Educational Quest: An Int. J. of Education and Applied Social Sciences Vol 7 l Issue 3 l December 2016 191 Access this article online Publisher Website: http://www.ndpublisher.in DOI: 10.5958/2230-7311.2016.00039.8 Address for correspondence Department of Sociology, UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, BPS Women University, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, HR, India E-mail: rani.jnu@gmail.com Global Cultures of Consumption and the Suburb: A Study of Changing Cultural Geography of three Urban Villages of South Delhi Rani Tokas Department of Sociology, UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, BPS Women University, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, HR, India ABSTRACT The study atempts an understanding of the impact of the global on the local taking space as a mediator. Using a constructivist perspective it utilizes the already existing rich literature in cultural geography and documents re-negotiation of identities with the restructuring of the social and cultural universe of three villages of South Delhi. It proceeds through analysis of narratives obtained from inhabitants of the villages as well as from participants in the process of these inhabitants’ interface with the changing architectural and cultural landscape around their habitat. The arrival of consumerist cultures, media convergence and a world of hyper reality in the post-globalisation phase has given rise to deep conficts and identity strain for these tradition bound village dwellers. In its fnal analysis, the paper highlights unique adaptive mechanism resorted to by those impacted with new currents of change and transition. Keywords: Culture, Identity, Space, Consumerism, Malls, Cultural Geography The idea for this study germinated in my mind when I heard from a friend that people in Munirka (a village in south Delhi) call it a ‘mini-America.’ It was then that the ‘space’ metaphor struck me. As the original inhabitants of Munirka mostly have a rent-economy, space is a very powerful mediator in their lives. There has been an emergence of new utilities in the suburb in the form of business-centres, malls, hospitals, fyovers, a multiplex, restaurants, private school, business management institutes etc. It is perhaps the impact of these coupled with the arrival of global consumerist cultures that the image of America comes to the mind of Munirka’s inhabitants. This can also be seen as a process of identity re-negotiation in a symbolic space. It was Alfred Kroeber who defned ‘culture areas’ as geographical regions sharing particular distribution of cultural traits. Also in his atempt to understand and conceptualise culture, Kroeber studied the ways of mapping associations of cultural traits, the