“Consumer Culture” by Douglas J. Goodman and Mirelle Cohen is an evidenced based book which in chapter one “From consumption to consumer culture” outlines the main reasons for consumption. The main points which the authors try to put across is that consumer culture is a way of life and consumption is an act. The authors explains how consumer culture came about from the beginning to the consumer culture as we know it today. The authors explain that before the industrial revolution people consumed for the family and bought from local shops, things started to change when social competition became popular and the upper class people used fashion as a means to differ from people in same or lower social ranks. “the Elizabethan nobleman now began to spend less for his family and more to secure his place in this new social competition.”(Goodman, DJ. Cohen, M. Pg7) The authors go on to say that the “competitive consumption spread beyond the court to create new institutions and lay the foundation for a consumer culture”. (Goodman, DJ. Cohen, M. Pg7) The authors have interesting facts on fashion consumerism as they say that it has in a way shaped the way people consume out with fashion. Examples which they give is Wedgewood who was a manufacturer and retailer of pottery. He was one of the few people who understood the fashion phenomena and new it can be controlled. He knew that fashion was “characterised by trends and cannot exist without people” (Goodman, DJ. Cohen, M. Pg12) so he adapted this sort of thinking to his own company staying close to the next fashion trend in order to know what people are going to buy next. Many people then followed this sort of thinking and when one fashion began another would follow such as hot drinks which required cups to hold in.
In the 1st chapter Goodman and Cohen try to identify where consumer culture came from and how it evolved into what it is today. The Authors use interesting facts such as links between fashion consumed products to everyday products and the idea of evolution in shopping such as local stores to general markets and from department stores to shopping malls. The idea of people consuming more and more is supported by the way we live now.
In chapter 2 The authors back up their views on fashion consumption as they state “consumption is the sole end of all production” (Goodman, DJ. Cohen, M. Pg28) and go on to say that the reason people consume is due to either increase in salary or were led to “unwholesome desire” (Goodman, DJ. Cohen,M . pg28)
The author is trying to put across that the way we consume has come from the changes in society and is shaped by peoples new way of thinking. Before people would buy because they needed but nowadays people buy because they want and desire. The idea behind consumption is if fashion culture did not exist in society that the economy may not be the way it is today because fashion plays such a big role in the way people live.
Goodman, D J. Cohen, M. 2004. Consumer Culture. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbbara, Calafornia.
Thursday 2 December 2010
Summary on Compulsive Consumption Behaviour"
“Compulsive consumption behaviours” is a journal by Julianne Trauttmann-Attmann and Tricia Widner Johnson who try to determine if “bulimic behaviours, Fashion interest and and the importance of being well dressed had a casual relationship with compulsive buying” the research is based on the relationships among “binge eating, compulsive clothing buying and fashion orientation”. From this research the authors are trying to find the importance of consumption and whether one behaviour will link to another. “compulsive behaviour may be reached by an examination of whether or not one compulsive behaviour leads to another”. It is important to understand that this article is not just made up of the authors thoughts and opinions but refers to a large amount of other research on similar topics such as Bullimia, compulsive shopping behaviour, self image and many more. The authors use techniques such as questionnaires and the BULIT-R (Thelan et al., 1991)bulimia test given to a group of students in order to gain valuable information towards their topic. One particular test which the authors refer to is a research method by Edwards (1993) where he uses a 13 item Likert-Like scale. With Edwards permission the authors changed the scale slightly from general compulsive buying to compulsive clothing buying to fit the purposes of their research. In the results of their tests they found that there was a positive link between “disordered eating behaviours and compulsive clothing buying”. They also discovered that there wasn’t a strong link between “binging behaviours and interest in fashion or the importance of being well dressed.” This shows that people who have binging tendencies do not necessarily have a great interest in fashion as such but rather they have an interest in buying clothes for the sake of buying. Although eating and buying clothes are two completely different activities, the results show that people adopt the same behaviours for both. This is particularly true in female consumers.
When reading this article it is important to understand the idea of consumption and reason why people consume fashion. Also knowing the difference between people who are interested in fashion and those who are binge eaters who buy the sake of buying. In understanding these point it becomes clear that consumers consume for different reasons.
The authors have put forward very interesting facts and research and although they did mention at the end that gender should be a variable for further examination, it would have been a fairer test if males took part in the research. “the present study utilised female college students in the U.S as participants” Their assumption that female are mostly “ at risk “ could well be true but may not always be the case as their reference was taken from 2002 and the journal is written in 2009. Over a 7 year period the most at risk people may have changed. The authors also mention that people who suffer from binging disorder are often recommended by therapists to take up shopping as a solution but in fact they are probably passing them onto another disorder. If binge eaters read this journal this may be of help not to shop compulsively or vice versa.
Trautmann-Attmann, J. Johnson, T W. 2009. Compulsive Consumption Behaviours: investigating amoung binge eating, compulsive clothing buying and fashion orientation. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33.
When reading this article it is important to understand the idea of consumption and reason why people consume fashion. Also knowing the difference between people who are interested in fashion and those who are binge eaters who buy the sake of buying. In understanding these point it becomes clear that consumers consume for different reasons.
The authors have put forward very interesting facts and research and although they did mention at the end that gender should be a variable for further examination, it would have been a fairer test if males took part in the research. “the present study utilised female college students in the U.S as participants” Their assumption that female are mostly “ at risk “ could well be true but may not always be the case as their reference was taken from 2002 and the journal is written in 2009. Over a 7 year period the most at risk people may have changed. The authors also mention that people who suffer from binging disorder are often recommended by therapists to take up shopping as a solution but in fact they are probably passing them onto another disorder. If binge eaters read this journal this may be of help not to shop compulsively or vice versa.
Trautmann-Attmann, J. Johnson, T W. 2009. Compulsive Consumption Behaviours: investigating amoung binge eating, compulsive clothing buying and fashion orientation. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33.
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