A city within the suburbs - gender, modernity and the suburban shopping centre

Abstract

Notions of modernity as progress have traditionally excluded the significance of woman's societal participation. This thesis investigates the exclusion of woman from the rhetoric of modernity and modem living through her culturally defined role as the primary shopper. Entrenched ambiguities have helped sustain societal contradictions that have marred both the cultural identity of woman as primary shopper and the suburban shopping centre. This dissertation, therefore, analyses the mid-twentieth century suburban shopping centre in relation 10 retail practice and woman's cultural identity in relation to broader community change. Evolving from within the specific dynamics of modern living, the values of progress are coupled with tradition thereby creating a unique space that represents both change and stability. This dissertation grounds the progressive value of modernity within the cyclical traditions of everyday practice to construct an understanding of woman's cultural identity in relation to the demands of modem living. A critique of broader societal issues and retail development culminate in a focused analysis of the Roselands shopping centre in Sydney, Australia 1965. Acknowledging the importance of use in the construction of meaning recognises the woman as primary shopper as integral to the rhetoric of retail practice and societal progress. A gap emerges within woman's cultural identity because although she is culturally aligned with the traditions of domesticity her role as primary shopper also positions her as central to modem living. It is within this ideological gap that a movement of meaning occurs and situates the shopping centre as a site of cultural mediation. This dissertation concludes that issues of accessibility and everyday use positions the shopping space as an important site of social mediation that negotiates cultural change on a level of everyday practice and, importantly, acknowledges woman's presence and participation within modernity.