Consumerism reconsidered: Buying and power

Abstract

Consumerism has become a powerful and evocative symbol of contemporary capitalism and the modern Western world. Indeed, in the climate of 1991, faced by the crisis of the environment and the radical transformations in Eastern Europe, it is perhaps the most resonant symbol of all. Highly visible, its imagery permeates the physical and cultural territories it occupies. Modern identities and imaginations are knotted inextricably to it. This much is clear. However, intellectually and morally it has not been easy to make sense of, and troubling questions have been raised both for the left and for the right. Within the social sciences and cultural studies it has been a recurring concern, particularly since the consolidation of the consumer society in the aftermath of World War II, and investigations of it have spanned a range of disciplines and theoretical debates. It will not come as a surprise to hear that these accounts offer no consistent explanations or responses. Some authors have condemned consumerism, others have welcomed it. Less predictable, perhaps, is the conclusion that the different arguments are not easily categorized politically. In fact, theories about consumerism (they are of course not unique in this respect) appear to owe as much to the general cultural climate of their formation, to their intellectual genealogy and to personal disposition, as they do to a consistently worked out political critique. My project in this paper then is to trace the history of these different theorizations in order, first of all, to draw attention to the influence of the political and intellectual contexts from which they emerged, and secondly, to show how they in turn have shaped and placed limits on the way in which consumerism has subsequently been thought. More specifically, I want to show how, during the 1950s and 1960s, both Marxists and conservative critics expressed their condemnation of mass consumption in similarly elitist terms, and how, partly in reaction, this produced during the seventies and eighties a very different body of work in which the consumer and consumption are defended and even celebrated. I shall go on to argue that these very distinct

The Sustainability of “Sustainable Consumption”

“…The micro perspectives on consumer culture, particularly in audience research (Nava 1991), are limiting in the sense they follow the postmodern problem of concentrating on the present. These do not necessarily focus exclusively on the symbolic, but nevertheless espouse the power of the consumer to resist the preferred meanings of advertisers.…”

“…In other words, whether you see modern consumption as the materialization of social and symbolic structures, the effect of the ethic of the self, the manifestation of cultural values, the manipulation of advertising's captains of consciousness (Ewen 1976), or the opportunity for subversion and resistance to advertiser's preferred meanings (Nava 1991), consumption matters. To summarize, the ecological discourse of consumption underestimates the significance of consumption practices on a social and cultural level, and their historical development.…”

Existential consumption and irrational desire

“…In the Lacanian perspective there is a stress on the individual subject as being fragmented and incoherent, and this leads to the framing of the consumer as simultaneously both rational and irrational, able to both consume and reject what is being consumed, to desire and yet consume without satisfaction (Nava, 1991). "Identity becomes infinitely plastic in a play of images that knows no end.…”

Political Consumerism as a Neoliberal Response to Youth Political Disengagement

“…In a similar vein, Nava [101] stipulates that political consumerism offers people access to an alternative form of democratic participation. Contrary to the typical model of electoral politics in which citizens' participation opportunities are restricted to periodical contests involving voting for candidates/representatives, engaging in acts of political consumerism presents additional benefits of frequency and immediacy.…”