The spatiality of specialty coffee bars and the cognitive-cultural economy in Amsterdam

Economic restructuring has led to the emergence of new socio-economic arrangements in cities based on the cognitive-cultural economy. Furthermore, the arrival of new middle classes in inner-cities has contributed to a renaissance of interest in urban culture and new consumption spaces. Focusing on specialty coffee bars (SCBs), the study explores their spatial patterns and spatial distributions in Amsterdam in order to find the spatial correlations between new urban consumption spaces and their locational economic strategies in terms of the cognitive-cultural opportunities. By employing geographic information system (GIS), the findings suggest a positive spatial correlation between urban areas involved in the cognitive-cultural economy and the concentration of SCBs. Although the argued correlation does not imply causation, it provides distinct insights related to the interconnectedness of new urban consumption spaces and their contextual urban economy. The paper also slightly touches upon some of the capabilities of GIS in the field of urban studies and poses some questions for further investigations