Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.58.2.4
Geography of Non-place: An Analysis of the Arena Centar in Zagreb (Microlevel)
Karlo Mak
orcid.org/0000-0001-7058-0299
; Antun Gustav Matoš Secondary School, Samobor, Croatia
Martina Jakovčić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5555-4383
; Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb, Department of Geography, Croatia
Abstract
Drawing on Augé’s concept of non-place, an interpretative model for the analysis of the shopping
mall has been constructed. The model is formed on two dialectically interlinked levels.
For the analysis of the lower spatial level (the Arena Centar itself ), the concept of non-place
is fused with Schatzski’s social site, while the macro-level analysis (of the residential area surrounding
the Arena Centar) is based on transitional marks that visitors of the mall leave in
space. This paper presents the results at a lower spatial level. The operationalisation of the
present model led to the finding that, through spatial overabundance and excess of meaning,
the conceptions of the mall’s visitors do not match the original concept of the building. The
analysis shows that the more time the visitors spend in the shopping mall, the more they lose
touch with the external spatiotemporal reality. Finally, it has confirmed the existence of the
dynamics of different social practices, which mould the space of the Arena Centar from solely
a place of commercial into a place of leisure activities as well.
Keywords
non-place; social site; shopping mall; Arena Centar
Hrčak ID:
241500
URI
Publication date:
23.7.2020.
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