Category: Consume This!
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Teaching about consumption is one of the primary ways we “do” a sociology of consumers and consumption. In this blog post, Charlotte Glennie describes an assignment that has students making changes in their own consumption habits and reflecting on the many sociological factors that affect people’s abilities to implement such changes – and their wider social…
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What does it mean to consume productively? In this blog post, Abigail M. Letak considers the cultural anxieties attached to consuming television, and shows us how time is a resource at stake in consumption debates. – Laura Miller, section chair Consume This! “You lazy piece of trash! Come on, do something with your life!”: Productivity…
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Consume This! A Capitalist Culture & The Sympathetic Consumer
Boycott? Buycott? Why, or why not? In this post, Tad Skotnicki summarizes the main contribution of his first and new book, The Sympathetic Consumer, and ties it to recent incidents in the news where people voice political concerns in consumerist terms. – Michaela DeSoucey, section chair Consume This! A Capitalist Culture & The Sympathetic Consumer…
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Consume This! Publishing Consumption
In this month’s post, we branch out from research projects to hear some thoughts from the new(ish) director of Vanderbilt University Press, Gianna Mosser, about the press’s interest in, and in expanding, the study of consumers and consumption for its sociology and related lists. -Michaela DeSoucey (Section Chair) Consume This! Publishing Consumption By Gianna Mosser…
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Consume This! Home is Where the Money Is
In this first blog post of 2021, Max Besbris shares some implications from his new book, Upsold, for scholars of consumption, namely that intermediaries (in his case, real estate agents) are central to shaping consumers’ market choices and practices – even for special commodities like houses. – Michaela DeSoucey (Section Chair) Consume This! Home is Where…
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Consume This! Consumer Activism and Corporate Diversity
In this post, Patricia Banks, author of the just-published Race, Ethnicity, and Consumption, reflects on how consumer-focused companies’ social media reacted to this spring and summer’s racial justice protests, as well as the subsequent activist response, neatly weaving it all through the important concept of ‘racialized political consumerism.’ – Michaela DeSoucey (section chair) Consume This! Consumer Activism…
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Consume This! Geek Wave! Driving Scenes from the Fringe
In this month’s blog post, Eli Wilson, Nate Chapman, and J. Slade Lellock introduce us to their recently launched collaborative project on the craft beer scene, and discuss what – and who – drives scenes and shapes tastes, and why we need to take aficionados seriously. – Michaela DeSoucey (section chair) Consume This! Geek Wave!…
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Consume This! Fashion Influencers and COVID “Chic”
In this month’s blog post Jordan Foster uses his research on fashion influencers to discuss how conditions under the COVID-19 pandemic have shaped their work lives, and reflect on what issues and questions they as well as brands and consumers in the fashion world face in our current moment and going forward. — Richard E.…
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Consume This! Inclusivity and Reflection in Artistic Spaces
This month’s blog post features an essay by Amanda Koontz based on her recent visit to Art Basel Miami and the Spectrum Miami Art Show. Here she uses audience engagement with art exhibitions to discuss the relationship between inclusiveness and authenticity. — Richard E. Ocejo (Section Chair) Consume This! Space, Place, and Authenticity: What Helps Create Inclusivity…
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Consume This! Ethnography and the “Tuned-Up” Palate
In this month’s post, Michael Ian Borer, author of the recent book Vegas Brews, discusses the importance in ethnographic research of “learning to taste” as both a part of the method and an object of inquiry. — Richard E. Ocejo (Section Chair) Consume This! Ethnography and the “Tuned-Up” Palate By Michael Ian Borer Despite his vast experiences in…
Consumers & Consumption 