to city-based consumption practices.1 These value orientations are treated hereas statistical representations
26、 of the creative ethos, guiding people in their organisation of time, space and social relations. The ethos may thus be thought of as a lifestyle generating formula shaping, for example, consumption modes much related to where they live whether the city is home or not. To some people, the city is a
27、natural, taken-for-granted, everyday environment； to others, it is primarily the site of special events and public services. Likewise, while some people find the liveliness of the city to be a major asset, others regard it as a threat to their ontological security. Since the inner cores of metropoli
28、tan areas are rapidly changing places, it is not surprising that sophisticated lifestyles are found there. Individuals oriented towards expansion (Globalism) and change to a great extent found in city regions. This situation springs from a mutual relationship: while the dynamics of the city attract
29、people with a particular ethos, the city environment (and all that comes with it in terms of commerce, public life, educational institutions, etc.) also functions as a socialisation agent, shaping this kind of ethos. Making a closer comparison of the GA and LS segments (not presented in the table),
30、one can conclude that, while the overall pattern of different life-stages is quite similar, the levels are very different. While the overall pattern suggests that people move to urban areas when they leave their parents home, and out of the city when they enter the family phase, the GA ethos is on the whole more city-based than is the LSethos. People within the GA segment are not only overrepresented among the young singles and
