Cultures of Consumption

Working Paper Series

The Error of our Ways: Historians and the Birth of
Consumer Society
John Brewer
Professor of History and Literature
California Institute of Technology
Professor John Brewer gave this paper as a public lecture in the series organised by the Cultures of
Consumption programme ES!C"#H!B$ on %& September %''&( at The !oyal Society( )ondon*
+othing in this paper may be cited( ,uoted or summarised or reproduced -ithout
permission of the authors$
Cultures of Consumption, and ESRC-AHRB Research Programme
Bir.bec. College( /alet Street( )ondon( WC0E 1H2
Tel: 3 44 '$ %' 1'15 '6'0
7a8: 3 44 '$ %' 1'15 '6'%
---*consume*bb.*ac*u.
Wor.ing 9aper +o: 0%
:ate: ;une %''4
/y tal. this evening focuses on the debate about the origins and development of
so"called <consumer society= among historians and commentators on the nature of
modernity and post"modernity* > -ant to tease out the sometimes comple8 relationship
bet-een the emergence of an historical debate about the birth and development of
consumer society in the 05?'s( and social and political commentary on consumerism
from the 05@'s on-ards* )et me ma.e clear from the outset -hat > am not doing* 7irst
and foremost it is not my concern to pass Audgment on <consumer society= or
<consumerism=* 7ar too much discussion on these topics ta.es the form of a panegyric or
a Aeremiad* Bne of the most difficult tas.s for those -ho -ant to analyse consumption in
its varied forms C including consumerism C is to get beyond this debate( and to avoid
becoming an interested party in it* This is not to preclude( of course( serious
investigation of the causes( effects and politics of certain consumption practicesD its Aust
to say that tal.ing about them in the abstract terms of <consumer society= doesn=t seem to
me to be illuminating or helpful* 7inally > do not offer any panacea or nostrum( or policy
recommendation* >n tal.ing of the error of our -ays( > am tal.ing about historians and
commentators on consumer society( not about consumers or policyma.ers*
>n the 05?'s( and as part of a larger interest in consumption that involved most of
the social science disciplines though not economics$( historians turned their attention to
the history of consumer society and consumer cultures* This ne- scholarship had t-o
chief points of focus: the late eighteenth century( the era of the industrial revolution( and
the period bet-een the late nineteenth and early t-entieth centuries* The former
literature -as concerned -ith the birth of a consumer society and its relationship to
economic gro-th( the latter -ith mass consumption and modern retailing in Europe and
+orth #merica* The trend -as embodied in t-o -or.s( one( The Birth of a Consumer
Society 05?%$( to -hich > contributed( the other The Culture of Consumption edited by
!ichard 7o8 and ;ac.son )ears 05?&$( but soon spread far beyond them* 7rom the
outset this literature -as concerned -ith the origins and development of something that
-as considered modern* The search for consumer society -as a search for modernity and
the emphasis( -hether on eighteenth"century ac,uisitiveness or the late nineteenth"
century department store( -as on the first signs of -hat in its maturity -as to be a full"
blo-n( modern consumer society*
+o-here -as this more apparent than in +eil /cEendric.=s provocative thesis
that there -as a consumer revolution in the late eighteenth"century that gave birth to the
first consumer society in Britain* This revolution( he argued( too. the form of the greater
enAoyment than ever before of material possessions( especially of pottery( te8tiles and
metal goods produced for and sold in the mar.etplace* >t -as made possible( he claimed(
by greater -ealth -hich -as more e,uitably distributed than in other nations( and by the
e8istence of a society -hich -as more open and less formally stratified than else-here in
Europe* These circumstances affecting demand -ere complemented by shre-d
entrepreneurship( mar.eting and advertising strategies e8emplified in the practices of
industrialists li.e ;osiah Wedg-ood( the pottery magnate* Central to this account -as the
role of emulation( particularly middle class emulation of the aristocracy( and the
conse,uent efforts at social distinction pursued by the aristocratic elite* The social
system( in this account( -as not only graded and ordered through emulation( but -as
driven by it* This impulse or desire -as the steam in the economic machine*
Though immediately subAect to severe criticism from those outside the discipline
of history( the immediate effect of the claims in The Birth of a Consumer Society among
historians -as to launch a plethora of studies -hich claimed to locate the date and site C
the time and place " of the birth of consumer society* Though the e8planation for this
%
historical preoccupation is comple8( having to do both -ith developments internal to
history and those outside it in society at large( one of the main motives for this gro-ing
literature -as a mi8ture of national pride and field chauvinism* The birth of consumer
society -as spotted in late seventeenth and early eighteenth"century Britain and #merica(
in si8teenth and even thirteenth"century England( in !enaissance >taly( the seventeenth"
century +etherlands( eighteenth"century 7rance( and even eighteenth"century !ussia*
Bf course( for those -hose focus -as on the nineteenth and t-entieth centuries
and -ho sa- consumer society in terms of mass consumption and the end to a regime of
needs for a maAority of citiFens( such vie-s -ere a distraction from the radical shift
-hich heralded <modern= consumer society* But for the most vehement proponent of the
birth of consumer society thesis( there -as a definite continuum* To spea. of a birth(
-rites /cEendric.( indicates the organic nature of the -hole development( and the need
for a long preceding period of gro-th( and the necessity for many further stages before
