A shopping center is simply a single building or collection of buildings containing multiple retail units. Strictly speaking this can be either a wholly planned center developed all at once and owned and operated under a single management (e.g., a shopping mall), or a semicohesive shopping area that has evolved over time, such as a town or neighborhood center. Technically, shopping malls are usually enclosed, whereas shopping centers are open. Because most of the interest in urban studies regards the planned type, this will receive most of the attention here. The literature on planned shopping centers is not central to one area of study but is spread out over a wide variety of disciplines and professions, depending on the object and method of inquiry. Economics ...