IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v39y2007i3p555-569.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Muji, Materiality, and Mundane Geographies

Author

Listed:
  • Julian Holloway

    (Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester Ml 5GD, England)

  • Sheila Hones

    (Department of Area Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba 3-8-1, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan)

Abstract

This paper is based on the premise that mundanity is not so much a quality inherent in an object or event as an appearance or affordance generated at the intersection of object, subject, and location. Assuming that a single object will appear banal in one context and different in another, we focus our attention on cases in which a single object is encountered as both banal and different—visible and invisible at the same time, marked out by its ability to blend in. In this paper we explore the mundane and distinctive by reference to marketing and products of the Japan-based company Muji, and in particular through relating the two contrasting aspects of the Muji image to the different ways in which the objects are located in presentation-marketing contexts and in wear-use contexts. In order to explore the usefulness of this distinction between display space and use space we perform a tactical erasure of the commonsense distinction between the textual and the material, thereby enabling the collapsing together, into the single category of display space, of the textual spaces of Muji catalogues and the material spaces of Muji shop floors. The distinction between the en-masse presentation of new objects in highly controlled display spaces and the mundane wear and use of purchased objects in the various and variously encountered spaces of everyday life is explored through the hybrid display-use space of Muji show homes known as Muji-Infill. We conclude by proposing that this display-use distinction can be used strategically to articulate the way in which skilled consumers are able to encounter objects imaginatively and practically in two different contexts simultaneously. In other words, we speculate that, when skilled consumers encounter a superficially mundane Muji object in the literal and disorganised context of use space, they are able to recognise it as stylish and desirable in part by referring to an acquired understanding of the ways in which that object-in-use evokes a Muji marketing space of massed objects-on-display.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian Holloway & Sheila Hones, 2007. "Muji, Materiality, and Mundane Geographies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(3), pages 555-569, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:3:p:555-569
    DOI: 10.1068/a3925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3925
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a3925?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Latham, 2003. "Urbanity, Lifestyle and Making Sense of the New Urban Cultural Economy: Notes from Auckland, New Zealand," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(9), pages 1699-1724, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert R. Hewitt, 2014. "Globalization and Landscape Architecture," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440135, February.
    2. Suzanne Vallance, 2014. "Living on the Edge: Lessons from the Peri-urban Village," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1954-1969, November.
    3. Nina Martin, 2014. "Food fight! Immigrant Street Vendors, Gourmet Food Trucks and the Differential Valuation of Creative Producers in Chicago," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1867-1883, September.
    4. Eric R. Sarmiento, 2017. "Synergies in alternative food network research: embodiment, diverse economies, and more-than-human food geographies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 485-497, June.
    5. Andrew Gorman-Murray & Catherine Nash, 2017. "Transformations in LGBT consumer landscapes and leisure spaces in the neoliberal city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(3), pages 786-805, February.
    6. Suzanne Vallance & Harvey C. Perkins & Jacky Bowring & Jennifer E. Dixon, 2012. "Almost Invisible: Glimpsing the City and its Residents in the Urban Sustainability Discourse," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1695-1710, June.
    7. Andrew Charman & Thiresh Govender, 2020. "The Creative Night‐Time Leisure Economy of Informal Drinking Venues," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 793-808, September.
    8. Joanna Taylor & Liz Twigg & John Mohan, 2015. "Understanding neighbourhood perceptions of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(12), pages 2186-2202, September.
    9. Peer Smets, 2005. "Gated ‘communities’ - their lifestyle versus urban governance," ERSA conference papers ersa05p403, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Gervásio F. dos Santos & Alejandra Vives Vergara & Mauricio Fuentes-Alburquenque & José Firmino de Sousa Filho & Aureliano Sancho Paiva & Andres Felipe Useche & Goro Yamada & Tania Alfaro & Amélia A. , 2023. "Socioeconomic Urban Environment in Latin America: Towards a Typology of Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    11. John McDonagh, 2013. "Gentrification Interrupted: Impacts of the Christchurch Earthquakes on Inner City Revitalisation," ERES eres2013_40, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    12. Laurence Murphy, 2008. "Third-wave Gentrification in New Zealand: The Case of Auckland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(12), pages 2521-2540, November.
    13. Ilse van Liempt & Irina van Aalst & Tim Schwanen, 2015. "Introduction: Geographies of the urban night," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(3), pages 407-421, February.
    14. Helen Jarvis & Alastair Bonnett, 2013. "Progressive Nostalgia in Novel Living Arrangements: A Counterpoint to Neo-traditional New Urbanism?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(11), pages 2349-2370, August.
    15. Crystal Filep & Michelle Thompson-Fawcett, 2020. "New Urbanism and Contextual Relativity: Insights from Sweden," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 404-416.
    16. Marion Roberts, 2015. "‘A big night out’: Young people’s drinking, social practice and spatial experience in the ‘liminoid’ zones of English night-time cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(3), pages 571-588, February.
    17. Ben Gallan, 2015. "Night lives: Heterotopia, youth transitions and cultural infrastructure in the urban night," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(3), pages 555-570, February.
    18. Jakob Demant & Sara Landolt, 2014. "Youth Drinking in Public Places: The Production of Drinking Spaces in and Outside Nightlife Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(1), pages 170-184, January.
    19. Peter Lugosi & David Bell & Krisztina Lugosi, 2010. "Hospitality, Culture and Regeneration: Urban Decay, Entrepreneurship and the ‘Ruin’ Bars of Budapest," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(14), pages 3079-3101, December.
    20. Gill Valentine & Sarah L Holloway & Mark Jayne, 2010. "Contemporary Cultures of Abstinence and the Nighttime Economy: Muslim Attitudes towards Alcohol and the Implications for Social Cohesion," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(1), pages 8-22, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:3:p:555-569. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.