DD102 Manchester Dayschool1 2015 'Consumption'

DD102 – Dayschool 1 (2015)

“Consumed”Dr Craig Hammond

The Consumer Society

Social Class

The 1979 Thatcher Conservative Government

“We want self-interested,

wealth-driven individuals …

entrepreneurs”

The absence/removal of “society”

… cohesive communities, solid bonds along lines of work,

leisure, social class, community

A vortex of individualisation

Old, structural securities & identities

removed

What do we do with this freedom?

Consuming …

• Zygmunt Bauman points out that contemporary consumer society is organised around certain freedoms:

• ‘Freedom’:

– ‘to choose how to satisfy individual desires’ (via the medium of the consumer market)

• As a consequence, individual ‘freedom’ has become privatised and commodified – a development which in turn fuel’s increasing consumption

• Identity, meaning, belonging itself becomes based on the processes and products of consumption

Thorstein Veblen: Conspicuous Consumption

SeducedRepressed

• Zygmunt Bauman

What defines who ‘you’ are?

Are there any aspects of your life ‘free’ from consumption?