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Consumer Culture (consumer + culture)
Selected AbstractsUseless Subjects: Reading and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century GermanyTHE GERMAN QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2007Matt Erlin First page of article [source] The Cut of His Coat: Men, Dress, and Consumer Culture in Britain, 1860,1914 , By Brent ShannonTHE HISTORIAN, Issue 3 2008Debra N. Mancoff No abstract is available for this article. [source] The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s,1920s by Liette GidlowTHE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 2 2007Jamie Mayhew Bufalino No abstract is available for this article. [source] Art in the Parlor: Consumer Culture and Currier and IvesTHE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 1 2007Bryan F. Le Beau First page of article [source] Manufacturing the Muse: Estey Organs & Consumer Culture in Victorian AmericaTHE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 2 2005Bruce Cohen No abstract is available for this article. [source] Products of the Imagination: Mining, Luxury, and the Romantic Artist in Heinrich von OfterdingenGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2007Matt Erlin ABSTRACT Scholars have long been interested in the relationship between capitalism and early romantic aesthetics. The following investigation offers a fresh perspective on this topic through a reconsideration of the figure of the miner and the representation of mining in Friedrich von Hardenberg's Heinrich von Ofterdingen. Rather than elucidating this representation on the basis of general concepts like alienation and instrumental rationality, as has often been the case, the essay situates mining within the context of the wide-ranging late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century debates about luxury. When contextualised along these lines, it becomes clear that Hardenberg's representation of mining is best understood as part of an effort to defend the legitimacy of literature, especially the still fragile legitimacy of the novel. Re-framing the representation of mining in the work in this way also necessitates a re-evaluation of other key aspects of the novel, most significantly, its negotiation with processes of economic modernisation and especially its stance toward an incipient consumer culture in which reading and literature play a paradigmatic role. [source] Not playing around: global capitalism, modern sport and consumer cultureGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2007BARRY SMART Abstract The development of modern sport is bound up with processes of economic and cultural transformation associated with the global diffusion of capitalist forms of consumption. In this article I draw attention to aspects of the globalization of modern sport that were becoming apparent towards the close of the nineteenth century and then move on to consider the factors that contributed to sport becoming a truly global phenomenon in the course of the twentieth century. Consideration is given to the development of international sport and sports goods companies, the growth in media interest and the increasing significance of sponsorship, consumer culture and sporting celebrities. The global diffusion of modern sport that gathered momentum in the course of the twentieth century involved a number of networked elements, including transnational communications media and commercial corporations for which sport, especially through the iconic figure of the transnational celebrity sport star, constitutes a universally appealing globally networked cultural form. Association with sport events and sporting figures through global broadcasting, sponsorship and endorsement arrangements offers commercial corporations unique access to global consumer culture. [source] Doing sensory ethnography in consumer researchINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 4 2010Anu Valtonen Abstract This paper is a contribution to sensory-aware cultural consumer research. It suggests that while the audio-visual domain is unquestionably a crucial ingredient of contemporary consumer culture, there is a pressing need to explore the role of the other senses as well. The study works towards a practice-based culturalist approach to sensory ethnography, a perspective that allows consumer scholars to empirically account for the cultural aspects of the senses. Through an empirical case study on sport fishing, the paper scrutinizes the challenges and opportunities related to conducting sensory ethnography. In addition, it discusses the benefits of this approach in consumer research. [source] Voluntary simplicity: an exploration of market interactionsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 2 2009Deirdre Shaw Abstract Voluntary simplicity is often considered to be a sustainable lifestyle phenomenon buttressed by environment-friendly consumption practices. Voluntary simplicity is shaped by the individual as well as the society, and marketplace interactions often impact voluntarily simplified approaches to consumption. Pertinent, therefore, is a consideration of how voluntary simplifiers negotiate the tensions between marketplace interactions and decisions (not) to consume, as the exploration of interactions between consumption and non-consumption choices has relevant implications for the advancement of sustainable consumption. Specifically, we seek to answer the following question: how have voluntary simplifiers in a rural context negotiated the relationship between voluntary simplicity and market-based (non-) consumption? This paper reports on a study of 28 rural voluntary simplifiers to explore the intersections between voluntary simplicity and rural markets. Findings highlight the convoluted nature and the multiple manifestations of voluntary simplicity, while the rural context allows an exploration of such tensions in relation to individual voluntary simplicity, local economy, supermarkets, fair trade and consumer culture. [source] Money Attitudes, Credit Card Use, and Compulsive Buying among American College StudentsJOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2001JAMES A. ROBERTS The consumer culture has evolved into one of the most powerful forces shaping individuals and societies (Roberts and Sepulveda 1999 a, b). The desire to become a member of the consumer culture appears to be universal (Droge and Mackoy 1995). Changing attitudes