Beyond consumerism: new historical perspectives on consumption

If there is one agreement between theorists of modernity and those of post-modernity, it is about the centrality of consumption to modern capitalism and contemporary culture. To thinkers as different as Werner Sombart, Emile Durkheim and Thorstein Veblen at the turn of the twentieth century, consumption was a decisive force behind modern capitalism, its dynamism and social structure. More recently, Anthony Giddens has presented consumerism as simultaneous cause and therapeutic response to the crisis of identities emanating from the pluralization of communities, values and knowledge in ‘post-traditional society’. Post-modernists like Baudrillard have approached consumption as the semiotic code constituting post-modernity itself: ultimately, signs are consumed, not objects. Such has been the recent revival of theoretical interest in consumption that the historian might feel acutely embarrassed by the abundance of choice and the semiotic and, indeed, political implications of any particular approach. Which theory is most appropriate for the historical study of ‘consumer society’? What is being consumed, by whom, why, and with what consequence differs fundamentally in these writings: should we study objects, signs or experiences, focus on the drive to emulate others or to differentiate oneself, analyse acquisitive mentalities or ironic performances, condemn resulting conformity or celebrate subversion? The aim of this article is to outline some of the questions that may help structure such a debate. Should we think in terms of a linear expansion of western consumerism ending in global convergence? What was the underlying dynamic of this expansion and where should we locate its modernity? What was the place of consumption in social and political relations, and what do these connections (and disconnections) tell us about the nature of ‘consumer society’? More broadly, what are the meanings of consumption and what should historians include or exclude? ‘Consumerism’ and ‘modern consumer society’, it will be argued, are concepts with diminishing analytical and conceptual usefulness that have privileged a particular western version of modern consumption at the expense of the multi-faceted and often contradictory workings of consumption in the past and are increasingly at odds with the current debate about the cultures and politics of consumption

The Unequal Future of Consumption : How the Covid lockdown is reconfiguring the nexus of getting and spending

THE NEW REPUBLIC (ISSN 0028-6583), Vol. 251, No. 9, Issue 5044, September 2020.This article provides a comparative study of the changing dynamics of consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines the effects on mobility, leisure, retail, domestic practices and spending and saving, and places them in historical perspective. It shows how the pandemic is mainly amplifying pre-existing trends rather than amounting to a break and disruptio

Getting to grips with energy : fuel, materiality and daily life

Peer reviewe

Energy Shortages and the Politics of Time: Resilience, Redistribution and `Normality' in Japan and East Germany, 1940s-1970s

Peer reviewe

Paths, detours, and connections: consumption and its contribution to Latin American History

Despite the increase and variety of historical literature in the region in the last decades, the history of consumption, as a proper area of study, has received only modest scholarly attention from Latin American historians. With the aim of contributing to the emerging literature on the subject, this essay illustrates the relevance of studies on the history of consumption for a better and novel understanding of Latin America’s social, economic, and cultural past. It does this: 1) by revisiting the lessons learned from the first debates in the historical literature on consumption; 2) by examining recent developments in the history of consumption in Latin America, and; 3) by identifying future challenges for consumption studies

Material histories of the world: scales and dynamics

The modern world has involved an unprecedented ballooning of stuff. How can historians make sense of this massive surge? This chapter offers some conceptual and methodological tools and suggestions. Instead of opting for either micro or macro histories, it argues that we need to move between these scales to capture, analyse, and explain the forces that drive greater consumption. The chapter links locally situated material culture with the aggregate global analysis of material flows. It discusses the influence of empire and political economy on taste, norms, and conventions and reflects on the dynamics of demand in contemporary societies by showing how everyday practices, energy systems, and networked infrastructures are interdependent and need to be studied together. It challenges a neat separation between demand and supply. It complements earlier chapters on ‘long’ and ‘deep history’ and the Anthropocene by calling on historians to straddle different spatial scales of the material world