Index
About the Project
Aims of the Project
This project, funded through the Australian Research Council Discovery-Projects scheme, is an investigation of contemporary critiques of Western consumption emanating from within Western societies themselves. Divided into three interconnecting research themes and stages, the project involves a selective review and analysis of recent media and public intellectual commentary in the West on the consequences of consumption, a brief documentation and critical discussion of recent ‘anti-consumption’ activism in Europe, North America and Australasia, and a detailed, Australian-based ethnographic exploration of how people think about and negotiate material cultures and the contemporary ethos of materialism.
An international focus characterises the first two of these themes, with attention being given to the global nature of contemporary ‘anti-consumption activism’ and the equally international nature of contemporary media and public intellectual commentary on Western consumerism and overconsumption. Nevertheless, the study is also firmly grounded in the Australian context, liberally utilising Australian material and examples, especially in relation to the third research focus on everyday consumption activities. In this manner, the study seeks to acknowledge the inescapably global nature of consumption and its critique, while continuing to offer an analysis grounded in the local and the national.
Cognisant of what can, arguably, be described as a re-emerging and strengthening political critique of Western consumption over the last decade or so, this project seeks to critically engage with an array of pressing questions: what is the contemporary extent and nature of consumption and consumer cultures in Western countries such as Australia; why has the past decade in particular seen the emergence (or re-emergence) of a more vigorous public intellectual and social movement critique of consumption and of corporate/retailing practices; what has been the nature and political/social impact of this critique and of a so called ‘anti-consumption’ activism; what is the meaning and theoretical underpinning of anti-consumerism and the accompanying concept of overconsumption; and lastly (though by no means least), to what extent and in what ways have people in their everyday life recently sought to resist the imperative to consume and limit their engagement with the consumer marketplace?
In exploring these and related questions, this study aims to provide a thoroughly researched investigation of a central but neglected aspect of contemporary Western consumption; its political critique and its partial rejection, rather than unreflective celebration, within contemporary popular culture.
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The Literature
Over the past two decades or so the academic analysis of consumption and consumer cultures within Western societies has both transformed and burgeoned. Over this period there has been a proliferation of published studies on aspects of consumption drawing on perspectives within cultural studies, history, sociology, anthropology and human geography (see Miller 1995 for a review of much of this material). The number of book-length studies now available on an international scale is far too numerous to review. Nevertheless, notable work, restricted simply to the last decade, includes; Brewer and Porter (1993), Strasser et.al. (1998) and Bowlby (2000) on the history of consumption, Miller (1998 and 2001) on the anthropology of contemporary shopping, Mort (1996) and Scanlon (2000) on consumption and gender, Nava, Richards and Macrury (1997) on advertising and consumption, Shields (1992), Falk and Campbell (1997) and Mackay (1997) on the shopping experience and everyday life, Howes (1996) on cross-cultural consumption and globalisation, and Corrigan (1997) and Ritzer (1999) on the sociology of consumption and consumerism. Published also have been a number of generalist collections and survey texts such as Lury (1996), Slater (1996), Miles (1998), Edwards (2000) and Gotdiener (2000). Although diverse in the degree to which they critique consumption practices and cultures, these texts are at least united in challenging earlier conceptualisations of consumption as a socially unimportant and mindless activity.
This same interest in taking consumption seriously as a subject of historical and social investigation has been reflected in Australian work, particularly during the 1990s. In terms of book-length studies, Australian writers have examined the rise of consumer society (Whitwell 1989), surveyed the history of retailing and shopping (Pollon 1989; Kingston 1994), explored the emergence and gender dynamics of the department store (Reekie 1993), and traced the ‘modernisation’ of everyday shopping in Australia through economic and cultural spaces such as the supermarket (Humphery 1998). To this list, should be added further work undertaken by Australian writers especially within the disciplinary area of cultural studies which, while not always entirely focused on consumption, relates closely to its analysis. In this regard, one could cite the work of Frow and Morris (1993), Frow (1997), Morris (1998) and Bennett, Emmison and Frow (1999).