the maturity of <a society of high mass consumption=( -ould be reached* The
impression -as of a continuous progression from the eighteenth century to the present*
This( despite the fact( for instance( that the percentage of G+9 devoted to consumer
e8penditure declined by %'H bet-een 0??' and 05@5I$
> -ant to put /cEendric.=s formulation under more severe scrutiny( but before >
do so( > also -ant to point to the significant gains and findings prompted by the search for
the origins of consumer society( for though as -ill be clear > see the ,uest as misguided(
li.e many misplaced actions it has had unintended good conse,uences*
7irst( the research that follo-ed in the -a.e of The Birth of a Consumer Society
radically increased our .no-ledge of the material environment of societies in the past*
Though the pattern and precise chronology might vary( according to class( -ealth( gender
and region( studies of the +etherlands( colonial #merica( seventeenth and eighteenth"
century Britain and eighteenth"century 7rance based on ta8 records( business records and
above all inventories of possessions at death have all revealed a common pattern in -hich
household goods C furniture( ne- fabrics( loo.ing glasses( cloc.s( glass-are and pottery
C as -ell as clothing became more abundant* There -as clearly a much denser
environment of manufactured goods than had earlier been supposed* This gro-th in
durables -as matched by important changes in the consumption of such colonial
perishables as tea( sugar and tobacco as items of mass consumption( defined in this
literature as being used by %@H or more of the adult population regularly* /uch -as
learned about the -orld of goods( though much more is .no-n about their presence than
about the processes by -hich they -ere made( distributed and consumed*
Secondly( the one area in -hich this issue of process -as most e8tensively
e8amined -as in the field of mar.eting and retailing* # 01@5 government survey of
shops in England and Wales revealed that +apoleon -as right: there -ere nearly 0&?('''
retailing establishments( a density of 4% people per shop( nearly double that in mid"
t-entieth"century England or the Jnited States* Studies of eighteenth"century retail
outlets sho- that not all -ere( as these figures might imply( small shops( but that a variety
of shops( including arcades and large emporia( e8isted long before the nineteenth"century
department store*
Third( during the eighteenth century( as part of a larger debate about trade and the
economy( a body of analysis emerged that reAected the long"standing moral condemnation
of <e8cessive= commodity consumption C so"called lu8ury rather than necessity*
Bccasionally( as in the case of Bernard /andeville( this entailed the robust defence of
lu8ury itself as the engine of the economyD in other instances it pointed to the importance
of the provision of -hat #dam Smith called <decencies= C items discussed by
&
/cEendric. and revealed in the inventory analyses that seemed to be neither lu8uries nor
necessities*
7ourth( the greater density of goods( enabled society=s middle ran.s( as -ell as
aristocracy( to shape a labile and changing social identity through the consumption of
certain cultural artifacts and services* +otions of gentility( politeness( respectability(
femininity and masculinity -ere at least in part fashioned by particular patterns and
practices of consumption*
Bf course( because much of this research has been fuelled by its search for the
origins of modernity( it offers a very partial vie-( one that privileges practices that loo.
modern and overloo.s those that seem traditional* Thus there is remar.ably little in this
literature C -ith the e8ception of the -or. on foodstuffs " about -hat -e might call ordinary
consumption* There is almost nothing about non"modern forms of consumption and
e8change( such as barter and street mar.ets or peddlers and chapmen( though -or. on this
has begun* #nd there is very little about forms of consumption outside the mar.etplace(
though more and more research C mostly by feminist historians and the historians of -omen
C e8amines the comple8 affective relations C of memory( nostalgia( .inship( propriety and
thrift C bet-een people and material obAects( not all ac,uired through the mar.etplace*
Historical research into the early history of consumption C the same is true of the
literature investigating the late nineteenth and early t-entieth centuries C had tended to split
apart into t-o main areas of investigation( -hich are not that easily connected* The first is
economic( ,uantitative and primarily concerned -ith the density of goods C the sheer
numbers of commodities C and the connection bet-een consumption and gro-th* The
second is far more cultural( anthropological( ,ualitative and concerned -ith issues of
identity( subAectivity( and social distinction* Each approach( as -e -ill see shortly( dra-s
upon and corresponds to one of the first t-o phases in the t-entieth"century debate about
consumer society* The first comes out of the Cold War debate about mass consumption and
gro-th of the 05@'s and 056'sD the second dra-s on the neo"liberal and post"modern
debates about consumption( choice and identity that became so prominent in the 05?'s*
The historical literature of the 05?'s therefore appeared at the very moment at -hich the
debate about consumer society -as changing* Ket both sorts of historical in,uiry have
shared( as > shall try to sho-( a common concern to identify an archetypal or typical
consumer( the embodiment( both individual and collective( of the consumer society*
> don=t -ant to rehearse here the debates among historians about the eighteenth"
century <consumer revolution=* But > do -ant to emphasise that the discussion has been
characteriFed by a persistent tension bet-een a desire to study consumption C an
investigation of ho- people in the past used( used up( consumed the -orld C not Aust its
