Study On Consumption Space Of Xi’an On Perspectives Of The Consumption Stratification Of Residents In Transition Period

As a field of power, capital, culture,(economic) capacity, as a kind of consumption entity and the carrier of consumption behavior itself, Urban consumption space distributed in the city space is not only as a segmented plaque type, which carries more traditional ideas, behavior modes and cultural demands, and it is a kind of consumer behavioral space under the game of power, capital, culture, capacity. When the contemporary consumer culture is becoming a kind of public and social culture form, the social space has gradually become the object of consumption by the collective consumption under the guidance of the government’s public service. With the active of the consumer market, the expansion of consumer culture and the division of consumption ability on population levels, the development trend of consumption space with expansion, distribution,grade,pluralism and heterogeneityis becoming more and more obvious, and the consumption stratification becomes one of the important factors which influence the construction of urban social space, by power orientation, capital operation, cultural orientation, ability basis etc. in urban space.In the wave of the city’s unique fast transformation and the changes of consumption patterns and concepts, influenced by the traditional cultural values and coupled with the osmotic shock of western modern cultural thoughts, the highlights of “Civilian, Popularization” under the consumer society, explosive growth of electronic commerce under the rise of online consumer fashion, the links of virtual reality and complementary under the awareness of cyber pursuit, the constantly launch of new consumption means with credit card and installment etc., the richness of the additional function of consumption space, the transformation of consumer behavior and the cultural reconstruction of consumption concept etc., it will contain new driving mechanism behind this series of phenomena. The urban is transforming to be a consumption society comprehensively sucked into consumer frenzy: the focus of the economic structure gradually shifted from production to consumption, and the consumer culture rooted in the consumption activities has gradually become the mainstream culture form of society. The restraint against with the traditional space power order, the capital operation mode, the secular view of consumption, it puts forward new problems on understanding and interpretation of contemporary consumption stratification and consumption space differentiation:the juxtaposition of entity consumption in urban geographical spatial agglomeration plaque led by visual consumption under watching and being watched and subconscious consumption idea under the action of attributes(natural attribute, social attribute, economic attribute, etc.), the infiltration of complexity of consumer class and hybrid of urban space types, the trend of the consumption space alienation under consumption stratification, the dual of reality and empty of personal environment and consumption space etc..In transition period, whether the consumption path guided by the consumption stratification is followed, dependent, passover or broken, and replaced the balance of consumption demand and supply in the traditional urban geographical space segmentation? How to influence the consumption space division and response under power and capital operation, social stratification and consumption space differentiation oriented by culture, power tilt on female in space consumption, personal identity division and social contradiction and conflict, group behavior alienation and consumer preferences?This study based on the theory of Semiotics, Sociology, Postmodern Geography, Plutonomy,Urban culture theories and so on, try to demonstrate the advantages of interdisciplinary research. Meanwhile, it has been attempting to analysis the consumption spatial structure and its differentiation by using the theory of consumption stratification. Taking Xi’an city as an example, this paper analysis the process and route of the consumption stratification. Via comparison of different types of consumer space and different consumption habits of groups, it has explained the locate selection of consumption habits and structure of consumer space. Based on those, using the view of power and the logic of capital, we discuss the Social stratification of Residents consumption ability and preference pattern of different consumption culture.The study shows that:Firstly, theoretically, the stratification of urban consumption space is the results of the interaction of power, capital, consumption capacity and consumption culture. Among them, the power and capital provide differentiation and fragmentation of consumption space in the production process of urban space in the mainland, but the consumption stratification is the inherent power of consumption space transition.In transition period, the urban consumption space production has particularity in China, namely power for leading and capital as the link, consumption ability stratification of the main consumer and consumer culture differentiation, it is a consumer behavioral space under the jointed action of them. Among them, power see consumption space differentiation as the urban renewal business approaches and tools, and capital see consumption space hierarchical production as a way of capital appreciation, and the main consumer affect the space consumption group differentiation and structural differentiation by emphasizing the psychological recognition and social attachment of consumption stratification, depending on their own consumption and consumer culture. That is to say, the residents’ economic capacity, consumption culture differences led consumption differentiation and consumption space demand differentiation, and it promotes the level differentiation of consumption spatial. Consumer groups’ social attribute(according to the occupation) differentiation and economic attributes(by revenue) stratification, the natural attribute(according to age, gender) discretization are obvious, and it links with consumption space hierarchical alienation in geographical choice.Second, since the end of the 1990 s it