This book explores the politics borne of consumption through the case of coffee activism and ethical consumption. It analyses the agencies, structures, repertoires and technologies of promotion and participation in the politics of fair trade consumption through an exploration of the relationship between activism and consumption.
This volume explores political culture, especially the catastrophic elements of the global social order emerging in the twenty-first century. By emphasizing the texture of political action, the book theorizes how social context becomes evident on the surface of events and analyzes the performative dimensions of political experience. The attention to catastrophe allows for an understanding of how ordinary people contend with normal system operation once it is indistinguishable from system breakdown. Through an array of case studies, the book provides an account of change as it is experienced, negotiated, and resisted in specific settings that define a society’s capacity for political action.
"A crucial intervention to both critical studies of consumption and research into activism. It authoritatively explores the complex and multiplying links between branding and neoliberal culture, consumer practices and social justice." – Professor Mehita Iqani, Stellenbosch University "Eleftheria Lekakis reminds us that as consumers, we can do much more than just buy our way out of social or political problems." – Professor Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University Consumption and resistance are entwined. From buying fair-trade, to celebrity advocates for social causes, to subvertising and anti-consumerist grassroots movements, consumer activism is now a key part of our fight for social and environmental justice. This book is a comprehensive exploration of the complexities and dilemmas of using the marketplace as an arena for politics. It goes beyond simply buying or boycotting to critically explore how individuals, collectives, corporations and governments do politics with and through consumption. Impassioned and always accessible, Eleftheria Lekakis explores: The media and economic logics which privilege elite activists. The real opportunities to resist and redirect promotional culture. Consumer activism as collective and community-building. The politicisation of celebrity influencers. The centrality of digital media technology. A range of transnational case studies pushing the field beyond the Global North. Consumer Activism: Promotional Culture and Resistance covers the full breadth of theory and practice you need to know. It is an essential resource for understanding, researching and engaging with the global phenomenon of consumer activism. Dr Eleftheria Lekakis is senior lecturer in Media and Communications at the School of Media, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Sussex.
This book asserts the importance of conducting research on visual culture phenomena in public theology. As we increasingly communicate and express our social and cultural identities through images in today’s culture and economy, visual culture has become a burgeoning area of study and research in many academic institutions. In light of this, public theology must engage with this complex field. The concept of iconicity is raising fresh inquiries within the realm of public theology, which is already rife with hermeneutic concerns. These questions must be revisited, as images compel us to reassess our ongoing approach to the interpretation of religion. The potency of images is an uncharted and potent force, propelling public theology towards a future that is yet to be discovered.
Contemporary consumer society is increasingly saturated by digital technology, and the devices that deliver this are increasingly transforming consumption patterns. Social media, smartphones, mobile apps and digital retailing merge with traditional consumption spheres, supported by digital devices which further encourage consumers to communicate and influence other consumers to consume. Through a wide range of empirical studies which analyse the impact of digital devices, this volume explores the digitization of consumption and shows how consumer culture and consumption practices are fundamentally intertwined and mediated by digital devices. Exploring the development of new consumer cultures, leading international scholars from sociology, marketing and ethnology examine the effects on practices of consumption and marketing, through topics including big data, digital traces, streaming services, wearables, and social media’s impact on ethical consumption. Digitalizing Consumption makes an important contribution to practice-based approaches to consumption, particularly the use of market devices in consumers’ everyday consumer life, and will be of interest to scholars of marketing, cultural studies, consumer research, organization and management.
