What is consumption? A quick 15mins overview Anthony Rafferty ESDS Government Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR) University of Manchester

Consumption: Of Major importance Immense topic +multi-disciplinary. So will focus on consumerism and several key consumption themes. Consumption describes: Our relation to the economy What we do to the environment What we do to our bodies Our cultures and identities

1 Emergence of (contemporary) Consumerism Early Sociological interest: Durkheim C18/19 diversification and differentiation; the rise of the flaneur C20 Fordism?: Mass Production requires mass consumerism; post-ford (+China)? Needs and Desire: Mass production needs mass desire? Individualisation: Cause and Consequence of consumerism? (e.g. Giddens) C20 technology advances; mass media; advertising; market research..Commodification of culture

Stearns (1997) Consumerism describes a society in which many people formulate their goals in life partly through acquiring goods that they clearly do not need for subsistence of for traditional display (p )

2 Economics of consumption Economics concerned more with rational choice of consumers rather than cultural aspects of consumption Consumption as driver of economic growth Rapid increases in living standards / consumer choice Consumption data for monitoring the economy and assessing performance. Retail spending/ Consumer confidence/ inflation indices Current Example research issues: Consumption and the the debt crisis

Mention the wider economics… Inequalities in consumption Globally, the 20% of the worlds people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures the poorest 20% = 1.3%. The richest fifth consume: 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5% 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4% Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5% 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1% Own 87% of the worlds vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1% (Human Development Report 1998 Overview)Human Development Report 1998 Overview

3 What we do to the environment The consequences of consumerism (and inequality) Environmental impact Resource degradation The Carbon footprint Eco-consumerism Re-thinking efficiency Example current research topics: Car and public transportation usage; Estimating carbon footprints; Household Waste

4 What we do to our bodies Abundance: the hunter/gatherer at the supermarket. Convenience food: Modern life fit for internal consumption? Ill health and diet (obesity and cancer) Alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs Example research topics: Diet, exercise and obesity; consumption of public health services

5 Consumption, Culture and Identity Commodification of culture; consumer as identity seeker: e.g. music; fashion Research on Cultural Consumption –E.g. Bourdieu cultural capital, critique of pure taste; –For UK research see Bennet and Savage: and-social-exclusion/ and-social-exclusion/ Taste classifies the classifier? Can we escape? Yet when all the individuals stand together, why do they look the same? Example research topics: Cultural consumption and social stratification

Conclusions Consumption important topic, part of modern historical narrative Cross-cuts disciplines Also as a concept, interpreted in varying ways in different research fields Data on consumption thus has a wide variety of research applications……..the next two presentations…………….