Locating custodial possession in a consumer society
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(Published version)
Date
2015
Authors
Crocker, R.
Editors
Cooper, T.
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Conference paper
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PLATE: Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference Proceedings, 2015 / Cooper, T. (ed./s), pp.81-87
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PLATE Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference 2015 (17 Jun 2015 - 19 Jun 2015 : Nottingham, UK)
Abstract
‘Consumerism’ can be seen as an ideological term referring to a relatively new and contested phenomenon, the advent of mass-consumption and its transformative effects in the twentieth century.Social practices around consumption have changed remarkably over the last century, from what might be termed more restrained and cautious ‘custodial’ forms of consumption, to an expansive individualization, where an accelerated cycle of consumption and discard seems justified in terms of an ongoing process of self-transformation and self-expression.In this paper I explore some of the key moments and themes in the history of this development from consumption as ‘access’ to consumption as ‘excess’, and suggest that since the social practices of consumption are so dependent on social and material contexts, it seems important to look more closely at this historical process, especially at a time when the many of the contexts that once supported over consumption are coming under considerable political, social and environmental pressure.
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2015 Copyright Robert Crocker (Proceedings are under a Creative Common License Number CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)