Case study brainstroming

Made in China

Globalisation consists of many features, however most visibly of international trade. The flow of goods and services form an imaginative web all over the globe. This web which might had been clearly knitted centuries ago has become so intense, multilayered and interconnected during the 20th century that hardly anyone can unravel it now. What worries me is the energy and material it requires to function. Mining, production, transportation, recycling, more production, more transportation…is it in order to satisfy basic need of life? Partially. More of it feeds overconsumption though. The so called developed world is obsessed with shopping, buying unnecessary goods, gathering stuff. My question is who allows this lavishing? How is it possible that economy has become unattached to the real world, the world of limited resources? Who sets the prices of resources, quite evidently without considering their possibilities of renewal or replacement? Finally which forces drive consumer behaviour?

Prague, my home town, has experienced a construction boom of shopping centres in the past decade. Many locations which now host huge concrete buildings could have served as urban green areas. My closest example is the Chodov shopping Centre which stands instead of a previously planned swimming pool.

In my study case I would like to find out which gaps enable the current system to exploit the developing world - through using both their cheap labour and their resources – in order to flood the developed countries with products and services. I would also be interested in discovering the bottom-up side of this issue, that means how (un)aware consumers are of the consequences of their choices.

My early guess is that MNC´s despite all the fuss around corporate social responsibility simply abuse the poverty of the countries with important raw materials and consumers don’t realize that buying local apples instead of Caribbean bananas does make a difference.

Literature review

1. Scientific resources

I.Smolová, Z.Szczyrba: Large commercial centers in the Czech Republic - Landscape and regionally aspects of development, Palacky University Olomouc, 2000

This paper describes the topic of commercial centres from the geographical point of view. Urban lanscape is seen as the highest degree of man´s impact on land and since 1989 the development of this landscape has been specially obvious in suburbanization. Factors of location are explained, emphasizing the role of lot prices and insufficient legal background and lack of regulation. The conflict between new shopping centers and the old retail network is mentioned. The national situation is also compared to other European countries according to the space standard indicator (selling area per inhabitant)
Unfortunately this study is 10 years old, so the predictions and tendencies suggested are not up-to-date, nevertheless I find this paper usefull for my study case as it gives a good insight to the topic of shopping centres accompanied by 2000 specific data and examples (which enables a 2010 comparison probably)

Spatial Planning and Urban Development in the new EU member states: Chapter 8 - L.Sýkora: Urban Development, Policy and Planning in the Czech Republic and Prague, Ashgate Publishing, 2006

The czech chapter of this book consists of a overview of the construction sector in an economically and politically transforming region. It includes the problematic of leftover industrial sites (brownfields) and focusing on services instead. Suburbanization joined by commercialisation plays an important role again, equally important is the trend of commercializing city centres causing lower populations there. The lasting conflict between historical sights protection and new investments is cited as well. Sýkora also goes through the political forces and points out the absence of communication between various administrative organs as well as the absence of global concepts.
This source is rather broad and includes topics which are not closely related to my study case but is useful to gain a more general overview of the topic of construction.

Planning analytical materials, City Development Authority Prague, 2008

"The Planning Analytical Materials of the City of Prague documentation is intended as material for the preparation of instruments and policies aimed at influencing land development." This set of documents assesses the curent state of land use and observes related conditions (economic, demographic), both in text and graphic version. The important outcome is the Assasment of the Balance between the pillars of sustainable development and the Dessignation of issues to be solved, which talks also about the diminuition of green areas because of retail construction.
I appreciate this as an oficial governmental source of information to combine with the scientific perspectives. The main limitation is the absence of updates (this is the first edition and the 2010 isnt available yet) which disallows comparison and observation of progress.

Social Goegraphy of the Prague Region - Chapter 2, J.Temelová: The Reflection of Globalization in non-housing estate in Prague after 1990, Charles University in Prague, 2006

Temelová studies the topic from an architectural point of view. After the political transformation in 1989 Prague became attractive for foreign investors in realty. The trend of constructing non-housing buildings in a way that shows global success threatens the local landscape patterns as well as traditional know-how and uniqueness. This paper describes two parallel tendencies in design: uniform/ordinary projects and interesting/unusal ones.The former occur more in suburban areas and aims at masses, whereas the latter are located closer to the centre, represent luxury at aim at wealthy customers. Besides these, Temelová mentiones the phenomenon of huge areas around Prague with no architecture at all - stores, logistic centres etc.
I find this source very inspiring and enriching, because I haven´t though of the role of architecture in my study case before, so it provides new ideas for me. Shame that it doesnt include much conflict (eg. the question of landuse possibilities, whether all the new shopping and office yards were are neccessary)

2.Other Resources

Civic associations: www.arnika.org, www.econnect.ecn.cz, www.modranskenoviny.cz

All these websites publish announcements related to new construction sites and municipal plans. Generally speaking they express negative opinions about political decisions and complain about exlusion of citizen from the process of decision making. The core of complains lies in maintaining/preffering green areas instead of building retail estate.
These sites are very because they show the existence of opposition to developers and lobbyist or even politicians. Of course their limits are biased statements and one also has to be aware of authors speaking "by the voice of people", because they might not be representing the majority.

Media:

www.profit.cz - Shopping centres mount up despite crisis, 2009

www.euro.cz - Transformation of a Dormitory, 2010 (about a plan for a aministrative-shopping centre in Prague 11)

www.ct24.cz - Arkády Pankrác are openning, other shopping centres struggle to survive

www.ekonom.cz - It takes just a stamp to turn a park into a parking, 2003 (about insufficient legal protections of land)

Following comments from media is good because they discuss issues up-to-date and usually express common feelings/attitudes of the society. The limit here is that the information might be manipulated - some circumstances can be left out in the argumentation