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Vol.
6, No. 1, December 2004newsletter designer
Emerson University
Dan Cook
editor
University of Illinois-Champaign
George Ritzer
all-around great guy
University of Maryland-College Park
Todd Stillman
listserv manager
University of Maryland—College Park
Statement
of Purpose
The organizing
group for Consumers, Commodities and Consumption seeks to foster dialogue
and debate among those who are interested in and concerned about the place
of goods and commodities in social life. These interests and concerns
may range from the poetics of micro/personal identity formation to the
identity politics of gendered, raced and classed display, from historical
work on the rise of consumer culture to a critique of Nike advertising,
from investigations of typical places of consumption to the study the
dynamics of globalization and urban areas. Individuals affiliated with
Consumers, Commodities and Consumption desire to bring to the fore, in
their own ways, the depths to which commodities and a market logic have
come to pervade virtually all forms of social life and social interaction.
The primary goal is to begin to engage in an interchange.
Contact
the CCC:
Contact
the Consumers, Commodities and Consumption Special Interest Group at the
American Sociological Association.
Write to Dan Cook, CCC Newsletter
103 Gregory Hall
810 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
phone: 217-265-5509
fax: 217-244-3348
email: dtcook@uiuc.edu
Have something to say? Send in essays, comments, letters, reviews, observations
for the next Newsletter.
Visit
our Web
site
by
Fernando Elichirigoity
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
elichi@uiuc.edu
One constant desire expressed in marketing discourse is that of wanting to know what consumers really think and feel about a product, and, ideally, how to ascertain their inner most desires before they voice them. Further, marketers may seek mechanisms that induce an irresistible desire to purchase specific goods--the ultimate "buy button" that marketers themselves push. In the quest for this knowledge, marketing researchers have employed qualitative and quantitative techniques, such as focus groups, participant observation and data mining.
There is, however, growing unease about existing marketing techniques and their overall value. Several recent articles in the popular business press have articulated concerns in the marketing community about the effectiveness of advertising in general and of research methods in particular as efficacious in eliciting true knowledge about what consumers really think or desire.
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The
New Age Consumer:
Eating
healthy and safely in a fast food society
by T.A.
Ten Eyck
Michigan State University
Toby.Teneyck@ssc.msu.edu
Americans, and much of the rest of the developed and developing world, have a love-hate relationship with food. We love the way it tastes and the social settings in which we eat, but hate the way it makes us look, especially when we are taking in more than we are expending. For centuries, we have sought ways to have our cake and eat it too while maintaining an acceptable figure. In the last few years, we have seen the introduction of such diets as Atkins, the South Beach Diet, and the grapefruit diet. We are inundated with personalities such as Richard Simmons, Body By Jake, and Denise Austin--all looking fit, trim, and happy while advocating the idea that if you are trim you will feel better about yourself. If these approaches do not work, you can always try diet pills, group therapy, or liposuction.
In addition to food and fitness, you are expected to eat safely. Salmonella, e. coli, listeria, camplyobacter, vibrio vulnificus and many other potentially hazardous foodborne pathogens and toxins are lurking in and around our food supply, waiting for an opportunity to attack. For most, contact with such pathogens and toxins means extra time in the restroom and another bottle of Pepto Bismol. For others, however, these can be life-threatening, especially for the young, old, pregnant, and immune compromised.
So, what can be done at a time when fast food restaurants, ready-to-eat meals, and prepackaged goodness are part and parcel of our world? One strategy is to adopt the New Age lifestyle.
The
Consumer as Serf
Herbert Jack Rotfeld
Auburn
University
A few years ago, frustrated consumer Mark Evanier searched the different Los Angeles grocery stores in vain for a particular brand of orange juice. Stores would carry other products from the same company, but not the orange juice. As he was about to ask one store's manager for assistance, he noticed a sign above the podium saying, "If we don't stock what you want, we will be happy to special-order it for you." But when he asked the manager for a special-order, he was told, "We don't do special-orders. . . .It's just too much hassle." The manager apparently felt it was an adequate explanation to say that he didn't personally put the sign there, though he also admitted that he had been manager of that store for more than six years, had never made any special-orders and had not ever felt compelled to take down the sign (Evanier 2003, p. 124-128).