SOC433H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Consumerism, Organic Food, Consciousness Raising
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Lecture 3: Power, Cultural politics, consumerism
Consumerism
• Consumerism is typically thought about in terms of individual choice and freedom
o we tend to conceptualize consumerism in individualistic terms – in terms of individual
choice and as expressions of our freedom.
• Sometimes we think of consumerism as an expression of our lifestyle
• In terms of a sense of identity
• Not too difficult to start thinking about how the purchases we make has an influence on our
political commitment
o Eg. Buying campaign merchandise or even more subtle things like free trade coffee
• Consumerism is patterned by class, the things you buy creates your class
o Class is not only the buying power someone has but also the expression of consumption
o A more sociological analysis of consumerism focuses on how consumer practices are
rooted in class. Yet we still tend to forget that consumption patterns have profound
impacts at a another level of abstraction - in terms of our society’s commitment to
providing public goods and to the well-being of our shared environment.
• Consumption patterns have significant impacts on different patterns of abstraction
• Szaz looks at consumption related to social change
o Szasz’s book is helpful here – it digs into the relation between consumption, politics, and
social change. He focuses on the unintended consequences of individualized
consumption: Good people with good intentions nevertheless exacerbate broader
collective problems by hollowing out of a sense of a shared public good.
o Talks about bottled water, green products
o Gives a critique in the way environmentalism as a movement is commercialized in mass
marketing and consumption
o Turns environmental consciousness largely as a way of shielding ourselves from a
dangerous environment
• Inverted quarantine: how increasing numbers of people are dealing with perceived ecological and
environment threats
o consciousness raising and awareness campaigns of the environmentalist movements in
the 1960s and 70s...
o Particularly on threats of what we eat, drink and breathe
o Largely a product of the environmentalist movement
o Sees an increasingly consumerist response to environmentalism as inverted quarantine
o Quarantine is a response to a threat by isolating it from the rest of society
▪ Came from the isolating the crews from ships during the plague and had to stay
in the ship for about a week until they could be on land
▪ The tradition of quarantine is about taking the risk from an identifiable source
and removing it from the rest of society
o Inverted quarantine flips this whole principle
▪ There is a toxic environment and people socially and physically barricading
themselves from the rest of the environment
Examples of inverted quarantine consumerism
• personal commodity bubbles” to protect and insulate individuals and families from perceived
environmental and social threats.
• Eating organic food
• Using sunscreen
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In terms of a sense of identity political commitment: eg. Inverted quarantine flips this whole principle: there is a toxic environment and people socially and physically barricading themselves from the rest of the environment. Examples of inverted quarantine consumerism: personal commodity bubbles to protect and insulate individuals and families from perceived environmental and social threats, eating organic food, using sunscreen. The politics of clean water: pollution of the water supply, long history of pollution of us waterwaysuntreated sewage, industrial waste, agricultural chemical (pesticides, herbicides) runoff. Esp. bad for communities that rely on underground aquifers: a few cases received a great deal of national attention - cayuga river in oh) and love. Problems: created a lack of trust with the water, 3 problems (pg. In 2015, 69% of canadian households reported that they primarily drank tap water at home. The politics of inverted quarantine consumerism: what"s the problem.
