How to be a recreational consumer: the leisure experience of young people in two malls in Lima; one of high income and another of popular origin

This article presents a reflection about social experience in shopping Malls as privileged spaces for gathering and leisure in Lima. Through an ethnography, we analyze the leisure experience of young consumers of a Mall in a high rent zone (Jockey Plaza) and another in a low rent zone that’s going through gentrification (Megaplaza). We show evidence that Jockey Plaza’s consumers have more capacity and confidence for spatial appropriation than Megaplaza’s for being recreational consumers and with that resource, to subvert the surveillance condition of Malls. This is a practical knowledge that they are acquiring associated with a particular class position, related with the socio spatial location where they build their daily lives. Even if we agree with the narrative that Malls encourage the development of consuming citizens, also this experience is more complex and ambiguous than what it suggests. These inequalities go beyond the logic of access/exclusion, requiring the development of intermediate categories.