The ‘magic of the mall’ revisited: Malls and the embodied politics of life

This article reviews recent literature on shopping malls that reaffirms their importance for human geography. Taking Goss’s seminal work on the ‘magic of the mall’ as a starting point, we trace how recent works attuned to emotion and affect have updated and inspired a re-conceptualization of this potential ‘magic’. Synthesizing the linkages between consumer architecture with spatial politics and emotional and affective sensibilities in those spaces, the article seeks to help set the agenda for further research in this field by emphasizing how social difference infuses the retail atmosphere and the way it reveals the workings of geopolitics.