Politics of consumption

[susanstinson]

I've been working for CPE, http://www.populareconomics.org/
a group of economists who teach economic literacy to activists and educators who are organizing for progressive social change.

Sometime their collective process drives me wild, but in the long run (I first went to work for them in the early nineties), I love them a lot. It's the depth and beauty of the vision of building profoundly different economic systems from the ground up by providing tools and resources for people to develop their own economics analysis, challenging systems of oppression based on class, race, gender and nation. Specific experiences within the organization doesn't always live up to the rhetoric, but there are people involved who amaze and inspire me with their rigor, commitment, persistence and kindness.

A while ago firecat and keryx linked to http://aurora.icaap.org/2004Interviews/JulietSchor.html, an article by Julie Schor, one of the founders of CPE. It's about the politics of consumption, and I think it's really good.

Comments

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I love LJ but sometimes it gets so busy here that I lose track of all the refs I meant to explore.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

it's true -- there's way too much to keep up with

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I printed it off for digestion after reading this bit:

"The second factor has to do with the increasing role that the media has played in conveying enticing images of affluent lifestyles to a popular audience. During the '80s and '90s, there was a noticeable shift in the commercial media - in television in particular, but also in magazines, movies, and so on - towards portraying very upscale lifestyles as the cultural norm to which all people could or should aspire. The effect of this was only magnified by the fact that, in the same period, U.S. society also saw a marked increase in the amount of time that people were actually spending with electronic media on a daily basis. Consequently, as our levels of direct face-to-face interaction with real people have declined, our consumer desires and aspirations have increasingly become susceptible to the ubiquitous influence of celebrities and fictional characters on TV. To put it another way, our consumer desires have perhaps come to be determined less by our real-life friends than by the characters on "Friends" on TV."

And online. Pinker mentioned (I know many people don't care for Pinker) peer influence as as strong and influecer of self actualization as environment (ie family) and that bit strong a chord for me in what I see in non-virtual life. What I see happening is a shift to online in addition to or in some cases instead of real life. With my sixteen year old, I would say that a good 60-70% of his friends are primarily or solely online, and although he does watch TV shows (and I'm not disparaging media impact in a way) they seem to be as self reinforcement more than causal, and the peer influence is definitely stronger.

The other strong trend I noticed amongst his age group in addition to the obvious privileging of text, is the multi focus. A typical online session is comprised of four or five IM windows and one game or website running; that's the norm.

Looking forward to the rest of the article.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I do think it's true. Much as I love my things -- and I do, of course -- trying to keep my material life simple has been one of my strategies both for survival as an artist (cheap!) and towards trying to have a set of ethics that mean something to me. But I love my computer -- it would be very difficult for me to give that up.

Yeah, and for some weird reason, kind of old school-fat-lesbian-trying-to-keep-things-simple me gets some kind of sneaky pleasure from watching the Bachelor, with its lavish mansions and date extravaganzas and bizarro public courtship rituals. This might be related to the fact that I only get reception for two channels, PBS and ABC, and now the knob on my little old tv is broken, so without rigorous and uncertain efforts with the needle nose pliers, which I keep handy, it's ABC or nothing...Still, something about that show hooks me -- not the current football player, though. Yawn!

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed parts of The Overspent American. Thanks to linking to that interview, it was interesting.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I read Theory of the Leisure Class last year -- the Thorstein Veblen (did I spell that right?) she's talking about, and thought it was kind of wildly well written and funny about top hats and corsets and priestly robes and academic gowns and all.

[highfemme.livejournal.com]

You might also be interested in http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk/, an academic project with no political agenda but doing some interesting research on the history of consumption.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- very interesting.