In this month’s Consume This!, Lakshmi Srinivas pushes film studies with some of the best insights from cultural sociology with an ethnography of films’ reception in Bangalore, India. Sometimes colorful, sometimes raucous, and never singular, how audiences interact with films tells us much about how cinema taps into any given social milieux. Read, enjoy, share …
This month, Consume This! authors Michelle F. Weinberger, Jane R. Zavisca, and Jennifer M. Silva consider the range of “experiential consumption” so prevalent in the lives of middle-class young adults. Not yet married or parenting, young adults seek a range of illuminating and novel experiences — new thrills, authentic restaurants, growth and travel experiences. It is a fascinating analysis of the extended quest …
In this month’s Consume This! essay, Consumers and Consumption member Shelly Ronen reviews Vibrator Nation (Duke University Press, 2017) by Lynn Comella, a book which traces the feminist origins of the political market for vibrators at the confluence of liberation and consumerism. It is also a reminder of the limits of retail activism, as feminist stores for women’s sexual pleasure ultimately tempered their …
Want to help others join the Consumers and Consumption section? Why not offer them a gift membership? ASA members can gift an ASA membership for students or section memberships for any membership type at https://asa.enoah.com (Login required). To purchase a gift ASA membership for studentsOnce logged into the member portal, please click “Purchase a gift membership for a student” under …
As we enter a new year with growing pubic concern over economic and gender inequality, Yasemin Besen-Cassino reminds us that the low-paid retail and service sector is fueled by teenage workers, boys and girls who are equally likely to participate in the labor force as tweens. Don’t let the appearance of equal participation hide how gender …
In this month’s blog post, Clayton Childress raises a call for analytic clarity among consumption scholarship which typically brackets production from consumption, separating cultural objects from their audiences’ reception of them. Drawing from a provocative snippet of survey data from his new book, Under the Cover (Princeton 2017), Childress’ post is sure to raise some eyebrows and …
This month’s Consume This! feature post by Virginia D’Antonio takes us into the world of Corvette drivers, a window into brand consumption as civic engagement. Reminding us that contemporary goods are always a part of larger systems of meaning in consumer capitalism, D’Antonio trails the idea of the Corvette through club meetings of drivers, factory workers, and the Bowling …
Happy Fair Trade Month! In October’s Consume This! blog, Keith Brown and Sarah Lyon contextualize the bigger picture behind being an ethical consumer. Taking on economistic detractors of fair trade in the market for coffee, our authors carefully trace the sociological factors that make ethical consumption worthwhile. Their essay is a reminder of the richness of sociological …
As Consume This! enters its second year of production and I come into term as the Chair of Consumers and Consumption, I am reminded of the inspiring essays of the past year. Section members contributed their latest works about art in Chilean households, craft makers and services in Brooklyn, beauty culture among American men, finance advisers in …
Since the 1990s, there has been a lively debate among sociologists and anthropologists about the global flow of consumer goods and cultural products. While early studies focused on visible American exports like Coca-Cola and popular music, and the literature was often polarized between globalization and localization stories, recent contributions have expanded the range of topics …
Much popular discussion of children’s eating habits is filled with stereotypical claims, tired assumptions and victim blaming. For her pioneering book, Fast Food Kids, Amy Best engaged in ethnography, hanging out with youth in high school cafeterias and after school, at McDonald’s and other fast food outlets. Best provides an original account of youth food …
ASA Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award for 2017 Winners: Kristie O’Neill and Daniel Silver, “From Hungry to Healthy: Simmel, Self-Cultivation and the Transformative Experience of Eating for Beauty” Honorable mention: Nathan Wilmers, “Does Consumer Demand Reproduce Inequality? High-income Consumers, Vertical Differentiation and the Wage Structure” ASA Section …
There is little doubt that recent years have seen significant change in the gendered pattern of consumption, along with much else about gender. A prime example comes from the realms of fashion and beauty. Described popularly, although not particularly usefully, as the rise of “metrosexuals,” one aspect of this change is increased male participation in …
Christopher Andrews’ May blogpost takes up a question that is sure to get increasing attention: is automation and artificial intelligence going to significantly reduce the number of jobs? What is the future of work? Andrews looks at self-checkout lanes in supermarkets—one of the biggest and most obvious candidates for job elimination—and has surprising and very …
Richard Ocejo’s fantastic work on four occupations (butchers, bartenders, distillers and barbers) is an exploration of how symbolically intricate contemporary consumption has become and the role that producers are playing at the consumer frontier. His book will be out next month from Princeton. Here Richard asks us to think about the lowly hot dog, now a gourmet …
