Urban or Family-Friendly? The Presentation of Czech Shopping Centers as Family-Friendly Spaces

This article presents a study of the self-presentation of shopping centers in the Czech Republic as “family-friendly” spaces. The notion of family-friendliness is analyzed both as a structural category, referring to the structure of the stereotypical normal family and to its respective members, and as a cultural representation, referring to “family values,” which Czech malls invoke in their self-presentation. It is argued that the presentation of a “space for the whole family” covers only the persistent stereotype of female-led economic consumption. The family values of safety and comfort distinguish shopping centers negatively from the city centers. They also strongly refer to the country’s past by invoking the image of a family promenade. On a more general level, the family appeal thrives on the phenomenon of postsocialist privatism and on the turning away from the public sphere in favor of the private realm of the family.