Sustainable Consumption Institute

Extract

In the UK, consumption emerged as a discrete topic of sociological interest in the late 1980s. Prior to this, its significance was only considered in relation to other concerns, debates and issues such as inequality, status, and the consequences of mass society and (assumed) material abundance. Meanwhile things were altogether different in North America, where consumption remained the preserve of consumer behavior research (Belk 1995), taking place under the aegis of business or marketing and thus less clearly aligned to sociology or related approaches, like anthropology or human geography. The sociology of consumption’s rise to prominence in the UK–and Northern/Western Europe more generally–called forth a number of undergraduate courses looking at various aspects of ‘consumer culture’, leading inevitably to a barrage of textbooks on the subject. Of these, it is commonly held that two stand out: Don Slater’s Consumer Culture and Modernity (1997) and the first edition (1996) of Celia Lury’s Consumer Culture (although to this, I would add Daniel Miller’s 1995Acknowledging Consumption as an excellent edited collection of interdisciplinary perspectives). In the intervening years the sociology of consumption has flourished, with the original debates of the late 80s/early-mid 90s being enhanced by empirical studies, new theoretical perspectives and engagement with a growing number of substantive domains. Unsurprisingly textbooks continue to appear but, curiously, nothing much has come along that could satisfactorily replace Miller, Slater and Lury’s books as the key readings on course syllabi. The notable exception is Roberta Sassatelli’s Consumer Culture (2007) that genuinely provides a wide ranging, sufficiently detailed and accessible introduction to a number of key themes. However, this is already six years old and so …

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