Geographies of the Market Place

Module code: GY3413

This module explores the premise that the ‘economy’ swirls around us, systemically through ‘relations of flows’. It stems from the everyday, social, material, discursive and sensual interactions that define particular places that we call ‘marketplaces’. This does not meant that marketplaces are the sole place of the economy, but that they are specific to the formation of the economy.

You'll be exploring the idea of ‘market-spaces’ as places which are comprised of meanings, materials and social relations, which all together make the economy. This constellation of places is the locus through which the economy, and ultimately the space of the economy, emerges. At the same time, the economy comprises these places in their social-sensual, as well as material forms. You'll be concentrating on a specific marketplace, Leicester City Market, and explore the geographies that make up that economy.

To get at these geographies, this module develops and explores the practice of topo/graphy (place-writing). Place writing is a critical and creative methodology to examine place, as well as to present and represent it. You'll be investigating different types of writings, such as field notes, site-writings, photographs, maps, and a range of other materials. Topo/graphy seeks to present a theoretically informed, empirically rich account of place. You'll discover how a marketplace is made up various interrelated topographies of materialities, socialities and sensualities, and topologies.

Topics covered

• The markets and marketplaces that comprise our everyday economic practices 
• The ways in which economies are made in place and through place-making
• The modes by which marketplaces are embedded into wider urban, as well as regional, national and international economies and vice-versa
• The material, social, discursive and sensual relationships that comprise markets, marketplaces and their respective economies