The high street: a stage for crisis, or workshop for reconstruction?

the high street: a stage for global crisis or a workshop for reconstruction?

in the beginning...there was the agora

the Wen: the agora becomes the sink

the Garden City:escape from the Wen

the Exodus: clone towns and ghost towns

‘There is a concern that the High Street shopping environment to which society has grownaccustomed... is changing and we are not sure whether we will likeeither how it will change or what it will be changed to.’ John Dawson, 1988

48% for the first time ever, lessthan half our retail floorspace is in town centres

‘town centres first’ was only half right...

‘In the UK, the free-standing,car-based, food superstore is now the hegemonic retail format.’ Hallsworth et al, 2010

the stage for globalcrisis #1: the end of the renaissance?

‘The most recent period of investment (2004-2008) saw theemergence of the private investor seeking high returns from assets held for very short periods oftime... This “flipping” of assets has led to chronic under investment in some centres.’ British Council of Shopping Centres, 2010

the stage for global crisis #2: burning and looting

Bristol, May 2011: the ‘Tesco riot’

Croydon, August 2011

#riotcleanup, August 2011

the stage for globalcrisis #3: economic paradigm shift

1982: last time UK trade in goods showed a surplus 76%: proportion of groceries sold by the big four supermarkets23,000: number of UK retail jobs lost, October 2010 to September 201180m: number of additional jobs needed worldwide to return to pre-recession levels is this sustainable? Sources: BIS, 2010; British Retail Consortium; Kantar WorldPanel; ILO

four questions: what future for ‘retail led regeneration’ when there’s no money to spend?what future for resource-heavy goods in a resource-depleted world? what future for buying when we’ve stopped making? what future for place in cyberspace?

back to the agora: a workshop forrethinking civics

from the Queen of Shops.... to a people’s republic?

back to the agora: newreasons to go into town

back to theagora: can the markets work for the people?

by the people, for the people

placemaking with dirty hands

setting the scene for the next act

four ways of thinking aboutgetting the town centres we want: 1 Footfall 2 Satisfaction 3 Diversity 4 Economic activity

creditsThe pictures are all Creative Commons or non-copyright. Thanks especially to: Slide 17: Stringberd Slide 18: Peter Trimming Slide 19: Liam Barrington-Bush Slide 22: Zach Inglis Slide 25: Daddiochap Slide 28: Katy Wrathall

thank you more from me... www.urbanpollinators.co.uk my blog: Living with Rats Twitter: @juliandobson

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The high street: a stage for crisis, or workshop for reconstruction?

by Julian Dobson

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