How do consumers make the cultural geography of a 'low-end' street? The case of Sodergatan: a high street at the urban margins

This research examines the practices of consumers that are made possible by a 'low-end' street, and how these shopping practices in turn shape and maintain a high street at the urban margins. It locates itself within the academic inquiries of cultural geographies of retail.
Södergatan is the field of the study, the main shopping street in the stigmatized southern part of city of Helsingborg in Sweden, which was first established as a working-class neighborhood. Never enjoyed being a legitimate part of the commercial city center, the street has further been excluded recently due to contemporary retail restructuring. Today it mostly hosts so called immigrant entrepreneurships, service-based premises and convenience stores. Södergatan is a typical neighborhood commercial street, which can be found in almost any city. In this sense, the research takes the mission of shedding light to consumer dynamics of long-neglected, unglamorous, yet indispensible, organic parts of urban life.
The study theoretically draws upon “practice theory”, that has been proven to supply a solid framework in exploring people’s everyday shopping activities. The major method employed will be “video-ethnography” because of its capability to synchronically appreciate consumer practices, consumer reflections and the material environment of the street.