When the Global Meets the Local at the Mall

The last 20 years have completely changed the image and function of the mall as developed in the 1950s by Victor Gruen and other pioneers. The mall has been transformed from a Fordist space that encourages mass consumption and sameness to a post-Fordist space that attempts to create social distinctions. Urban scholars have assumed that the mall is an outpost of the globalized economy that diminishes locality and human agency. In this article, the globalizing view of the mall is questioned, arguing in favor of “glocalization” processes that combine the post-Fordist capitalist logic of the mall industry with local characteristics that affect mall development.