THE SOCIAL LOGIC OF SHOPPING: case study New Delhi - a syntactic approach to the analysis of spatial and positional trends of community centre markets in New Delhi

This paper examines planned community markets in New Delhi, India and proposes that the spatial and configurational properties of the markets as embedded in the urban grid can, in part, explain their observed social and economic differences. Shopping is considered as a social activity, and the choices made by shopper and shop to visit or to locate in a particular area together constitute an ‘interface of exchange’. The spatial characteristics of each market explored using Space Syntax i theories and methodologies are linked to observed pedestrian movement, discriminated into high, medium and low income groups and the mixture of shops categorised as multipurpose and comparison (Eaton & Lipsey 1982). These three strands of information describe the existing spatial organisation of the city, existing movement and usage patterns within each market and the volume and type of goods and services offered. The analysis of these descriptions, individually and collectively, links spatial features and the economic act of shopping to the social realm of markets and consumption. This paper argues that spatial properties of Choice and Integration inform the interface between shop and shopper, and implicates to-movement, through-movement and the distance at which the urban grid affects such movement as prime influences of this interface. This paper will, therefore, seek to draw links between space, society and the act of shopping. These links demonstrate that an underlying logic exists to the observed differences between the markets, and that spatial factors play a fundamental role in this differentiation. This logic is mediated by the movement and mix of social groups in space and the social importance attached to shopping: therein arriving at a Social logic of Shopping.