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Consume This! Why “Eating for Change” Won’t Fix the Food System

In our March issue of Consume This!, Sinikka Elliott, Joslyn Brenton and Sarah Bowen draw from their recently published book, Pressure Cooker, to highlight some of the many tensions between holding individuals responsible for ‘eating for change,’ and the need for collective solutions to the ills of our contemporary food systems. —Jennifer Smith Maguire (Section […]

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Scholars’ Conversations: Meredith Katz and Jeffrey London

This conversation is part of a new feature of the Consumers and Consumption website: the “Scholars’ Conversations” series, where consumption scholars (broadly defined) are interviewed by graduate students or other scholars in the field about recent publications and their approach to all things consumption. This month, two faculty members talk with one another about their […]

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Consume This! Diversity Capital and Corporate Cultural Patronage

In this month’s blog, Patricia Banks develops the concept of “diversity capital” to unpack how patronage of the black cultural sector operates as an instrument of corporate communication and impression management. —Jennifer Smith Maguire (Section Chair) Diversity Capital and Corporate Cultural Patronage By Patricia A. Banks In 2011, Aetna, a health insurance company, announced a $1.275 […]

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Scholars’ Conversations: Richard Ocejo, Masters of Craft

This interview is part of a new feature of the Consumers and Consumption website: the “Scholars’ Conversations” series, where consumption scholars (broadly defined) are interviewed by graduate students or other scholars in the field about recent publications and their approach to all things consumption. You can participate too! Graduate students, this can be an excellent […]

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Consume This! Plumbing of Capitalism: Credit as “Ordinary Consumption”

This month, Léna Pellandini-Simányi and Zsuzsanna Vargha make use of the practice theory concept of ‘ordinary consumption’ to consider the consumption of credit, and demonstrate the power of thinking through metaphor—in this case, plumbing! —Jennifer Smith Maguire (Section Chair) Revisiting the Plumbing of Capitalism: Credit as “Ordinary Consumption” By Léna Pellandini-Simányi and Zsuzsanna Vargha Household debt has […]

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Consume This! Cultural Participation and Professional Wrestling

In this month’s Consume This!, Gary Yeritsian gives us a thought-provoking and entertaining glimpse into the world of professional wrestling, suggesting how WWE’s use of social media for highly-scripted, sanctioned forms of audience participation nevertheless creates possibilities for contestation and disruption. —Jennifer Smith Maguire (Section Chair) Cultural Participation From Above and Below: The Case […]

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Consume This! Cultural Intermediaries, Emotion, and the Craft Beverage Industry

In this month’s Consume This!, Erik Withers takes us along to a craft brewery tour, highlighting the role of cultural intermediaries as frontline storytellers in contemporary consumer settings, and the power of emotions, nostalgia and place in those stories. —Jennifer Smith Maguire (Section Chair) Cultural Intermediaries, Emotion, and the Craft Beverage Industry: Reflections from the […]