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Current Directions in Researching Consumption
The study proposed here builds on this Australian and overseas work, while aiming also to extend and move beyond it. In doing so, this project follows the lead of some of the most recent international and interdisciplinary scholarship which has sought to deepen and, to some extent, politically redirect the contemporary analysis of Western consumer cultures. While the study of consumption has now arisen on an international scale, it has arguably done so with mixed results. While much of the work undertaken on consumption over the last two decades has been of interest and of a high standard, it has been delimited also by a preoccupation with certain dominant themes; most notably an ongoing ‘argument’ with past theorisations of consumption and a focus on the perceived impact of consumption on both personal identity and First World cultures of modernity and postmodernity. We do not wish to decry or dismiss these concerns. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that the recent upsurge of interest in studying consumption has inevitably privileged certain ways of looking at the phenomenon, particularly those that concentrate on consumption as everyday social practice. In doing so, attention has been drawn away from tackling a number of issues; most notably the need to develop a politics of consumption that continues to explore and discuss the broad social, cultural and environmental impact of ‘consumerism’ on a national and global scale. Equally, further attention needs to be given to the manner in which people both participate within consumer cultures and seek an ‘outside’; a social space not embroiled in market relationships.
Over the past three or four years the analysis of consumption has increasingly grappled with some of these broader issues, particularly within the realm of public intellectual and popular critique. The work of Klein (2001) is the pre-eminent example, but underneath this is an array of publications, including scholarly texts, on the culture and politics of consumption, consumerism and ‘overconsumption’. This work, sometimes dubbed ‘new critiques of consumer society’ includes Schor (1999), Schor and Holt (2000), Harris (2001), and De Graff et al (2001) to name only a few. In Australia, a renewed critique of consumerism and overconsumption is evident as well in the work of McQueen (2001) and Hamilton (2002).
As yet, this ‘new critique’ of consumption is somewhat nascent and its links, for example, to the critique of overconsumption and theorisations of sustainability within the environmentalist literature are relatively unexplored. Nevertheless, it is deeply connected to a related research focus on anti-consumption and what has been called (all too jargonistically) ‘downshifting’. As marketing experts have themselves realised over the past few years a significant number of ‘consumers’ within Western economies are increasingly becoming either politically opposed to consumerism or, more widely, seeking to pursue a less consumption-oriented life. Once again, this assumed shift is emergent, but strong enough for the marketing industry itself to begin researching ‘anti-consumption attitudes’ (Zavestoski 2002) and for a ‘downshifting’ and ‘simple living’ movement to gain momentum (Schor 1999). Once again, an emerging research interest in this area is evident in Australia as well (Hamilton and Mail 2003).
Beyond the downshifting fringes, however, people generally - as is evident in the work of Lunt & Livingstone (1992) and Humphery (1998) - seek to limit their engagement with the market. The critique of consumption at an everyday level thus exists on a continuum, with few people evidently accepting ‘consumerism’ as definitive of life.
It is evident; then, that the contemporary academic analysis of consumption is undergoing some sort of intellectual ‘rethink’ with increasing emphasis now being placed on further developing a social analysis and political critique of Western consumption practices and levels. The Anti-Consumerism in the Contemporary West project is part of this intellectual shift.
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Outcomes of the Project
Aside from a number of academic outcomes, this project aims to foster further public debate on the issues encompassed by the terms consumerism and overconsumption. While a book-length study will thus emerge from the project, the researchers are also focused on quickly disseminating information on the findings as the research unfolds. To this end, the project website will be regularly updated with the eventual addition of publications based on the research. The website will also be used to facilitate contact between people (within academia and elsewhere) working on consumption, overconsumption, sustainable consumption and related themes. Finally, the project researchers are working towards organising a major conference on the themes of overconsumption/anti-consumerism in late-2006/early-2007.
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References
Bennett, Tony, Emmison, Michael and Frow, John (1999), Accounting for Tastes: Australian Everyday Cultures, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Bowlby, Rachel (2000) Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping, Faber, London.
Brewer, John and Porter, Roy (eds) (1993) Consumption and the World of Goods, Routledge, London.
