Selecting our case-study markets

A major focal point for our research project will be a series of large-scale surveys conducted at three UK markets, selected as case-studies. Here, we'll be asking market users about their experiences of shopping in their local market, about how and why shop there, and also seeking their views on how their market benefits the community. As a follow-up activity, we will then invite a number of survey respondents from each market to take part in an informal focus group, to enrich our understanding of the survey responses.

We hope to use Queen's Market in the London Borough of Newham as the first of our case-studies. This market is at the centre of an ethnically diverse neighbourhood, where a vibrant community group, Friends of Queens Market, led a campaign 10 years ago to stop to its demolition, but its future is remains uncertain, as members of our research team have observed.

We are currently busy gathering information about other markets on our shortlist though telephone conversations and site visits, chatting to traders and operators about daily life within the market and issues which are likely to affect it over the next two years, such as planned regeneration. Through our final selection (in the coming weeks) we hope to pave the way for gathering rich and complex data about the variety of ways in which different groups use traditional markets in the UK.