Refashioning movement through material and digital adaptations in Edinburgh’s independent retail sector
Covid Arcadia is a project documenting and analysing responses to the restrictions brought in by local businesses in Edinburgh as a result of the Covid-19 national lockdown. The project mapped retailers’ digital and material adaptations to create a moving archive, and play findings back to the businesses themselves to help them innovate in a resilient way.
The project used digital ethnographic methods to track patterns of endurance and recovery among independent retailers in Edinburgh. Physical changes which allowed retailers to continue trading, such as the use of perspex screens and social distancing were documented, while also looking at how the relationship of those businesses to their customers changed through the use of digital platforms, such as social media.
