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Since the 1970s, upscale restaurants, cafés, and stores have emerged as highly visible signs of gentrification in many urban areas. Taking Harlem and Williamsburg as field sites in New York City, we explore through data on changing composition of retail and services (1979-2006), interviews with store owners, and discursive analysis of print media the role of this type of commercial capital as an agent of urban change. We find that the media, city and state government, and quasi-public organizations (in the case of Harlem) have valued small upscale retail businesses, along with other forms of entrepreneurial capital, as symbols and agents of revitalization. This reinforces the official rhetoric of market-led growth. But the "boutiquing" of urban areas worsens problems of residential displacement, the lack of affordable housing in booming property markets, and maintaining neighborhood stability and diversity. Although boutiques don't cause gentrification, and may tap even into a neighborhood's social capital, they deprive low-income residents of means of support. Surprisingly, the "better world" envisioned in the annual meeting's call demands that we pay attention to urban shopping opportunities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of mass media render the discursive power of advertisements as sites of identity construction reflecting cultural hegemony. Using ethnographic content analysis, this study explores the production of Queer identity through the political economy of print advertisements in the Advocate and Curve from 2000-2002. Over 1,000 advertisements were examined based on three schematic themes: race, sex and gender, relationship and children, and textual messages. Men are more likely than women to be portrayed within gender normative scripts in relation to their status as the ideal representation of the Queer niche market. As compared to Caucasians, African Americans are branded through restricted representation by visibility, product type, and sexual appeal. Furthermore, advertisements reveal a cooptation of language for political rights. The findings show evidence that support the role of niche marketing in the commodification and homogenization of Queer identity in consumer society privileging hegemony within a politically marginalized group. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]