Consumerism and Society

1
Consumerism and Society
2

• Consumerism seems to us a wholly natural way of
  life
• But it is not natural it is a relatively
  recent social invention
• Why did it appear?
• What does it involve?
• How is it changing now and in the future?

3
Lecture Contents

• What is consumerism consumption?
• History of consumption
• Effects on society negative?
• Effects on society neutral?
• Globalization of consumerism
• Effects negative?
• Effects complex?

4
What Is Consumerism?

• The cultural dominance, in modern capitalist
  societies, of an orientation to the marketing and
  consumption of goods
• and services
• (Collins Dictionary
• of Sociology)

5
What Is Consumerism?

• A specific set of beliefs, values and ways of
  acting that are based on
• 1) the idea that consuming goods is both natural
  and beneficial (for society and the individual)
• 2) the idea that potentially EVERYTHING can
  be sold and can be bought with money

6
What Is Consumption?

• Mike Featherstone (1990)
• Consumption of consumer goods in contemporary
  society
• A key stimulus for production in the capitalist
  economy
• A key inducement for workers to work
• A major source of social status
• A major source of aspirations and pleasures

7
History of Consumption

• Consumption is not totally new
• Leisure classes
• Thorstein Veblen 1899
• Aristocracies
• Vast wealth
• Large amounts of leisure time
• Consumption as a way of life
• e.g. Roman empire
• foreign foods and spices, exotic pets
• Conspicuous consumption

8

• Consumerism IS new
• From about 1750
• In the most advanced capitalist
• countries e.g. UK, Holland
• Product of the rise of the
• capitalist economy
• Not just leisure classes
• middle classes, then working classes
• ? EVERY individual is / can be a consumer

9

• Early consumerism
• Early Modernity
• Middle classes in
• Late 18th century
• Holland Britain
• Developing market in
• Household furnishings
• e.g. paintings, prints
• Personal ornaments
• e.g. gloves, umbrellas
• Stimulants coffee, tea, tobacco, chocolate

10

• A consumer society - MASS Consumption
• High Modernity
• Middle classes from about 1860s
• Increasing wealth ? more money to
• spend on consumer goods
• Working classes
• Increasing wealth
• Higher aspirations
• in USA from 1920s
• in Western Europe from 1945

11

• What did the development of MASS consumption
  involve?
• 1) Further development of the capitalist economy
• Development of production lines
• Mass production of consumer goods
• Mass-produced goods are cheap to make
• Can be sold to a broad mass of people
• Still make profits for the company

12

• 2) Increasing social importance of commodities
• Karl Marx (1860s)
• Commodity an object sold for money in a
  capitalist market
• Commodification (commercialization)
• - Objects turning an object into a commodity
  i.e. turning it into a thing to be sold for money
• Social spheres turning a social sphere into a
  realm where objects have a monetary value can
  be bought and sold
• e.g. prostitution

13

• Commercialization of social spheres
• Christmas celebrations
• - Traditional Christmas celebrations invented
  c. 1860s
• Gift-giving becomes wholly bound
• up with consumer economy
• Some traditional Christmas
• symbols are invented by advertisers
• Christmas invaded by consumerism?
• Christmas invented by consumerism

14

• 3) Developing social importance of money
• Georg Simmel (1900)
• Money is not just a means of
• buying things
• It encourages a particular way of
• seeing the world
• EVERYTHING has a monetary value
• EVERYTHING can be bought and sold

15

• EVERYTHING can be consumed
• Individual strongly encouraged to
• see themselves as a consumer
• see the world as one giant shop

16

• The appearance of the sovereign consumer
• A new kind of individual
• With a new way of thinking
• Someone who is wholly free to purchase what they
  please
• They can potentially purchase ANYTHING (as long
  as they have enough money)
• They gain their main pleasure
• in life from consuming
• d) Free of all obligations or restrictions
• - except to keep on consuming constantly

17

• 4) Development of consumer credit
• Borrowing money to buy goods NOW
• Paying back LATER
• From 1920s (esp. in USA) financial institutions
  offer cheap loans and credit cards
• Beginning of department store credit facilities

18

• 5) Development of consumer places
• Arcades
• From about 1870s
• Passageways with small, exclusive shops
• Covered, lighted, heated, patrolled
• The shopping mall
• USA, 1950s onwards

19

• The department store
• - From about 1870s
• Covered, lighted, heated, patrolled
• Goods on display not hidden away
• Spectacular window displays
• Elaborate décor
• Encourage fantasies aspirations
• Particularly aimed at women
• - Female is naturally a consumer

20

• Late Modernity
• Later 20th century
• Move away from purely mass
• production of goods
• More sophisticated technology
• Flexible production
• Rapid design and manufacturing of new goods
• Specialist goods for niche markets
• ? Multiple types of consumer
• ? Multiple lifestyles

