Neighborhood, Neighboring and Shopping: A View from Oslo

Abstract

Neighborhood, Neighboring and Shopping: A View from Oslo
The paper addresses implications of shopping and gentrification
for the formation of neighborhood in relation to its different meanings.
Through interviews with residents and shopkeepers, the forms
that shopping takes, the way both residents and shopkeepers perceive
the socio-spatial practices associated with shopping and its
implications in the formation of the neighborhood is examined in
Grünerløkka, Oslo. The author argues that the socio-spatial practices
associated with gentrification necessitate a market that moves beyond
the immediate neighborhood and relies on internal tourism. As
a result the socio-spatial practices associated with neighborhood
are thwarted and are replaced by new forms of relationships that
generate parallel social worlds even as the neighborhood conceptually
remains important. This creates what is called a neighborhood
wihtout neighboring.