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 …
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. …
The ASA election results are out. I’m pleased to let you know that we have a new Chair Elect, and three new Council Members. But before opening the envelope, there are some people who deserve a lot of thanks. First, Jennifer Jordan (the Chair) of the Nominations Committee and her colleagues (Norah MacKendrick, Amanda Anthony, … Continue reading
Congratulations to Richard Ocejo on the release of his new book, Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton). To learn more about the book, check out Richard’s recent blog post for Consume This! Description: How educated and culturally savvy young people are transforming traditionally low-status manual labor jobs into elite taste-making occupations In … Continue reading
Congratulations to Joseph Cohen on the publication of his new book, Financial Crisis in American Households (Praeger). Description More than one-third of Americans could not sustain a basic livelihood without government assistance. Almost 60 percent of seniors are dependent on the government. Why is this? This book examines how the U.S. economy’s failure to deliver high-quality, … Continue reading
Congratulations to Viviana Zelizer on the publication of her new book, Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States. The book includes a Foreword by Kieran Healy, and will be released in July 2017 with Columbia University Press. Description Life insurance—the promise of an insurer to pay a sum upon a person’s … Continue reading
Congratulations to Nina Bandelj, Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer on the publication of their new edited collection, Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works (Princeton University Press, 2017). Description The world of money is being transformed as households and organizations face changing economies, and new currencies and payment systems like Bitcoin and Apple Pay gain ground. What is … Continue reading
A new edition of Viviana Zelizer’s award winning book is now available with Princeton University Press: The Social Meaning of Money: Pin Money, Paychecks, Poor Relief, and Other Currencies. The book includes a foreword by Nigel Dodd and a new afterword by the author. Description A dollar is a dollar—or so most of us believe. Indeed, it is … Continue reading
In a recent piece published in The Mainlander, Zack Hyde examines the gentrification of Vancouver as a process of symbolic cannibalism. Continue reading
