In this month’s post, Melissa Aronczyk takes us into the world of commercial advertising to see how the digital era has reoriented “mad men.” Most of us are attuned to the bargain we make as online consumers, but Aronczyk notes how we give up not only our personal data as consumers, but also information about …
In this month’s Consume This!, Norah MacKendrick reminds us of the stakes of the current administration’s cutbacks at the EPA, where regulatory control over toxic chemicals in the food supply are giving further way to industry interests. A preview of her new book, Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics (University of California Press), MacKendrick outlines …
Jennifer Jordan takes us through eight centuries of hops, those little cones that stabilize and flavor beer, in a methodologically reflective essay that considers how digital resources are transforming archival sleuthing. It’s a fascinating read, cheers! – Ashley Mears Consume This! Hop To It By Jennifer Jordan I have a stack of library books to …
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. …
ASA is almost here! Our section day is Sunday Aug 12. Please mark your schedule for these events! 8:30 – 10:10 — 2110. Section on Consumers and Consumption. New Approaches to Inequality and Consumption Pennsylvania Convention Center, 104B, Level 100, 8:30 Session Organizers: Amanda Koontz, University of Central Florida and Daniel G. Fridman, University of TexasAustin Are You Sure You … Continue reading
We are currently a few dozen members shy of the 300 member threshold needed to keep our current level of funding, number of sessions, and ability to put on things like our upcoming pre-ASA mini-conference. What can you do to help? We’re so glad you asked! If you are an ASA member but not a member of … Continue reading
Consuming In, and Consumed By, a Trump Economy *one day pre-American Sociological Association mini-conference* Friday, August 10, 2018, 8:30 am-5:00 pm Rutgers University, Camden, NJ Registration deadline: July 24, 2018 Register here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3433551 Questions? Contact Kate Cairns (kc848@camden.rutgers.edu) or Dan Cook (dtcook@camden.rutgers.edu) Transportation to campus: From Philadelphia, use PATCO to get to Camden. www.ridepatco.org. Campus is located … Continue reading
Congratulations to this year’s Consumers and Consumption section award winners! Best Student Paper Award goes to two co-winners: Barbara Kiviat, 2017. “The Art of Deciding with Data: Evidence from How Employers Translate Credit Reports into Hiring Decisions.” Socio-Economic Review, 1-27 Helana Darwin, 2017. “Omnivorous Masculinity: Gender Capital and Cultural Legitimacy in Craft Beer Culture.” Social Currents, 1-16 Best … Continue reading
We welcome in our new chair-elect and two council members, and give a huge thanks to everyone who ran for office, and to our nominations committee for procuring such an impressive set of candidates. Our new officers are: Chair-Elect Richard Ocejo, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, CUNY Council Members Victoria Reyes, University of … Continue reading
Registration is now live for the ASA 2018 Consumers and Consumption mini-conference: “Consuming in, and Consumed By, a Trump Economy,” August 10, 2018 at Rutgers University-Camden. Join us for an exciting day of scholarship and discussion about the politics of consumption in this moment. Please register online before July 10 so that we have adequate time to … Continue reading
Check out this new Special Issue of the Socio-Economic Review, exploring “Theoretical and methodological pathways for research on elites.” The issue was edited by Bruno Cousin, Shamus Khan, and Ashley Mears, and features the work of section members. Congratulations to all involved! Socio-Economic Review, Volume 16, Issue 2, April 2018 https://academic.oup.com/ser/issue/16/2 Continue reading
