© 2024 Pablo Arboleda — Interdisciplinary researcher

  • Shrinking market

    • Glasgow
    • anticipatory nostalgia

The best advice we have to offer is this: take ‘The Barras Market’ as you find it. Things operate a little differently here.

Place-making in the
midst of change.

Glasgow’s East End is a working-class neighbourhood where markers of social deprivation are a persistent presence. The symbolic heart of this area is The Barras Market, a historically lively community meeting point. Spelled out in old lettering and all sorts of second-hand goods, a particular materiality still persists, though is today threatened by new art spaces and fancy restaurants. After conducting multiple field visits, this project, co-authored with cultural geographer Hayden Lorimer, reflects on the need for protecting the authenticity of the ‘real city’ and vestiges of ‘traditional Glasgow’ when this is seemingly at odds with progress. ‘Anticipatory nostalgia’ is coined to refer to that striking sense of loss felt for sites that are not yet gone but seem set to disappear.

Aesthetics of juxtaposition and their extremely low regime of value.

“A tax haven for the poor” – one trader commented.

Household flotsam. You name it, really.

The People’s Republic (of Entropy).