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| SYMBOLIZED SPACE AND SPATIAL SYMBOLIZATION——The Construction and Diffusion of Network-reality Shopping Space |
| SHEN Jun-xia, ZHANG Min, ZHEN Feng |
| College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China |
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Abstract Consumption is one of the important features of today's society. Instead of production, consumption guide today's social life and economic development step by step. At the same time, with the increasing abundance of material goods, symbol consumption, rather than material consumption is increasingly becoming the focus. Based on the consume society theory, using the semiotics methods, this paper analysis the mechanism of construction and diffusion of Taotaoxiang, which is located in Nanjing, and is the first network-reality shopping block in Chinese mainland. This paper attempts to explain how a new kind of consuming space seize today's upsurge of consume through the construction of space. This paper tries to points out that the symbol is an important path in building consumer spatial characteristics, but the spreading of consuming space is not only a simple process in which the symbol is copied. And then this paper put forward the feature of half-organized social relations of network-reality consuming space. Taotaoxiang, for example, used series ways of symbolization, including space patterns, conversation system, commodity feature and trade behavior, consuming space realized the symbolic process with the help of network interaction and self-construction of consumer behavior. In this process, Taotaoxiang itself turn into a new kind of symbol as well. It can be said that the symbol we called Taotaoxiang is formed from brand value of each shop it has, it is presented clearly by its own unique running measures, and be put into effect in consuming activities. Taotaoxiang is a symbol which is formed from many factors together. Every consumer of Taotaoxiang took part in this forming process, as the network-reality consuming space, what it constructed is a half-organized consuming relation, and it can make up disadvantage of location to some degree. In a word, the essence of Taotaoxiang is still a consuming space. As a half-organized social space, the social relationship that it contains and the inner mechanism that it runs are the internal cause of its existence.
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Received: 04 July 2011
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2012, Vol. 27 
