Lecture 9 Flashcards
What is the context of customer resistance
Idea that consumption has only recently become subject to criticism is not true
Combines longstanding concerns with temporary anxieties
Historically, people would refrain from consumption to enjoy pleasures in the afterlife
18th-19th century, consumption became a sign of class
Studying consumption
Contested concept
Shift to modern consumption for the masses
Is it right there is so much inequality?
Psychological effects- preoccupied with ourselves?
Relationship between marketers and consumers is often one of domination
Structural constraints
Marxism- presents the customer as a powerless victim
Inequitable relationship between capitalist and worker
Commodities appear divorced from how they were made
Critical theory- nature and impact of culture industries
Rule of profit and money
Monetary exchange meant things became standardised
What are Gabriel and Lang’s nine faces
Chooser Communicator Explorer Identity seeker Hedonist or artist Victim Rebel Activist Citizen
What are the components of aldridges 2003 matrix
Rational actor- combines an ordered approach to decision making and self interest
Communicator- represented as using consumption as a means of achieving symbolic change
Victim- made poor decisions, subject to scams and incorrectly informed
Dupe- marketers are cultural engineers that manage how people think and feel through branded commercial products
Customer as an activist
Boycotts, campaigns legal cases and education
- cooperative movement
- value for money
- naderism
- political/ ecological activism
Consumer as a rebel
Consumers are meaning makers, fighting back in everyday life to change meanings marketers attach to products
- resognification and subvertising
Alternative forms of consumption
Alternative exchange
What is resignification?
Use objects distinctively different
Revel against authority of the producer
Passively refuse to buy products/ images
Use commodities to express protest
Counter culture
Rebellious consumption viewed as cool
Rebellion feeds the fire of the market
Alternative consumption
Propose different modes of production and consumption
Resistance to market logic
Burning man
Stone henge pop
These too have been hicjacked by cash nexus
What is LETS?
Local exchange trading system Consume less Consume local Avoid products produced by big capital Avoid cash
What are cooperatives
See themselves as both producers and consumers Self help that can serve as an alternative to working class alternative
What is value for money
Best Buy phase of activism
Shift from commodities to luxuries
Consumers union
Naderism
Grassroots action and legal campaigns were necessary to force the government to intervene and protect public safety
Political/ ecological
Collective consumption patterns are unsustainable
A life full of luxury consumer goods is seen to yield little personal satisfaction
What is Brudenhof
Christian community group
Religion at route of anti consumer behaviour
Old and young work, no salary
Get income from sale to outer capitalism
Everyone decides how money is spent
What are activists
Those people setting out to promote rights, consciousness and interests of groups
What do Gabriel and Lang identify as the ultimate goal of activism?
To redirect consumer culture, to give it a moral bent
What does Suzie orbeech say
Anorexia, obesity and eating dosorders are forms of rebellion