It is a great pleasure to introduce Laura Miller’s blog this month. Laura’s first book, Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption (Chicago 2006), was a path-breaking account of the dual forces (commercial success and cultural integrity) that affect booksellers. Her new book, Building Nature’s Market: The Business and Politics of Natural Foods (Chicago …
Section member Thomas Calkins has created a fantastic new poster to promote our section. Here is a brief blurb from Thomas about this initiative: “The American Sociological Association (ASA) boasts 50+ sections, reflecting the richness of sociological scholarship in contemporary America. Consumers & Consumption is a small but growing section within the ASA which both young and more established scholars …
Congratulations to Josée Johnston, Kate Cairns, and Shyon Baumann on their new book. The appearance of an Introductory Sociology textbook using “stuff” as its focus is evidence of at least two important ways in which the world has changed. First, that consumption and possessions have become so central in the lives of college students that …
In recent years, the influence of Pierre Bourdieu on U.S. sociology has increased substantially. Jeffery Sallaz and Jane Zavisca did an analysis of Bourdieusian concepts in major journals between 1980-2004, finding both increasing influence as well as an expansion of concepts, from cultural capital to habitus to field. Since that analysis the use of his …
Meredith Katz’s engaging and informative blog this month raises questions that many of us face in our teaching. Thank you Meredith for getting this conversation going. It would be great to have some section discussion via the comments section. Here are a couple of questions I thought about after reading… There is a lot of …
ASA Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Publication Award for 2018 The ASA Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award goes to the author(s) of the best published book that makes a significant, original contribution to the understanding of ideas about, and practices of, consumption. The sociology …
By Juliet Schor As this year’s Section Chair, I welcome you to Consume This!—the new monthly blog of our Section. Over the coming year we will be featuring research and analysis by members of the section. In this opening blog I wanted to share some findings I’m developing with my research team at Boston College. …
Good news! In response to requests from section members, we are extending the deadline for mini-conference submissions to March 30, 2018. Please spread the word, and if you haven’t done so already, send in your abstracts! “Consuming In, and Consumed By, a Trump Economy” *one-day pre-American Sociological Association mini-conference* Friday, August 10, 2018, 8:30 am-4:00 … Continue reading
Congratulations to Sara Schoonmaker on the publication of her new book, Free Software, the Internet, and Global Communities of Resistance (Routledge 2018). Description This book explores software’s pivotal role as the code that powers computers, mobile devices, the Internet, and social media. Creating conditions for the ongoing development and use of software, including the Internet as … Continue reading
We are excited to announce the keynote panel for our upcoming mini-conference on August 10, 2018 at Rutgers University-Camden. The conference will open with a dynamic panel on “Inequality in Trump’s America,” featuring sociologists Yasemin Besen-Cassino, Ashley Mears and Frederick Wherry. Panelists will weigh in on the place of consumers and consumption research in the … Continue reading
Congratulations to Ariel Wilkis on the publication of a new book with Stanford University Press, The Moral Power of Money: Morality and Economy in the Life of the Poor. Description Looking beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary social interactions, The Moral Power of Money investigates the forces of power and morality at play, particularly among the poor. Drawing … Continue reading
Sociological Perspectives Special Issue: Civic Responses to Environmental Issues: How Culture Matters Guest editors: Emily Huddart Kennedy, Dept of Sociology, University of British Columbia Josée Johnston, Dept. of Sociology, University of Toronto Co-Editors of Sociological Perspectives: Matthew Carlson, Lindsey Wilkinson, Hyeyoung Woo (Portland State University) Managing Editor: Elizabeth Withers (Portland State University) Sociological Perspectives is … Continue reading
‘Alternatives to Capitalism’ SASE Research Network Conference Doshisa University Kyoto (Japan), 23-25 June 2018 CALL FOR PAPERS: SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMICS (SASE) ANNUAL CONFERENCE, JUNE 23-25, 2018, DOSHISA UNIVERSITY, KYOTO (JAPAN) ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM RESEARCH NETWORK DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS AND SESSION PROPOSALS (MAX 500 WORDS): JANUARY 29, 2018 ************** The theoretical foundations of … Continue reading
CALL FOR PAPERS “Consuming In, and Consumed By, a Trump Economy” *one-day pre-American Sociological Association mini-conference* Friday, August 10, 2018, 8:30 am-4:00 pm Rutgers University, Camden, NJ PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR BRIEF ABSTRACTS OF PRESENTATIONS! The Consumers and Consumption section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) is excited to host a one-day conference on Friday, August … Continue reading
