Special session 14:
Consumption, the city and the digital

For the last decades, it has become commonplace that frame digitalization as a challenge or a threat to urban retail and services. Since the turn of the century, the emergence and increasing market share of digital retailers has been perceived as a threat that could lead to the decline of urban shopping districts, as consumers have more and more options to acquire products and services online without having to visit a physical store. However, notwithstanding the deep transformations that occurred in urban retail and services in the last three decades, many of which indeed fueled by the impact of digital tools, it must be underlined that urban retail and services remain a crucial element of the urban fabric, even after more than thirty years after the birth of the world wide web. 

Nevertheless, the digital economy is profoundly reshaping the connection between city dwellers and urban space, impacting not only economic vitality but also social cohesion and inclusion. Retail digitalization is creating divides among urban entrepreneurs and between consumption spaces in the city, as some actors and spaces engage more deeply with digital tools while others remain mostly analogic. Therefore, it is crucial to examine how digital tools are transforming the city by shaping consumption activities. 

With this in mind, this session welcomes papers addressing the digitalization of consumption in the city, including, but not limited to:
-    Retail digitalization policies and strategies;
-    Consumption as a tool for digital placemaking;
-    E-Commerce vs the High Street: implementation of multichannel and omnichannel business models;
-    The platformization of consumption and retail in the city;
-    Gamification and urban consumption;
-    Automatic consumption: AI, algorithms and automation in urban retail and services;
-    Extended reality and new trends in urban phygitalization;
-    Entanglements between labor and consumption in the gig economy.