As our world changes, there seems to be less and less places where people come together physically. However, our needs for these places do not diminish, as seen in places like farmers’ markets, public libraries, neighborhood parks, and flea markets. I find this last locale, a flea market, unique among places where everyday people physically interact. In particular, I wanted to look at Chicago area flea markets because I wonder about how others who are intimately connected to them regard the markets as physical communal spaces, the term I am giving these kinds of spaces within community.
I seek to address the following question: How do vendors and visitors interpret the flea market as a space of community through thought and action? At the New Maxwell Street Market and the Ashland Swap-O-Rama, both established Chicago flea markets, I will conduct field observations and capture photographs and sounds as artifacts in addition to beginning interviews. My goal is to see how individuals, who have ongoing relationships with the market, interpret it as a place of community. What is meaningful about those spaces? What needs does it meet in their lives? The responses and observations from my work will connect to bigger ideas about where community happens and the importance of communal spaces for us all.
The central question of my study is: how do others interpret the flea market as an important part of their community? Along with this question, I am wondering what kind of meaning making occurs for those who have an extended relationship with these spaces. Just as we look at the curriculum of schools to see how it impacts the life of a student on an economic, political, and too rarely personal level, we can look at other sources and kinds of learning – other curricula. What is the curriculum of a Chicago flea market? What does it teach those who visit once, and those who have gone for years or even decades? What kind of learning occurs there that impacts how participants then live their lives? With the findings, maybe we can have a clearer understanding of what kinds of spaces are missing from the acquisitive, contemporary world in which we all live in hopes it will inform our approaches towards building stronger communities.
