Youth and Shopping Malls: A Case Study about Youth Preference in Mall Use

Abstract

Shopping malls demonstrate the growth of consumption culture in contemporary urban life. After the 1980s, a liberalized economy and changing global factors made shopping malls important components of Turkish urban identity. As shopping malls have become such a significant part of the social world of youth in the last twenty years, it seems crucial to concentrate on ‘malls and youth’ as a subject of study. In this context, this study aims to analyze the leisure time activities and preferred leisure spaces of teenagers in Turkey as well as where shopping malls fit in among other leisure spaces. In addition to this, the study will focus on the question of how youth perceive and experience the social and physical environment of shopping malls and their relationship with the concept of design. To this end, a field survey was conducted in the Ankara Migros Shopping Mall. The research was carried out through observations and in-depth interviews with 104 teenagers ranged in age from 13 to 19. The results of the study indicate that shopping malls were the preferred leisure space for teenagers. Physical characteristics such as the location of the mall and ease of accessibility were determined as the primary reasons for the teenagers’ preference. According to analyses, it was found that the youth did not pay much attention to the physical environment and its characteristics and had lack of information about it. In this scope, it seems that further analysis is needed to understand the teenagers’ lack of interest about the physical environment and design issue, and overemphasis and predominance given to the societal issues and social environment.