Two Towns in Germany - Commerce and the Urban Transformation

Many forces threaten the viability of town centers. One of them is trade concentration in which family businesses are replaced by large, vertically integrated retail enterprises. Town centers, once locations of a rich variety of street stores in the hands of a local and independent merchant community, are being supplanted by monolithic and decentralized commercial zones. This process is documented in contemporary Germany for two towns, one grounded in a market economy and the other, until recently, socialistically based. In both cases, trade concentration is a prevailing force- a pattern that is not only found in post-industrialized nations, but also in developing countries in Latin America and Asia and is indicative of an emerging global culture.

Sommario

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
The Problem and Setting
The Altstadt Trade Community (I)
The Altstadt Trade Community (II)
Hassfurt's Trade Community in the Periphery
The Survival and Demise of Family-Operated Firms under Trade Concentration
Hassfurt's Transformation: Two Merchant Firms
Hassfurt's Transformation: The Mall
The Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen
The Post-Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen (I)
The Post-Socialistic Transformation of Hildburghausen (II)
Summary and Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Index of Case Histories
References
Index

Info autore

NORBERT DANNHAEUSER is Professor of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Contemporary Trade Strategies in the Philippines: A Study in Marketing Anthropology (1983).

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Norbert Dannhaeuser, Dannhaeuser Norbert
• Editore: Bloomsbury
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 16.02.1996
• EAN: 9780897894586
• ISBN: 978-0-89789-458-6
• Categorie: Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Sociologia > Teorie sociologiche; Business & Economics / General, Germany, Business and Management, ARCHITECTURE / Urban & Land Use Planning, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, Business & management, City & town planning - architectural aspects, Urban communities, City and town planning: architectural aspects, Geography and World Cultures