Corrigan, Peter (1997) The Sociology of Consumption, Sage, London.
De Graff, John, Wann, David, Naylor, Thomas H. (2001) Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, Barrett-Koehler, San Francisco.
Edwards, Tim (2000) Contradictions of Consumption: Concepts, Practices and Politics in Consumer Society, Open University Press, Buckingham.
Falk, Pasi and Campbell, Colin (eds) (1997) The Shopping Experience, Sage/Theory, Culture and Society, London.
Frank, Thomas (2001), One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism and the End of Economic Democracy, Anchor, New York.
Frow, John and Morris, Meaghan (eds) (1993) Australian Cultural Studies: A Reader, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Frow, John (1997) Time and Commodity Culture: Essays on Cultural Theory and Postmodernity, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Gottdiener Mark (ed) (2000) New Forms of Consumption: Consumers, Culture and Commodification, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham.
Hamilton, Clive (2002) Overconsumption in Australia: The Rise of the Middle-Class Battler, Discussion Paper No.49, The Australia Institute, Canberra.
Hamilton, Clive and Mail, Elizabeth (2003) Downshifting in Australia: A Sea-Change in the Pursuit of Happiness, Discussion Paper No.50, the Australia Institute, Canberra.
Harris, Daniel (2001) Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism, Da Capo Press, Cambridge MA.
Howes, David (1996) Cross-Cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities, Routledge, London and New York.
Humphery, Kim (1998), Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Kasser, Tim (2002) The High Price of Materialism, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
Kingston, Beverley (1994), Basket, Bag and Trolley: A History of Shopping in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Klein, Naomi (2001) No Logo, Flamingo, London.
Lunt, Peter, K. and Liningstone, Sonia, M. (1992) Mass Consumption and Personal Identity, Open University Press, Buckingham.
Lury, Celia (1996) Consumer Culture, Polity, Cambridge.
McQueen, Humphrey (2001) The Essence of Capitalism: The Origins of Our Future, Sceptre, Sydney.
Miles, Steve (1998) Consumerism: As a Way of Life, Sage, London.
Mackay, Hugh (ed) (1997), Consumption and Everyday Life, Sage, London.
Miller, Daniel (1995) Acknowledging Consumption: A Review of New Studies, Routledge, London.
Miller, Daniel (1998) A Theory of Shopping, Polity, Cambridge.
Miller, Daniel (2001) The Dialectics of Shopping, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Morris, Meaghan (1998) Too Soon Too Late: History in Popular Culture, Indiana University Press.
Mort, Frank (1996) Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth-Century Britain, Routledge, London.
Nava, Mica, Richards, Barry and Macrury, Iain (eds), Buy This Book: Advertising and Consumption, Routledge, London
Pollon, Frances (1989) Shopkeepers and Shoppers: A Social History of Retailing in New South Wales from 1788, Retail Traders’ Association of New South Wales, Sydney.
Reekie, Gail (1993) Temptations: Sex, Selling and the Department Store, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Ritzer, George (1999) Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks.
Saul, John Ralston (1997), The Unconscious Civilization, Penguin, Melbourne.
Scanlon, Jennifer (ed) (2000), The Gender and Consumer Culture Reader, New York University Press, New York.
Schor, Juliet B. (1999) The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need, Harper Collins, New York.
Schor, Juliet B. and Holt, Douglas B. (eds) (2000) The Consumer Society Reader, New Press
Shields, Rob (ed) (1992) Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption, Routledge, London.
Slater, Don (1996) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Polity, Cambridge.
Strasser, Susan, McGovern, Charles, Judt, Matthias and Mattern, Daniel (eds) (1998), Getting and Spending American and European Consumer Society in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, New York.
United Nations, Economic and Social Council (2001) Changing Consumption Patterns: Report of the Secretary General, Committee on Sustainable Development, E/cn.17/2001/PC/18.
Whitwell, Greg (1989) Making the Market: The Rise of Consumer Society, McPhee Gribble, Melbourne.
Zavestoski, Stephen (ed) (2002) Anti-Consumption Attitudes: Psychology & Marketing, Special Issue, Wiley, New York.
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