toward money are an important catalyst behind the spread of the consumer culture. Money is important,especially to American college students who have been raised in a credit card society where debt is used freely (Ritzer 1995). Schor (1998) believes that access to easy credit is one of the causes of overspending. Using a causal modeling approach, the present study investigated the role money attitudes and credit card use play in compulsive buying within a sample of American college students (see Figure 1). Findings suggest that the money attitudes powerprestige, distrust, and anxiety (Yamauchi and Templer 1982) are closely related to compulsive buying and that credit card use often moderates these relationships. Study results have important public policy, marketing, and research implications. [source] Consuming Projects in Uncertain Times: Making Selves in the Galilee1JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 3 2003TANIA FORTE This article proposes a different approach. It explores how ordinary people, through projects of their own which exhibit particular forms of intentional cultural production and consumption, manifest historically situated notions of selves. I use the idea of "projects" to understand the interconnections between global consumer culture, identity, and nationalism as they are manifested in the everyday lives of Palestinian citizens of Israel. To exemplify these interconnections, I focus on two significant, creative projects through which Palestinian inhabitants of the Western Galilee shape and manifest selves in history. Though these projects appear very different on the surface, they are used to address the same central question , that is, to understand how senses of self in history and attending identities are materially and discursively constituted by members of a national minority in the ever-present context of political conflict. They show that people are not passive consumers of homogenizing rituals and discourse and reveal how, through a bricolage of objects and ideas, people inscribe intentions, meanings, ways of thinking, and self-narration in places and histories. [source] The impact of branding on low-income adolescents: A vicious cycle?PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 11 2008Katja Jezkova Isaksen This study examines the impact of consumerism and consumer culture on low-income British adolescents. Specifically, it investigates the effects of branding and advertising on the formation of selfconcept clarity (SCC) and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII). A comparative study was conducted between two groups, low- and high-income teenagers, assessing SCC and CSII by means of quantitative scales. It was found that low-income teenagers are less clear in their self-concept and are more susceptible to interpersonal influence than their high-income counterparts. A significant negative correlation between the two scales revealed that the less clear one's self-concept is, the more susceptible one is to interpersonal influence. It is proposed that an inability to "keep up" with the latest fashion trends (due to restricted consumption opportunities) may result in a damaged self-concept among low-income teenagers, which leads to heightened susceptibility to consumption pressures and hence heightens the negative socio-psychological impacts of living in poverty. The results of the study are reviewed in terms of branding, advertising, and consumer behavior and a proposed conceptual model of branding's impact on low-income teenagers is presented as a "vicious cycle." © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The social,psychological bases of anticonsumption attitudesPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 2 2002Stephen Zavestoski This article proposes that the increasing number of individuals voluntarily reducing their levels of consumption may be motivated by underlying social,psychological stress related to living in a consumer society. Of the three primary motivational bases of the self (esteem, efficacy, and authenticity), it is argued that only self-esteem and self-efficacy can be acquired through consumption. The current growth of the voluntary simplicity movement, it is argued, is among those individuals who have met the need for esteem and efficacy through consumption, but have failed to achieve a sense of authenticity. Evidence from interviews with participants in the voluntary simplicity movement is presented in support of this proposition. Anticonsumption attitudes, it is concluded, result from a process of self-inquiry triggered by the failure to feel authentic through one's consumption activities. Implications of anticonsumption attitudes in reaction to consumer culture are discussed. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Narcissism: fragile bodies in a fragile world.PSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2008Part Abstract In this two-part paper, we explore how, in Western society, intensified consumer culture, playing on feelings of shame and inadequacy, can be seen as reactivating the ,narcissistic wound' while the recent growth of information technology increasingly provides access to a global spectacle and a virtual world that offer an escape from reality, fuelling the illusion of immortality and invulnerability to physical/emotional needs. We ask who benefits from this culture of unrelatedness and disembodiment and what are the repercussions in terms of participation in social life and organized response to global issues. Using material from our practices and from social life, we seek to identify the collective cost of maintaining a disassociation that can permeate not only the therapeutic process but also work, personal relationships and events on the political stage. We consider a view of Bush as a narcissistic president in a narcissistic culture with the Iraq war as a narcissistic misadventure, and we present vignettes from the consulting room, Dance Movement Therapy work in Holloway Prison, and the academic world of prehistoric archaeology to show how narcissistic behaviours are embedded in many diverse situations in Western society. We ask how the concept of narcissism in our media age can help us understand phenomena such as the rise of fundamentalism; celebrity cult; insatiable aspirations to ,self-improvement'; obsession with ,success' and consumer goodies; the denial of ageing; the upsurge in cosmetic surgery, body modification and self-harm; as well as growing addiction to alcohol and hard drugs. Finally we ask, how do the narcissistic fantasy of self-sufficiency, the disavowal of loss and the denial of the ultimate non-discursive reality of death affect our ability to respond appropriately to human injustice and the fragility of our planet? Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Figurational dynamics and parliamentary discourses of living standards in Ireland1THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Paddy Dolan Abstract While the concept of living standards remains central to political debate, it has become marginal in sociological research compared to the burgeoning attention given to the topic of consumer culture in recent decades. However, they both concern how one does and should consume, and, indeed, behave at particular times. I use the theories of Norbert Elias to explain the unplanned but structured (ordered) changes in expected standards of living over time. This figurational approach is compared to other alternative explanations, particularly those advanced by Bourdieu, Veblen and Baudrillard. Though these offer some parallels with Elias's theories, I argue that consumption standards are produced and transformed through the changing dependencies and power relations between social classes. They cannot be reduced to the intentions, interests or ambitions of particular elites, nor to the needs of social systems. Using qualitative data from parliamentary debates in Ireland to trace changing norms and ideals of consumption, as well as historical data to reconstruct shifts in social interdependencies, I further contend that discourses of living standards and luxury are vital aspects of the growing identification and empathy between classes, which in turn encourages greater global integration in the face of emigration and national decline. [source] Consumption and Standards of Living of the Quebec Inuit: Cultural Permanence and Discontinuities,CANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 2 2004MARCELLE CHABOT Cette étude examine les tendances récentes relatives aux pratiques économiques des Inuits du Nunavik (Québec, Canada). L'étude se fonde sur une caractérisation des transactions monétaires et non monétaires effectuées par un échantillon de 38 ménages inuit en 1995 Les résultats des analyses montrent que les Inuit sont fortement dépendants des produits manufacturés. L'élévation du revenu a permis la création d'un revenu discrétionnaire. Cependant, les analyses suggèrent que les conditions économiques actuelles réduisent l'expression des besoins et des aspirations purement individuelles et encouragent le maintien des normes de conduites traditionnelles. L'étude conclut que les conditions de vie matérielle et les valeurs se renforcent mutuellement pour freiner la diffusion de la culture de consommation. This study explores some recent trends in the economic practices of the Inuit of Nunavik (Quebec, Canada). It is based on a characterization of the monetary and non-monetary transactions made by a sample of 38 Inuit households in 1995 The analyses show that the Inuit are highly dependent on manufactured goods. The rise in income has allowed for more discretionary income; however, analyses suggest that current economic conditions place limitations on the development of individual wants and aspirations, as well as play a significant role in encouraging traditional norms of conduct. It is suggested that material conditions and values mutually reinforce one another to reduce the penetration of a consumer culture. [source] Local Culture in Global Media: Excavating Colonial and Material Discourses in National GeographicCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 3 2002Radhika Parameswaran This case study of National Geographic's August 1999 "millennium" issue interrogates the representational politics of the magazine's narratives on globalization. The essay's textual analysis, which is based in the insights of semiotic, feminist, and Marxist critiques of consumer culture, accounts for multiple media texts and historical contexts that filter the magazine's imagery. Drawing from postcolonial theories of gender, Orientalism, and nationalism, the analysis explores the disturbing ambivalence that permeates the Geographic's stories on global culture. Critiquing discourses of gender, the author shows that the magazine's interpretation of global culture is suffused with representations of femininity, masculinity, and race that subtly echo the Othering modalities of Euroamerican colonial discourses. This article undermines the Geographic's articulation of global culture, which addresses Asians only as modern consumers of global commodities, by questioning the invisibility of colonial history, labor, and global production in its narrative. The conclusion argues that the insights of postcolonial theories enable critics of globalization to challenge the subtle hegemony of modern neocolonial discursive regimes. [source] Organizational Challenges and Strategic Responses of Retail TNCs in Post-WTO-Entry ChinaECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2009Wance Tacconelli abstract In the context of a market characterized by the enduring legacy of socialism through governmental ownership of retail businesses, the continued presence of domestic retailers, and increasing levels of competition, this article examines the organizational challenges faced by, and the strategic responses adopted by, a group of leading food and general merchandise retail transnational corporations (TNCs) in developing networks of stores in the post-WTO-entry Chinese market. On the basis of extensive interview-based fieldwork conducted in China from 2006 to 2008, the article details the attempts of these retail TNCs to embed their operations in Chinese logistics and supply networks, real estate markets, and consumer cultures,three dimensions that are fundamental to the achievement of market competitiveness by the retail TNCs. The article illustrates how this process of territorial embeddedness presents major challenges for the retail TNCs and how their strategic responses vary substantially, indicating different routes to the achievement of organizational legitimacy in China. The article concludes by offering an analysis of the various strategic responses of the retail TNCs and by suggesting some future research propositions on the globalization of the retail industry. [source] | |||||||||||||