21
Summary So Far

• Consumption has a long history BUT
• Consumerism is a modern phenomenon
• Early modernity beginnings of consumerism
• High Modernity mass consumption / consumerism
• Late Modernity flexible production away from
  mass consumption multiple consumption-based
  lifestyles

22
Effects on Society Negative?

• Criticisms of consumerism have existed since it
  began
• Superficial / trivial
• Manipulation

23

• The Frankfurt School
• Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse
• Writing from 1930s to 1960s
• Marxist analysis of
• consumer capitalism

24

• Capitalism requires constant consumption
• FORCES individuals to be consumers
• Manipulation through advertising
• - false needs
• false promises
• constant feelings of insecurity
• Constant consumption
• Imprisonment

25
Effects on Society Negative?

• Roland Barthes
• (France - 1950s)
• How advertising works
• No object has an intrinsic or natural meaning
• Society defines meaning

26

• No consumer good has an intrinsic or natural
  meaning
• Meanings attached by advertising agencies
• e.g. champagne a celebration
• e.g. cigarettes cool
• e.g. car individual freedom

27

• Advertising agencies
• Attempting to fix meanings
• Attempting to guide
• consumers thinking
• Mostly sub-conscious
• Encouraged to keep consuming

28
Effects on Society Neutral?

• Negative views assume
• Individuals wholly open to manipulation
• Individuals unthinking and uncritical
• Advertising strategies
• always work
• Michael Schudson 40 to 60 of new products fail

29

• Michel de Certeau
• (France 1980s)
• Individuals are never just consumers
• Creative consumption

30

• Advertising not necessarily effective
• Advertisers TRY to fix goods with particular
  meanings
• But
• - not necessarily accepted
• - meaning depends on what social group individual
  belongs to
• Relevance

31

• Critical and reflective consumers
• Use consumption for their own purposes
• Difficult to control

32
Globalization of Consumerism

• Later 19th century
• Consumer economy spreads from Europe to colonies
  e.g. Australia, New Zealand
• After 1945
• Consumer economy spreads throughout non-communist
  world

33

• After 1989
• Fall of the Berlin Wall
• World-wide presence
• Rising economies China, India
• Appearance of new middle classes
• But the spread is uneven
• e.g. many parts of Africa

34

• Since 1970s
• The rise of global brands
• Western-based
• Trans-National Corporations (TNCs)

35

• George Ritzer
• Globalization of non-things
• e.g. fast food, cars, watches, credit cards etc.
• Bland relatively
• free of content or meaning
• - Not unique to, or embedded within, any
  particular culture
• Easily understood everywhere
• ? can be consumed anywhere

36

• Marc Augé
• Non-spaces
• Airport lounges, shopping malls, supermarkets,
  etc.
• Since 1960s, globalization of anonymous style of
  architecture
• Same architecture everywhere
• Global spatial homogenization
• Global predictability

37
Globalization of consumerism negative effects?

• Activities of trans-national corporations (TNCs)
  e.g. Coca-Cola, Nike, McDonalds, etc.
• Western imperialism
• Coca-colonization
• (Ulf Hannerz)
• From direct political control
• to indirect economic control

38

• Jeremy Seabrook
• Destruction of local cultures and traditions
• Replaced with Western / American values
• Multi-million advertising industry inculcates
• false needs and desires
• ? Global cultural homogenization

39
Globalization of consumerism complex effects?

• 1) Negotiating consumption
• Does not necessarily mean accepting Western
  values
• Consumer goods accommodated by local cultures
• James Watson,
• Golden Arches East
• East Asia - Korea, Taiwan
• McDonalds as leisure centre

40

• 2) Creolization / Hybridization
• - Mixing of global and local cultural elements
• Rick Fantasia
• French fast food
• Global local inseparable
• Uri Ram
• - Israeli fast food
• Homogenization institutions
• Complexity ideas values

41

• 3) Reverse cultural flows
• From East to West
• e.g. Bollywood films,
• Japanese anime
• From South to North
• e.g. Latino music in US
• ? Consumer culture complexification

42

• 4) Local resistance to globalization
• of consumerism
• - Globalization of consumerism encourages
  resistance to itself
• e.g. Slow Food movement Italy
• Eating slowly
• Defending local, regional national food styles
• Globalization of consumerism
• ? self-conscious cultural localization

43

• 5) Globalization of anti-consumerism
• Part of broader
• anti-globalization
• (anti-capitalist) movement
• Direct protests and media publicity
• Growing popular literature
• e.g. Naomi Klein No Logo

44
Issues

• Consumerism is totalitarian?
• (OR Consumption is complex creative consumer)
• Consumerism is unstoppable on a planet-wide
  basis?
• (OR Consumption is complex mixtures of global
  and local)
• Consumerism is self-limiting?
• ? Produces resistance to itself