A Neighborhood Shopping Street and the Making of Urban Cultures and Economies in Germany

Abstract

This paper examines the cultural, social, and economic contributions of multi–ethnic neighborhood businesses to the transformation of German cityscapes. The diversity on N–Street in Stuttgart has been at the forefront of urban transformations and cultural production. I show that neighborhood stores and shopping streets are sites of urban experiments and cultural beginnings which produce new authenticities in the face of rapid urban homogenization. Combining theoretical debates about urban “authenticities,” the creative potential of immigrant neighborhoods, and ethnic/cross–cultural economies, I analyze transformations of N–Street and the surrounding neighborhood. I argue that neighborhood shopping streets are relevant nodes and agents in urban transformations and the production of urban futures. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I introduce N–Street's history, its current configuration of genuinely local urban cultures and economies, and its cultural complexity and cultural and economic innovation.