Announcements
May 2009
ASA Consumer Sessions
Consumers and Consumption 1
Ethics and Consumption: More Choice
or More Coercion?
Organizer:
J. Michael Ryan, University of Maryland
Presider:
Zsuzsanna Vargha, Columbia University
Papers:
Does it Matter Why Somebody Buys Organic Food?
Consumption and Public Good in Ethical Industries
Michael Haedicke
Reflexivity and the Whole Food Market Consumer:
The lived experience of shopping for change (and
pleasure)
Josee Johnston and Michelle Szabo
The Consumer Cooperative Movement: An analysis
of class and consumption - Joshua Carreiro
The Social Genesis of Moral Consumption: A Durkheimian
View
Melissa Pirkey
Discussant:
Karen Bettez Halnon, Pennsylvania State
University
*****
Consumers and Consumption 2
Representations of Consumer Practices
and Consumer Attitudes
Organizer:
J. Michael Ryan, University of Maryland
Presider:
Josee Johnston, University of Toronto
Papers:
Price Check on "Free": Educational
Excellence or Opportunisitic Marketing
Deborah Kraklow
Promises for Profit: Commodification of Meaning
and Culture in the Marketing of PostSecondary
Education
Nicole Marborano van Cleve
The Consumption of Disaster: Historical Roots
and Contemporary Implications
Timothy Recuber
Consumer Credit Attitudes
Sara Skiles
Discussant:
Katherine Chen, CUNY
*****
Sociology of Culture Roundtable: Consumer
Studies Research Network
Presider
Amy Best, George Mason University
Papers:
Consumer culture and (inter)national identification
processes: a figurational
approach
Paddy Dolan, Dublin Institute of Technology
Religion and Consumption: Does Denomination
and Religiosity Affect Demand for Labor Friendly
and Animal-Welfare Friendly Products?
Danielle Deemer, The Ohio State University
Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University
Consuming Identity: Consumption
Practices among the Middle Class in India
Bhavani Arabandi, University of Virginia
Consumer Institutions
in Consumer Markets: Local Bicycle Clubs, National Bicycle Associations,
and the Cycling Press in France and the United
States, 1875-1910
Thomas Burr, Illinois State University
Entraining Publics: Fashions, Fads, and Fans
Elizabeth Wissinger , BMCC City University
of New York
December 2008
Douglas Holt named Editor of Journal of
Consumer Culture
In June, Douglas Holt,
L’Oréal
Professor of Marketing at the Saïd Business
School, University of Oxford, assumed the editorship
of the Journal of Consumer Culture.
He took over from George Ritzer, University of
Maryland, one of the founding Editors who served
in that capacity since in 2001.
Recently Holt has conducted historical research
on iconic brands to develop a new cultural approach
to branding. This model is published in How
Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural
Branding (Harvard Business School Press,
2004), as well as in related management and academic
articles. He has also analyzed global branding
from a novel cultural perspective ("How
Global Brands Compete" Harvard Business
Review, September 2004). Holt has published
extensively on sociological issues concerning
consumption, including social class, masculinity
and consumer society. He co-edited (with Juliet
Schor) The Consumer Society Reader (New
Press 2000).
Before moving to Oxford in 2004 he was a professor
at the Harvard Business School (2000-2004), University
of Illinois (1997-2000) and Penn State University
(1992-1997). He took his BA from Stanford University
(economics and political science), MBA from the
University of Chicago (marketing) and PhD from
the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern
University (marketing with a specialization in
cultural anthropology).
We welcome Doug and offer hearty thanks and
good wishes to George.
Conference Calendar,
December 2008
available in html and pdf
Books of Note
http://csrn.camden.rutgers.edu/newsletters/10-1/books.htm
May 2008
Interested in Forming
a New Research Group?
The American
Sociological Association’s Section
on Aging and the Life Course sponsors several
Research Groups that function as interest
groups and informal networks within the Section. There
are plans to form a new Research Group on Age
and Consumption in 2008. The collective welcomes
scholars:
- with an interest in age and all phases of
the consumption cycle: markets, production,
acquisition, possession, and disposal;
- who study all manner of commodities and goods,
such as housing, financial services, leisure
and travel, fitness, and self-care, but also
a host of other consumer items;
- who focus on consumption from the perspective
of the enterprise, the consumer, or both;
- who theorize the intersection of life course,
identity, and consumption.
Whether you are a
Section member or not, student or faculty,
the organizer, David Ekerdt, would welcome
a note of inquiry. If there is sufficient
interest, the Research Group could have its first
meeting at the ASA meeting in Boston, in conjunction
with the Aging and Life Course section’s
Roundtable session on August 1, 2008. Possible
presentations at that session would be eligible
for listing in the ASA meeting program.
Again, please direct inquiries and expressions
of interest to David Ekerdt at the University
of Kansas (dekerdt@ku.edu). Is
there a market for this?
Do We Need to Update
Your Information?
 Members, please
check whether the information about you
is correctly listed on the CSRN
Members page.
If not, please drop
us a short email that we can update
the listing on our website. Thank you.
Conference
Report
THE CONTESTED TERRAIN
OF CONSUMPTION STUDIES
Consumer Studies Mini-Conference (website)
Thursday, July 31st 2008 Boston College, Boston
 The
Consumer Studies Research Network (CSRN)
sponsored a one-day mini-conference on “The
Contested Terrain of Consumption Studies,” held
at Boston College, immediately prior to
the American Sociological Association (ASA)
annual meeting in Boston.
Building on the momentum
of our highly successful mini-conference
in August 2007 in New York City, the 2008
conference engaged critical and polemical
differences within the field of consumption
studies.
>>> CSRN
Conference-Preliminary Program (html) or printable
pdf version 
>>> ASA
Consumers and Consumption Sessions |
