The Social Concept of Familiarity
IN A FOOD HALL SETTING
“These various individuals generally get along well with one another in this space. They need not interact intimately; rather, they simply share the market with one another, interacting in the act of buying and selling. They give one another space, the “aura” referred to by Georg Simmel, allowing each person to swim about in this sea of diversity while being largely left alone. They come, interact in a broad sense, obtain what they want, and return to the world outside this setting.”
In communities where diversity is rapidly increasing, sociologists have introduced the concept of “familiarity” as an initial goal for community engagement [1, 2, 4]. Food halls are ideal places to encourage familiarity because of their ability to bring people together for meals, shopping, and hanging out.
Blokland introduced the concept of “public familiarity” as a type of connection between individuals, which is between anonymity and intimacy [2]. She advocated the importance of familiarity in public spaces, explaining that with frequent exposure to strangers, one secures both a sense of social identity and safety, despite the increased diversity in one’s social environment [2].
Van Eijk and Engbersen extended this concept of public familiarity into an actual urban design study on “light social interaction” [4]. Their study concluded that in designing public spaces, the paths and everyday activities of people in the community must regularly intersect. They recommended that public spaces must allow for multiple activities to happen at the same time, in the same place. They also suggested that public places provide areas where people can observe and be observed, thus increasing familiarity with each other [4].
In studying markets as sites for social interaction, Watson and Studdert clarified that markets have a larger role to play in the community, in addition to encouraging economic vitality. They pointed out that markets offer people a place to mix and be familiar with each other’s differences [3].
Anderson introduced the concept of “cosmopolitan canopies” which he described as public spaces (in a normally racially segregated area) where people of diverse ethnicity and economic background gather together and practice civility. Through an ethnographic study, he observed and identified places in Philadelphia which he described as “canopies” which encouraged light social interaction, civility, and inclusion. He theorized that with constant exposure to people who are different from themselves, people become more open to interaction and are also comfortable, even when faced with diversity [1]. He cited Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market as an example of a “cosmopolitan canopy.” Through the years, exposure to and familiarity with different kinds of people in this market increased civility in their interaction and also encouraged civility among the newcomers in the area.
Vancouver’s Granville Island Public Market is an example of a place which has been planned well, to allow for increased familiarity to happen. In and around the Granville Market, there are multiple places where seating and spaces are provided to allow for observation of other people. There are small social plazas scattered around the market’s exterior, with comfortable places to sit, hang around, and watch what is happening. These plazas intersect with main pedestrian thoroughfares and multiple transportation access, thus allowing for maximum interaction among those moving about and those who have decided to take a seat. Granville Market also has seating areas near entrances to the main market buildings, where there is greater pedestrian traffic. It also helps that there are beautiful mountain and water views around the market, thus increasing its attraction to visitors.
Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver
Bench seating provides an area for comfortable conversations while also allowing for viewing of other pedestrians passing by.
Small plazas with seating in the outdoor area, allowing for viewing of the Vancouver skyline, observing other people coming in through the ferries, people passing by, and visitors who decide to eat outdoors.
Wooden bench seating allowing for observation of both the pedestrian and vehicle traffic around the market.
Around the Granville Market neighborhood, there are other community centers which bring in different groups of people like: (1) an arts and crafts building; (2) an adventure zone for children; (3) several theater companies (4) an arts school providing dance, theater, and visual arts program for children; (5) art galleries and studios; (6) several theaters; and (7) a local distillery. The whole Granville Market neighborhood comes across as a large dynamic community place, with the food market being one crucial component.
Granville ISLAND Public Market, Vancouver
Granville Island map showing the public market and food hall in relation to the whole area
Granville Island, Vancouver
Kitchen and craft store inside a separate building offering various local crafts
Granville Island, Vancouver
Craft store buildings located around the public market building
Food halls bring diverse people together, in a community. There are lots of ways to ensure that familiarity occurs in this type of environment. The more common ones include providing areas where people can sit and observe, locating the food hall in an area which is easy to access for a large number of community residents, and ensuring the diversity of the vendors. Increased familiarity in a food hall is a function of both the number and the diversity of its visitors and vendors.
“As strangers pass by one another, they take in another’s pleasant looks, punctuated by only an occasional scowl or inexplicable frown. Individuals engage in an elegant, delicate social dance, as they exchange places and move about with a necessary awareness of the others. What begins as a consciousness of bodies moving in a shared space gives rise to courteous greetings, momentary encounters, and even mutual recognition. This interplay contributes to wider synergy.”
— Reading Terminal Market
The Cosmopolitan Canopy [1] page 61
Sources:
Elijah Anderson, The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life (New York, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., c 2011 1st ed., 2011).
Talja Blokland-Potters, Urban Bonds: Social Relationships in an Inner City Neighborhood (Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, Malden, MA, Distributed in the USA by Blackwell Pub., 2003).
David Studdert and Sophie Watson, Markets as Sites for Social Interaction: Spaces of Diversity, Public Spaces Series (Bristol, UK, Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by Policy Press, 2006).
Gwen van Eijk and Radboud Engbersen, 'Facilitating ‘Light’ Social Interactions in Public Space: A Collaborative Study in a Dutch Urban Renewal Neighbourhood’, Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, 5 (2011), 35-50.