is an important period of the system transformation of Xi’an. With the deepening of the system reform and the market economy, the production of consumer space is developing rapidly, and it shows the transferring trend from the old city to suburban in space, and it gradually takes on to enhance the image of the city, promote economic development and attract foreign capital and personnel responsibilities in function.With coexist situation of shopping, leisure, experience, culture and art, industrial in type, it shows level and the discrete differentiation,andmixed with diversity and heterogeneity of postmodern features. The space bases the ratings system of business center based on the traditional location theory, with the fast-growing trend of post-modern commercial space. Based on the analysis about the space of shopping consumption, service consumption space and special consumption innovation space, the consumption space shows level and layered characteristics significantly overall.In the inference of the comprehensive service radius, scale, traffic restrictions etc., the consumer spatial patchiness presents coexist of hierarchical clustering and rejection disperse, privacy and clear edge under the guidance of commercial and residential segregation; but in the interior of the consumption space, it strengths in fragmentation of types, scale expansion of a single type, composite and win, the difference complementary etc..Third, the daily use of retail space in Xi’an mostly concentrated in residential areas and commercial areas, it showed a high consistency and coupling with population density and residential areas in the spatial pattern. On the whole, residents’ daily shopping activity mostly is habitual consumption and the cycle of repeated consumption, showing the circle attenuation of rules with distance.Based on income stratification, daily shopping activity of among income classes has the strongest convergence in space, due to the regularity of occupational restrictions and time arrangement, making the shopping space is relatively limited and the highest degree of concentration, with higher decay rate. Residents’ clothing and shoes and other decorative consumer space appears the coupling relationship between population distribution, with both centralized and decentralized. "Concentration" performs that the consumption of clothing,shoes and hats tend to occur in convenient transportation or floating population of large shopping malls or professional clothing wholesale market, and "decentralization" performs often associated with urban residents living scattered and dispersed. Among residents’ clothing, shoes, hats and other decorative consumption more near away from the place of residence of the large values or convenient transportation of the core business district, gathered in shopping center(shopping mall) or commercial street, with most weekend shopping,and night trend is obvious. Most of the luxury consumption space is concentrated in the traditional large business circle. Although the frequency and types of consumption is relatively small, but the consumer desire, satisfaction and attention to the degree of satisfaction is very strong, especially in women, accounting for the proportion of consumption expenditure structure. Brand awareness of Luxury consumer is the strongest symbol.Fourth, consumer space of city is changing from outdoor non-commercial activities more into a place of leisure consumption business. Most of the leisure activities have become a process of consumption of various goods and services. "Leisure consumption" and "consumption leisure" are inseparable and promoting mutual development. For consumer groups, consumer tastes and hobbies can be standards to divide them. On the time the consumption patterns and the spatial form coincide with their attribution of social groups, the individual establish a social role as the "self", so as to get psychological satisfaction. This behavior mainly shows that the consumption and communication activities together with the same or similar grade, status, or interest groups of people, and its characteristics is paying attention to ego identity and status symbol, on the sense of belonging and sense of the field in consumption environment.Fifth, the food and beverage consumption space is a mix of Chinese and Western trend, and is dispersed in the whole. However, in the core business district, it gathers prominent trend and complex and diverse. Dining space distribution is fragmented, embedded, residents’ food consumption obviously shows the occupational differentiation, age difference, place of origin points difference: family’s or friends’ dinner often choose closer restaurant or catering in shopping center, but professional business entertainment most have higher requirements about the level and location of the consumption, core business district of high-grade catering mainly; the young gens prefer self-service dining, older prefer traditional Chinese cuisine. Hometown cultural awareness makes food consumption aggregation, but the identity trend with the local culture is obvious.Sixth, special consumer innovation space of Xi’an has two major characteristics: first, the theme of cultural and creative space mainly are Chinese teahouse, restaurant nostalgia, style bars, etc., and traditional cultural space is also gradually changing to consumption space. Second, tourism and cultural space more rely on the construction of legacy or cultural heritage concentrated, concentrated on the city wall of the Ming Dynasty, out of the old ideas in the format function of positioning and the proportion, to create new highlights to suit the needs of the market, such as fully tapping the geography and the cultural and humanities resources, relying on the deep foundation of the urban history and culture etc..It includes commercial entertainment type of tourism space, heritage tourism space, etc.. Metropolitan cultural tourism consumption space is divided into three layers: Center City for sightseeing and shopping district, to sightseeing and shopping experience of urban style; suburban recreation area, to sightseeing and playing; urban suburban sightseeing area, on vacation and hedonic consumption, tourism and consumption boundaries are more difficult to distinguish.