Description
Book SynopsisLiquor, tobacco, processed food, and sugary snacks: this is the range of products in convenience stores, which dominate the retail landscape in impoverished neighborhoods in the United States. Using ethnographic research conducted in Chicago and Detroit, in Convenience Stores as Social Spaces: Trust and Community in Deprived Neighborhoods in the U.S., Cosima Werner examines the contested meanings of such stores and the ways in which they are construed as social spaces within these neighborhoods. At first glance, convenience stores appear to be the opposite of social spaces: cameras capture every interaction of shoppers, security personnel keep their eye on suspicious behavior, and bulletproof glass may even separate the employees from the clientele. Although many security measures, language barriers, and cultural differences are obstacles to building trust, trustful relationships are essential for many shoppers to have access to resources such as loans, food, drinks, or information to make ends meet. Drawing on concepts of trust and mistrust that are inherent in social atmospheres and looking at relations between various people and their practices, this book analyzes the various meanings of convenience stores as social spaces.
Trade ReviewWerner provides us with a radically new, open rendition of an age-old bugaboo in the struggling U.S. city, the corner liquor store. Rich ethnographic analysis reveals a vision of these stores tied to complicated human needs and aspirations which too few urbanists have recognized. This is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of daily urban life in the current U.S. city.
-- David Wilson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: At the Store
Chapter 1: Social Spaces and the Meaning of Trust
Chapter 2: Practices of Convenience Food Shopping
Chapter 3: Spatialities of Convenience Stores
Chapter 4: The Neighborhoods‘ Decline
Chapter 5: The Muddle of Daily Life
Chapter 6: Practices of Social Distinctions
Chapter 7: Practices of Trust: Relations between Immigrant Shop Owners and Black Clientele
Conclusion: Convenience Stores as Social Spaces
Epilogue – Back at the Store
Appendix: People in this Study
References
About the Author
