Criminal Degradations of Consumer Culture

In this chapter I take a ‘social harm’ approach to explore some of the degrading impacts of modern consumerism. My aim is to explore the harmful, often criminal, sometimes fatal consequences that attend the supply of consumer goods in contemporary capitalist societies. At the same time, I note that a focus on social harm begs some very fundamental questions about criminology as an academic discipline – or ‘field’ of study. When a cradle-to-grave assessment of consumer goods is undertaken it reveals that many personal and environmental degradations are nothing more than the ordinary means by which objects are produced, distributed and discarded in contemporary societies. In order to unpack the mundane character of the degradations of a consumer culture I use the example of prawn production but my more general argument is that what is true for prawns is true for (almost) any consumer object

Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture (AGCC): testing the validity of the AGCC scale and some preliminary results from the United Kingdom

This paper presents preliminary results from a study focused on acculturation to Global Consumer Culture (GCC) conducted in the UK. In particular, this paper’s aims are to test the validity of the original ‘Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture’ (AGCC) scale in a new cultural context, and to present preliminary results about the relation between acculturation to GCC and demographic factors, technological anxiety, and compulsive buying. This paper is based on online questionnaire completed by 340 respondents in the UK. The psychometric properties of this scale were verified via confirmatory factor analysis, and a new, shorter scale was proposed. Some results about the links between acculturation to GCC and demographics, technological anxiety, and compulsive buying were presented and discussed within the context of extant GCC research. Limitations and further research were discussed. Key words: consumer culture, global consumer culture, acculturation to global consumer cultur

The Billion Dollar Pig - A Subjective Extrospective Exploration of the Cross-Cultural Meanings of The Peppa Pig Cartoon Character Franchise

As a family, the children’s cartoon character franchise Peppa Pig has loomed large in our lives for our daughter’s first three years. The character stars in a popular TV cartoon series that is shown in more than 180 countries, alongside Mummy and Daddy Pig, little brother George and multiple anthropomorphised friends. The cartoon is the centre of a vast $1.3 billion spin-off franchise operation (Richman, 2015) including countless moulded plastic toys of the characters and their town, print publications, swimming aids, sticker and game books, children’s clothes and bedroom items, DVDs, and a dedicated theme park in the UK. This poster represents ongoing research that explores the cultural contradictions and tensions that are exposed by the cartoon. It uses subjective extrospection and online data extracts from Peppa Pig social media fora from parents from East Asia, the USA, and the UK. It is clearly directed at infants and toddler, yet the cartoon characterisation and storylines have sometimes been controversial, inspiring complaints and even anti-Peppa activism in some countries. Peppa can be quite bombastic, her favourite activity is jumping in muddy puddles and she sometimes likes to blow raspberries to signal her discontent. Daddy is kind but rather silly, and her Mummy is invariably right, and always patronising towards Daddy Pig. They live in a two storey house on a hill, they are very British, with Wellington boots and umbrellas for rainy days, they are avid TV watchers and players of video games, they have a small red car and they go on holidays to Italy. George and Peppa go to playgroup with their friends, Danny Dog, Suzy Sheep and many others. The ideological undercurrents of Peppa’s storylines are distinctively Western, indeed British middle class, heteronormative and economically patriarchal - Daddy is the breadwinner (a design engineer, it seems), but Mummy is in charge, and she never tires of patronising Daddy Pig. He seems to accept his role as figure of ridicule with cheery indifference. Peppa Pig’s global popularity is a curiosity given that, beneath the quirky Britishness of the storylines and characters, aspects of its content are clearly culturally discordant, even subversive to conservative cultural values in some countries. Parents have some strong and striking views on the ideologies to which young viewers are being exposed, and this poster describes initial findings from the study. Some parents feel that the cartoon is imposing values on their household that they do not share and to which they not want their child exposed, yet they feel powerless to resist the corporate Leviathan that is the billion Dollar Pig. How can a parent tell a child that Peppa is banned from the household when cable cartoon channels feature dozens of airings of the show per day, and their children see Peppa Pig merchandise in every newsagent, toy shop and everywhere there are children? Online fora act as a space in which such disquiet can be aired without being subject to ridicule. What kind of parent would feel uncomfortable at such a colourful and childish cartoon that brings so much evident joy to millions of very young children? This research study does not seek to detail the sociocultural branding strategy (Diamond et al., 2009) of Peppa Pig, but, rather, seeks to explore the ideological tensions that parents in different countries allude to when they express their discomfort with what, on the face of it, is merely a baby’s entertainment. Of course, children’s toys and stories can indeed carry a deep cultural resonance and this study seeks to pick apart some of the ideological complexities that lurk in the muddy puddles of Peppa’s world

