With the emergence of the department store the concept of consumerism was developed further as mass production was introduced and embraced. The flâneur became redundant as an icon of the heart of the city; the flâneur had now developed into the consumer (Hayward, 2004). Those with the advantage of money to spend found themselves in the new situation of possessing material goods without necessity, pots for different purposes, various sets of clothing of similar design and commodities. Even those modest amounts to spend found themselves in the possession of items they never though possible (Sennett, 1993). Female citizens were particularly advantaged when considering the new trend of consumption; they were allured by store owners into a place where they felt safe, able to socialise and a leisure activity. This changed the traditional roles of women toward the modern image that are still around today. The buyer was encouraged to buy through the scarceness of products induced by store owners. People began striving for the latest fashion and developed a ‘commodity fetish’. Consumers were no longer thinking about quality of the goods or their roles as buyers to negotiate pricing, only the product itself. These products were given attributes to lure the buyer into the fantasies of provocation that induced frenzied buying. (Sennett, 1993)
This affected people in two different ways they either embraced the change to mass consumerism, fully emerging themselves in the experience and mentality of the new ways of shopping or they tried to pull away from it and rebel. However, as it can be seen even today the only way in which people seem to be able to express them selves as individuals in through some form of consumerism, for example buying clothing that renders someone as different. Mass consumerism had become an inescapable driving force of the metropolitan city (Hayward, 2004).
In contrast to the bustling city life experienced by the modern consumer there has always been another side to cities. One that is much less appealing, more shocking and generally disregarded, the reality of the city, rather than the illusion conveyed by department stores and the café culture. This side of the city first developed with the mass migration of people to industrial hot spots such as Manchester, at a time when systems were not in place to deal with the volume of people who flocked there and ended up living in squalid conditions. At this time the ‘rookeries’ consisted of poverty, filth and severe overcrowding. Certain people such as Engel and Mayhew entered these outcast sections in an attempt to document and rationalise these areas but the problem was largely unresolved (Hayward, 2004). The artists work at the time reflected these awful conditions on the negative side of the city specifically The Cliff Dwellers by George Bellows, in which we see a glimpse of what it may have been like to live in the poor part of the city (Hayward, 2004). This was the initial way that fragmentation of the city began to isolate certain members of the society. The ideals of Baron Haussann with in real estate intended to segregate the city further to create single function urban developments (Sennett, 1993). However, it appears this was not necessary as cities where already divided by class.
This division and fragmentation of the city had numerous consequences for the urban individual. The division caused a sense of the unknown. There was no longer public space in which people could trust those around them, therefore any community mentality declined if not disappeared entirely. Without the safety of a community fear of the masses developed and the average urbanite assumed an air of silence and mystery about them to protect one from possible violation when in public and so isolate themselves. Certain patterns of behaviour were adopted in order to keep this protective silent barrier while also reassuring other strangers that they would not have their own defences breached by us. These behaviours are still very much evident in city life today, customs such as dropping ones eyes rather than meet the stare of a stranger, manoeuvring around each other in order to give clear paths to travel and excusing oneself when strangers must be addressed (Sennett, 1993).
However, Georg Simmel had a very different view of why these and other such behaviours are evident in city life. Simmel was concerned with how individual’s personality had changed to result in this behaviour, what he referred to as the blasé attitude. He believed an individual’s personality had to adapt in order to protect itself from the continuous bombardment from the external stimulus of the city environment. He saw the external world as direct effectors of our internal conflicts and well being (Hayward, 2004). Therefore, just being in the city could create problems for the mental state of the individual, having to be on constant alert for possible danger while taking in the sights, smells and sounds, as well as considering ones own behaviour in a given situation creates an ‘urbanite in a state of accentuated nervousness’ (Hayward, 2004:31) Ludwig Meidner was another person who saw the city penetrating those who live in it, in his self-portrait I am the city we see his face within the sinister city, it is indistinguishable where the city ends and the face starts.
To reduce this affect the urbanite must distance themselves from the environment around them. A way to consider only what is relevant and manageable for the individual to cope with on a day to day basis. One artist who seemed to pick up on this was George Grosz. In his painting The Big City we see a carriage of lunatics spill onto the streets but amongst the madness of city life no one notices the insane. So in a sense the urbanites became immune to the very things that first struck them when they or their ancestors first arrived at the city. Another affect of the blasé attitude was the need to differentiate. Individuals could no longer easily establish and express themselves as individuals and so people began to take more exaggerated expressions of their own individual personalities, possibly in the hope of being noticed despite the blasé attitude (Hayward, 2004).
To conclude, it would seem that what ever urban settings have been present in the city then individuals have adapted to cope with them. In the development of mass consumerism it is consumerism that drives capitalist societies and without it the dynamic of the city would have failed. Without the blasé attitude of the urbanites people within the city would have developed poor mental stability from being continuously anxious. These affects are only two that are evident today because they increase the fluidity of the functional city in some way and if initially urban settings had caused different effects it is only those that are of use to the city dynamic that prevail.
References
Hayward, K., J. 2004. City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. London: GlassHouse, pp 17 – 39.
Sennett, Richard. 1993. The Fall of Public Man. London: Faber. Chapters 7 and 13
