Open Eye: Fruit, veg and bags of community spirit
Research has revealed the true value of the traditional street market, says Yvonne Cook
Published: 03 April 2007
The humble street market has been part of British life for so long that we tend to take it for granted.
But we are neglecting a key resource, according to a new study carried out by Open University social scientists and published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It says markets play a vital role in allowing all groups in the community, but particularly older, low-income and marginalised people, to meet and mingle.
It calls for a national market strategy to reverse a lack of investment and decline in local markets over the last 20 years, and to support the key government agendas of combatting social exclusion and regenerating town centres.
OU researchers Sophie Watson, professor of sociology and David Stoddert, research fellow, conducted an in-depth study of eight contrasting English markets to find out how they are used by their local communities, and what factors helped or hindered their success.
"There is a growing interest in the use of markets as focal points for local regeneration and community initiatives, but little is known as to why some markets succeed - economically and socially - and others do not," says Watson.
The researchers discovered that markets play a crucial role in the daily lives of many older people, particularly older women, who use them as a place to meet friends and acquaintances, sit and chat.
They also provide a key site for the mixing of different cultures in the local community, particularly where there is a diverse racial and ethnic mix of traders. At Ridley Road market in London, for example, the long-established Jewish traders told researchers how they helped the new Asian traders settle into the market, explaining the customs and practices of market life.
Researchers were also struck by the strength of the relationships between shoppers and market traders which, they say "differed markedly from the experience of going to a supermarket".
Many shoppers said their main reason for going to the market was their daily or weekly interaction with the traders. And traders said they "kept an eye on" long-term customers. "In this capacity, they act as focal points for the community for passing information about a local person's health or state of their marriage," say the researchers.
In the deprived areas of St Helens and Rotherham, and in Lowestoft, where there is a concentration of people on benefits, the markets serve to include high numbers of disabled people in community life.
However, in many local authorities "markets rarely appear on the political radar", according to the study. Following a period of expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, markets have often been seen as merely an income generator and have suffered from lack of investment and strategic planning.
The report concludes that there is an urgent need for a markets strategy at national and local government level. "Markets could play a crucial role in helping to deliver many of the national government's agendas - especially those which concern healthy eating, sustainability, social cohesion and the building of communities. The lack of connection of these political priorities into policy on local markets represents a significant lost opportunity," the report concludes.
'Markets as sites for social interaction' is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (www.jrf.org.uk) by The Policy Press
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