Social Media and Consumer Culture: Addicted to the Idealized Consumer

For better or for worse, social media has become party of the fabric of society. As technology and social networking sites increasingly affect the behavior and culture around us, signs of digital addiction are on the rise. This article discusses the connection between consumer culture and social networking site addiction

Culture and values - their relevance for marketing strategies

Research on consumer behaviour has revealed that the prospect of reaching a personal value is the virtual buying motive. Bearing this in mind, the researcher, as well as the marketer, is not only able to observe whether one product is preferred to another, but also to understand why this product is preferred. Hence, identifying consumers' personal values contributes to explaining consumer preferences and buying motives, which is of great importance for marketing practice. Personal values that are developed during the process of socialisation are part of a culture and differ depending on one's cultural background. Therefore, culture- specific values result in specific consumer behaviour. The aim of our paper is to combine research about buying motives (generally speaking, consumers' personal values) and about culture- specific consumption patterns. Knowledge of these cohesions is of great importance for marketing strategies. If there are differences between the personal values of consumers who are from different cultural backgrounds, this has to be taken into account by differentiating the strategic direction of marketing strategies, which should incorporate culture- specific product cognition. The following aspects of this issue will be discussed in the paper: · consumers buy products because of the resulting consequences, which satisfy consumer values · values are part of the culture, and therefore cause culture- specific consumer behaviour · the underlying motives for culture- specific consumer behaviour have to be included in marketing strategies.culture, values, consumer behaviour, marketing strategies, Marketing,

Those left behind: inequality in consumer culture

Economic growth in Northern Ireland has undoubtedly raised the standard of living for many consumers and contributed to a growing culture of consumption. However, this heroic discourse masks the various social problems associated with economic growth, in particular, the deepening of inequality. This article aims to demonstrate the lived experience of poverty against the backdrop of a society that is increasingly dominated by consumption. Findings suggest that limited financial resources and the resulting consumption constraints are a source of stress and dissatisfaction. Such dissatisfaction stems from feelings of exclusion from the 'normal' consumption patterns that these consumers see around them. It is only by highlighting their stories that we can really understand the full consequences of what it means to live in a consumer culture. The importance of social support to counteract marketplace exclusion is also highlighted, reinforcing the need to consider capital in all its forms and not only from an economic perspective

MEMBANGUN KOMUNITAS MEREK MELALUI PEMBELAJARAN BUDAYA SEBAGAI UPAYA MENYATUKAN KERAGAMAN KONSUMEN

Consumer is an important aspect in a company. So, a company will effort to make a loyal consumer to their product. To make a loyal consumer is not easy because consumers come from a different culture. Cultural learning is a very important to understanding the variety of consumer. The variety can be united in a community, that is brand community. Brand community could be a competitive advantage because consumer not just consume the product with a specific brand, but they will get much experiences from many activities in the community

Consumer Culture and the 2011 'Riots'

This paper argues that in order to be properly comprehended, the 'riots' of August 2011 must be located in the context of an increasingly consumerist society. The suggestion is that the riots represented conformity to the underlying values of a consumerist society, if, momentarily, not its norms. To make this case, the riots are divided into three constituent 'moments'; the initial, the acquisitive and the nihilistic. Themes and ideas from the literature on consumer culture and crime are applied to the latter two.Consumer Culture, Consumerism, Riots

Work, consumption and subjectivity in postwar France: Moulinex and the meanings of domestic appliances, 1950s-1970s

This article responds to some of the limitations of the historiography of consumption in contemporary Europe, notably its tendency to divorce consumer culture from production and to subscribe, in some cases at least, to a rather schematic model of ‘consumer society’. Focusing on the Moulinex domestic appliance company which developed in Normandy from the late 1950s, it explores the interpenetration of cultures of production at several levels. It considers the role of Moulinex in making domestic appliances available to the mass market, the place of productivism in the Moulinex brand and the place of appliance consumption in company culture, before reflecting on the workers’ perspective on this culture and the meanings they ascribed to the appliances they acquired through the company