The Companion to Development Studies is essential reading in the field of development studies. This indispensable resource offers succinct, up-to-date, and insightful chapters that reflect the diverse voices and perspectives informing the field and the dynamic interplay of theory, policy, and practice that characterises it. This fourth edition brings together contributions from an impressive range of renowned international experts and emerging voices at the forefront of development studies to deliver engaging, interdisciplinary, and provocative insights into this challenging field. The 98 chapters spanning both theory and practice offer readers accessible discussions of the core issues, emerging trends, and key debates of the discipline. Divided into nine sections of: theories and their contentions; histories and discourses of development; actors and institutions; identities and practices; people and the planet; the economics of development; conflict, violence, and peace; the changing landscape of development; and approaches to policy and practice; this timely new text provides easy to use summaries of all the major issues encountered in this rapidly growing and changing field. The Companion serves students and scholars across various disciplines, including development studies, geography, politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology, and economics. It offers incisive analysis and critical insights, equipping those working in development policy and practice with the knowledge and understanding they need to navigate and address contemporary global challenges. This textbook is supported by flexible, online resources for teaching and learning such as tutorial guides, key concept videos, and a filmography.
The Oxford Handbook of Consumption consolidates the most innovative recent work conducted by social scientists in the field of consumption studies and identifies some of the most fruitful lines of inquiry for future research. It begins by embedding marketing in its global history, enmeshed in various political, economic, and social sites. From this embedded perspective, the book branches out to examine the rise of consumer culture theory among consumer researchers and parallel innovative developments in sociology and anthropology, with scholarship analyzing the roles that identity, social networks, organizational dynamics, institutions, market devices, materiality, and cultural meanings play across a wide variety of applications, including, but not limited to, brands and branding, the sharing economy, tastes and preferences, credit and credit scoring, consumer surveillance, race and ethnicity, status, family life, well-being, environmental sustainability, social movements, and social inequality. The volume is unique in the attention it gives to consumer research on inequality and the focus it has on consumer credit scores and consumer behaviors that shape life chances. The volume includes essays by many of the key researchers in the field, some of whom have only recently, if at all, crossed the disciplinary lines that this volume has enabled. The contributors have tried to address several key questions: What motivates consumption and what does it mean to be a consumer? What social, technical, and cultural systems integrate and give character to contemporary consumption? What actors, institutions, and understandings organize and govern consumption? And what are the social uses and effects of consumption?
This book engages with the topic of ethical consumption and applies a critical-realist approach to explore the process of becoming and being an ethical consumer. By integrating Margaret Archer’s theory of identity formation and Christian Coff’s work on food ethics, it develops a theoretical account explicating the generative mechanism that gives rise to ethical consumer practices and identities. The second part of the book presents the findings from a qualitative study with self-perceived ethical food consumers to demonstrate the fit between the proposed theoretical mechanism and the actual experiences of ethically committed consumers. Through integrating agency-focused and socio-centric perspectives on consumer behaviour, the book develops a more comprehensive and balanced approach to conceptualising and studying consumption processes and phenomena.
Using case studies from Mexico and Canada, this book examines the fair trade coffee movement at both the global and local level, assessing its effectiveness and locating it within political and development theory. It provides an analysis of fair trade coffee in the context of global trade.
The global phenomenon of political consumerism is known through such diverse manifestations as corporate boycotts, increased preferences for organic and fairtrade products, and lifestyle choices such as veganism. It has also become an area of increasing research across a variety of disciplines. Political consumerism uses consumer power to change institutional or market practices that are found ethically, environmentally, or politically objectionable. Through such actions, the goods offered on the consumer market are problematized and politicized. Distinctions between consumers and citizens and between the economy and politics collapse. The Oxford Handbook of Political Consumerism offers the first comprehensive theoretical and comparative overview of the ways in which the market becomes a political arena. It maps the four major forms of political consumerism: boycotting, buycotting (spending to show support), lifestyle politics, and discursive actions, such as culture jamming. Chapters by leading scholars examine political consumerism in different locations and industry sectors, and in consideration of environmental and human rights problems, political events, and the ethics of production and manufacturing practices. This volume offers a thorough exploration of the phenomenon and its myriad dilemmas, involving religion, race, nationalism, gender relations, animals, and our common future. Moreover, the Handbook takes stock of political consumerism's effectiveness in solving complex global problems and its use to both promote and impede democracy.
