The (re)enchantment of suburbia: Mediation of the production and consumption of Melbourne’s outer suburbs

Abstract

Contemporary suburban landscapes have developed at scale, in variety, at speed and with ethnic concentrations or superdiversity. These complexities call for the reworking of urban theory and method. In this paper we contribute on both fronts. We develop an interpretative framework that emphasises the mediation of the production and consumption of new suburbs. Methodologically, we analyse on-site billboards as ‘technologies of enchantment’ that provide insight into the symbolic mediation of the production and consumption of new suburbs. We visually inspected 114 billboards and 38 active residential developments in the City of Wyndham – a rapidly growing suburban municipality in Australia. Our research sheds empirical light on how increasingly standardised production and consumption by an increasingly varied profile of residents are reconciled in the symbolic (re)enchantment of suburbanism as a way of life. Our findings indicate the value of future research into: ways of life in systemically produced suburbs; the agency needed to fashion community in extensive mass produced suburbs; and new forms of consumer society-related alienation in suburbia.