Kviat, Aleksandra (2018) Placemaking in the Post-Functionalist and Post-Digital City: the Case Study of Ziferblat. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis explores a new form of urban public place—multifunctional venues called ‘pay-per-minute cafes’, ‘public living rooms’, or ‘anti-cafes’. Charged by the minute and provided with free wifi and access to kitchen facilities, visitors of such spaces are entitled to use them however they like, as they are designed to accommodate various social, cultural, home-from-home and work activities. The first venue of this kind, Ziferblat, opened in 2011 in Moscow as a social experiment seeking to build ‘social media in real life’, turn customers into participants and overcome the limitations of the functionalist urban planning separating home, work and leisure from each other. In the next couple of years, Ziferblat’s look-alikes have spread overseas to Europe, Asia and North America; meanwhile, Ziferblat itself has developed into an international franchise with 18 branches, five of which are located in the UK.

Using this phenomenon as a lens on two emerging urban trends—the post-functionalist city and the post-digital city—this thesis investigates the ‘who’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of placemaking in the context of current debates on sociability, diversity and social inclusion in the urban public space, participatory culture and sharing economy, and neoliberal urban policy. This critical case study, drawing on large-scale media analysis, 48 qualitative interviews and over 160 hours of ethnography conducted in four Ziferblat branches in Moscow, London and Manchester, employs an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, combining urban sociology, human geography, cultural anthropology, media studies, and consumer and service research to examine the intricate connections and contradictions between the social and the spatial, the global and the local, the social and the commercial, the public and the private, the physical and the digital. The research findings are of potential interest to academics, practitioners, social activists, urban planners and policymakers dealing with the issues of placemaking and community building in the city.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > HF Commerce H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Public spaces -- Research, Sociology, Urban, Human geography -- Social aspects, Ethnology, Consumer behavior -- Research
Official Date:	September 2018
Dates:	Date Event September 2018 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Mah, Alice ; Jones, Hannah
Sponsors:	University of Warwick, Chancellor's International Scholarship.
Extent:	263 leaves : illustrations, photographs
Language:	eng

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