Meaningless vs. Worthwhile Encounters?: Sustaining Social Interactions in Privatized Public Spaces of Manila Shopping Malls

Abstract

Privatized public spaces like modern shopping malls apply various spatial regulations to its mall goers that ultimately, according to scholars of critical tradition, undermines the “social” in socialization during human interactions. This recurring idea is prevalent and proven in a number of developed countries while, on the other hand, research on the same outcome in developing countries such as the Philippines is lacking. Based on local experiences, there is an indication of the possibility of an active associational life within the regulated spaces of the Philippine private shopping mall. This paper tries to determine the circumstances under which spatial governmentality sustains social interaction. Using Robert Yin’s case study method, it delves into the spatial practice of mall users in three shopping malls in the city of Manila. Data are gathered from field observations and interviews with the managers and security officers of the three malls. Purposive mall users can evade the disciplinary, deterrence, and exclusionary techniques of the shopping mall and thus pursue their own social activities and interests in the presence of three facilitators: persons, locales and occasions. The cases involved in this study reveal that efforts to control social activities in mall premises can also generate unintended outcomes, that is, activate social activities.