rant 1.5 Ethnography of the Topanga westfield shopping mall

The Topanga Westfield shopping mall serves as an important hub for culture, family and entertainment of the West Hills area. There are many parents and young children around the food court of the Topanga Westfield Mall. The mall serves a multipurpose function of being able to simultaneously feed the children as well as provide a variety of diversions to keep them happy and occupied. The mall offers plenty of stores and attractions such as an video arcade to keep younger children amused. Most of the parents are mothers. Either the fathers are still working during the summer, have other commitments, or the mothers are single. The mall also provides an opportunity for the parents to shop for anything they may otherwise need while simultaneously entertaining their children. Many of these mothers could be frequent visitors of the mall during the summer. A few families are present, the fathers are either off for the summer of simply have the time to spend with their families. Besides the parents and children, another one of the more common demographics are teenagers and young adults. With school off for the summer these young people are free to go where ever they want. Due to the current economic climate, finding summer work or college classes is very difficult so many young people spend their time at the mall keeping themselves occupied. The mall offers a perfect place to keep up with the latest fashion, electronic and other pop culture trends. They attemmpt to establish identity through identifying themselves with popualr brands. This type of self-identification is in line with the thoeries of left-centered culturalism.According to Hoggart, this form of culturalism states that culture is defined differently everday, which is why fashion trends so quickly shift(Barker, introduction to cultural studies, pg 15-16) Thomas It also serves as the perfect spot for finding potential romantic partners. The youth flock to the mall with hope looking for a good time, or with despair realizing they have nowhere else to go and their hopes for the future may be in jeopardy. Another noticeable demographic is middle aged couples. With their jobs potentially gone for the summer, many of these people face similar predictions to their younger counterparts of having nowhere else to go. They could also potentially view the mall as a chance for intimately spend time together, or find shop for necessary commodities. The final notable demographic at the mall is the elderly. The elderly are similar to the last two groups in the sense they use the mall as an escape when they have nowhere else to go. However, unlike the last two groups the predicament of having nowhere else to go is more permanent for the elderly. After retiring many old people are unable to find any form of permanently occupying their time and simply go about their days mindless trying to fight boredom and trying desperately to find some sort of fulfillment.

Besides the shoppers who occupy this mall there are also the employees. The employees generally fit into the same general age demographic as the shoppers. The young people who have jobs are working while trying to save up for school, or some other desired item. There are those who’re not in school simply working to pay the bills. These people are glad to be working, suffer through the heat and any potential indignities for the opportunity for money and experience. Some of these young people are also working for the chance for promotions; they realize school may not be their only option in life. So they decide to work early and seek promotions for a chance at a better tomorrow. The final reason why the youth are working at the mall is for work experience. They are earning money while trying to build up necessary experience for working at later, more desired careers. Besides the youth working at the mall, there are also the middle age and elderly. These demographics are either unable to find a more desired career, or are simply working these jobs out of necessity because of an inability to find other means of employment. Many of these people had other plans for their futures in their youth, but the harshness of life forced them to seek other avenues from what they intended. Many are bitter and miserable at how their lives turned out. While others are simply happy to be employed during a harsh economic climate. While others still have hope and still believe they can achieve their dream careers. Finally the elderly are working as a method of passing the time. After finishing a lifetime of work and child rearing, many elderly people still seek fulfillment and continue to work to avoid feelings of uselessness. Others need these careers as a way to afford the necessities of life. So they drudge through the days as way to support themselves, although they may wish to simply not work at all. Despite all the reasons listed for being at the mall, many more still exist. The mall is also a perfect example of the problems Marx has with capitalism. According to his writings: large consumerist hubs such as malls are dangerous catalysts which can trigger class warfare. Those who work at the malls, yet the majkprity of the workers cannot afford the luxuries provided at these malls. This inability to buy the luxuries they sell leads to  resentment of the upper class. According to Marx this resentment will fester until a boiling point is reached, then the lower class rise up against the higher class demanding equality.( barker,cultural studies, pg.13-15)
The Westfield mall is a perfect example of the modern American consumerist culture. There are a wide variety of stores which sell a wide variety of clothes, electronics, toys, jewelry and many other “luxury” goods. This mall is odd because many of its merchandise seems to offer an sense of luxury and privilege, yet most of the malls patrons are in general not able to afford the high priced goods. The mall wants to attract a higher class clientele yet the location of mall seems to isolate the more affluent potential customers. This trend is a perfect example of prototypical American spending habits. Many Americans have a deep sense of entitlement which leads them to make purchases beyond their means. This sense of entitlement is a direct result of modern capitalist philosophy which directly lead to the modern finical crisis. The Westfield center is trying to create a sense of high culture which is highly sought after. Many people want to emulate the high culture life style because the high culture lifestyle is socially desirable. The problem is what is expected of modern high culture is constantly changing making it difficult for people to keep up with the trends.  This is what the mall thrives, on, it requires the pop culture styles to change, so that people must keep coming back and buy the new materials of the updated high culture. The mall is in line with the ideas of Arnold and Leavis who view culture as the high point of civilization and society. To them giantic luxury emporiums such as a shopping mall are exactly what the elite society strives for.(Barker, cultural studies, pg 40-41)

The store Hot topic used to be a source of culture from below, but now exists as a source for culture from above. Originally the store appealed to small demographic and sold limited merchandise to that demographic. However, over the years the store garnered more public attention so the store’s inventory changed to reflect the increase in attention. This is in line with the Franfurt school of thought in which there is a culture industry which controls the opinions and views of what society decides is culture. (Barker, culture studies, pg 48-49) At first the store only sold merchandise related to Goth music culture. Now the store sells not only Goth, but larger variety of merchandise ranging from movies, TV shows, and 80’s and 90s nostalgia.  Hot Topic is a perfect example of how large corporations can turn a relatively specialized store, into a virtual cornucopia of pop culture related attire.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it greatly widens the appeal of these kinds of stores. Originally these stores would only attract a limited clientele who would buy limited merchandise. Now stores like Hot Topic sell a large enough variety of products, that virtually anyone can find something of interest. Hot topic isn’t the only store which has undergone a change from a retail shift. Stores like Claire’s, and Gamestop have benefitted from making their products appeal to a much wider demographic. Many sores will continue to follow this model of offering a wider variety of products, which in turn will attract more customers.

The Westfield food court is considerably different from your typical mall food court. Following in the overall theme of the mall, the food court is considerably more high-brow than a typical mall food court. It does include the standard types of mall food including Mexican, pizza, hamburgers etc. However, the mall also includes a much more diverse category of food including Gelato, Greek, and Brazilian to name a few. The food like is meant to appeal to a much wider variety of people than a typical mall food court. The wide variety of foods is a testament to noticeable effects that globalization has. Globalization has allowed many people to experience different cultures from their own, and a byproduct of these different cultures is food. You can tell a lot about the philosophy and worldview a given culture by the type of food they eat. Not only are the restaurants different, the food itself gives off a sense of high culture.  Even the appearance of the food court provides an ambiance that makes it feel much more than an average mall food court. The Westfield mall exudes an air of higher culture than is expected at an average shopping mall. This is probably what keeps the mall so active, vibrant and successful.


                                                              Works Cited

Barker, Chris,(2008). Cultural Studies Theory&Practice Third Edition