Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 6

Hello Amanda!

I have never been to Redlands, CA, however, the picture you posted of Citrus Plaza is reflective of many other suburban shopping centers I have been to. I've noticed that many suburbs are subject to developments of large shopping centers. It displays the idea of how post-suburbia has become highly consumerist society.

Do you think this is because individuals are no longer confined within their social classes but are able to interact with various classes that influence their behavior? Perhaps consumerism offers a way for individuals to purchase items, such as clothing, to make them feel like they belong within a certain group or instead, some may utilize consumerism as a means to distinguish themselves and their social status.

Something I thought was interesting about what you mentioned in your blog was that many of the people who shopped at Citrus plaza was with all or part of their families. When I walk around shopping centers such as Century City or Sherman Oaks Mall, I hardly see whole families all together. I'll see parts of the family such as the mom and kids, older men walking alone, or friends walking together. I think this draws on the idea by Olin, Kling, and Poster:

 "These broad social changes in work, consumption, and community life have had devastating effects on the traditional nuclear family that characterized industrial society from about 1820 to 1920. Mark Poster in Chapter 7 defines the characteristics of an emerging postnuclear family type... This new, segmented family type is much less unified and concentrated than its predecessor. Each individual within it has a particular cultural sphere of reference and pursues that significant relation by means of new communication technologies." 

However, it's great to hear that there are still families who come together during the week from their separate activities to bond collectively.

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This week, I visited my hometown of Redlands, CA  Redlands is about eighty miles away from Los Angeles, but is connected by the stretch of industrial and suburban areas that spread out from LA via the freeways. In the article, “The Emergence of Postsuburbia,” Olin, Kling, and Poster write that “since World War II, North American suburbs have become socially varied because they increasingly house the working class as well as the middle class, racial minorities as well as whites, and single people as well as traditional families. But they are still characterized by a land-use pattern that is dominantly residential and a transportation pattern that is dominantly one in which people commute to work outside the area.” This description of a typical suburb of today also happens to exactly describe Redlands. 

In Redlands, there is a very popular (and quite large) outdoor shopping center called Citrus Plaza. Olin, Kling, and Poster would call it a “regional [center] anchored by several large department stores” (such as Target, Kohl’s, and JC Penney) that was “designed for efficient shopping.” An interesting thing to note is that Citrus Plaza sort of a place with restricted social access on the basis of class. When compared to other shopping centers, the people who shop at Citrus Plaza are middle-class, mostly white, and often with all or part of their families. The architecture and design of the center attract these people. Citrus Plaza is a shopping center that is commonly a place where people shop for items that aren't necessities (like groceries would be). My friends and I even go there just to hang out and walk around sometimes. Overall, it has a "going out" kind of atmosphere while also allowing us to feel close to home.