Page 14 of today’s Financial Times includes an article on what effect the recession will haave on today’s bling youff. It is argued that habits have changed and people will not be tightening their belts because consumerism, rules ok. I don’t really agree. Look at the rise of sites like Tescopoly to encourage ethical consumerism or at, the bottom end of the market, the way that Primark is rammed these days. Added to that you have sites like Freecycle or Gumtree where things are changing hands without registering as economic transactions and thus being saved from landfill. In the last recession Nirvana made ripped jeans a fashion statement to the point that it was termed thrift store chic and you could get pre-ripped ones in Top Shop. The fashion shoot that Caroline Flint was criticised for doing was actually not some Playboy centrefold but an Observer magazine feature on budget-wear for the recession. Anti consumerism even had a whole issue of the academic journal Cultural Studies devoted to it last year damnit. I told the reporter as much when she rang to ask my opinion which appears in truncated form in the piece.
Robbie makes his point for the Liverpool Dockers
The online version is here (although the site is a bit funny about letting you go to it too many times anonymously). After 5 goes (which I expended long ago) I think you have to give them your details and register. If not it’s no FT. What more can I say but no comment.
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July 9, 2009 at 10:36 pm
olching
I can’t read the FT article; it won’t let me access it without registration.
Anyway, I hope you are right and the resistance to consumerism is becoming more widespread, but I am more pessimistic than you. Even anti-consumerism has become a consumerist product which people use as an identity tag without really applying or understanding the deeper and wider issues behind consumerism.
Part of this is of course the post-political, neoliberal discourse of disguising ideology from those espousing it, which leads people to believe they are resisting consumerism, but are merely using new ways of upholding it (if this makes sense).
There is real resistance, but I feel a lot of the pseudo-resistance is merely consumerism for ‘teh cool kidz’ rather than a real political take on things.
The power dynamics between Europe and the developing world are so complex that most people avoid the issue yet think they are resisting whilst upholding said dynamics.
July 9, 2009 at 10:43 pm
olching
Just to add:
“The fashion shoot that Caroline Flint was criticised for doing was actually not some Playboy centrefold but an Observer magazine feature on budget-wear for the recession.”
That’s what I mean. This is capitalist anti-capitalism, or consumerist anti-consumerism. It’s still consumerism, just ‘dressed up’ to be anti-consumerism.