material obAects( but its time( space and social relations C and a search for the origins of
consumerism C the ac,uisitive purchase of goods in the mar.etplace by an individual
choosing consumer* The t-o( it goes -ithout saying( are not the same* Bne is to be found
in all societies( the other only in certain sorts of society* Bne covers a -hole range of social
activities and their relation to the material -orldD the other focuses on the moment purchase
or ac,uisition in the mar.etplace* 9erhaps -e might say that one of the central ,uestions C
not -ell dealt -ith in this historical literature C is -hat has been the changing relationship
bet-een consumerism and consumptionL
> -ant to as. at least t-o ,uestions of this historical literature* The first has to do
-ith -hat -e might call the signs of modernity that > have identified C a -orld of goods(
sophisticated retailing( public controversy over the virtues and vices of commodity
consumption( and the use of goods in identity formation* Why not treat the presence of all
of these to ,uestion or interrogate the -ays in -hich -e have e,uated certain aspects of
4
consumption -ith <modernity=L But because the concern of this historiography has been to
say C loo.( -e -ere there first C no such critical commentary has been forthcoming* The
obAect is simply to e8tend modernity bac. in time( flattening our sense of the distinctiveness
of different historical periods* >ts as if -e -ant to invert Bruno )atour=s controversial thesis
of <-e have never been modern= -ith something li.e the formulation( -e have al-ays been
modern*
Bne reason -hy consumer society gets pushed bac. further and further in time is
because of our e8pectations about <traditional= or <pre"modern= societies* We fantasiFe
about a pre"lapsarian( edenic -orld( -here men and -omen had simple needs( not comple8
-ants( related to obAects functionally rather than through irrational desire( and enAoyed a
coherent and stable rather than fragmented and labile sense of identity* When -e loo. bac.
into the past and find instead -hat >=ve called signs of modernity( -e see first consumerism
and then consumer society*
But C and this is my second ,uestion " ho- do -e get from acts of consumption or
consumerism to <consumer society=L #s Ben 7ine( one of the most persistent and telling$
critics of this literature has pointed out( the tactic in -hich often one s-allo- really does
seem to ma.e a summer$ involves -hat he calls a horiFontal understanding of
consumption: -hatever factors are ta.en to be of importance Min an individual caseN are
presumed to apply generally across the economy or society as a -hole* >f it -or.s li.e
this for pottery or automobiles( then it -or.s li.e this in consumption as a -hole* >n fact
much of the literature on early modern consumption and this is also often true for
t-entieth"century e,uivalent$ involves synecdoche in -hich the part stands for the -hole*
The case for a consumer society moves from acts of consumption to the e8istence of
historical actors called consumers to the presence( therefore( of a consumer society*
The inevitability of this progression is highly ,uestionable* #s 7ran. Trentmann
has pointed out in a couple of recent essays( one of the most interesting features of the
early modern period is the -ay in -hich gro-ing consumption practices do not lead to
any sort of consumer consciousness* Consumption -as recogniFed as socially and
economically beneficial and #dam Smith famously -rote in The Wealth of nations that
consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production and the interest of the
producer ought to be attended to( only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of
the consumer* The ma8im is so perfectly self"evident( that it -ould be absurd to prove
it* But consumers or the consumer -ere largely absent from eighteenth"century Scottish
political economy -hich( as Trentmann rightly says is concerned not -ith consumer
society but commercial society and not -ith consumers but -ith merchants and traders*
Even -hen acts of consumption or more usually acts of abstinence from consumption$
-ere used( as in the #merican revolution and the anti"Slavery movement( to political
ends( they -ere not underta.en on behalf of or by consumers( but by those -ho gave
themselves a political or moral designation* The consumer as a political actor( or as a
category of person -ho needed protection or had interests( had to a-ait the nineteenth
century* Consumption practices may have been economically( socially and culturally
important but C and this is the general point that the historical case illustrates C even so
they do not necessarily produce consumer consciousness( the emergence of the consumer
as a class of historical agent*
>f leaping from acts of consumption to consumer consciousness is a non"starter(
-hat about the move from acts of consumption to consumer societyL There has been a
tendency in the historical literature to assume that the definition of consumer society is
self"evident( or that it is a thing -ith a series of characteristics C disposable and
discretionary income for a significant number of people( availability of goods that permit
@
consumer choice( the practice of self"fashioning through goods often understood as a
desire for the ne-( novelty and fashion C that can be chec.ed off li.e items on a shopping
list* >n fact( most definitions of consumer society do consist of or at least include a
shopping listD it is more often than not defined by the density of things C furnishings and
fabrics in the eighteenth"century C cars( televisions and household appliances in the mid"
t-entieth* >n much of this literature the presence of goods and commodities overshado-s
the presence of consumers themselves( for it is the plenitude of goods rather than the
plethora of consumers that conveys the sense of abundance -ith -hich consumer society
is so often associated* >t is the consumed good rather than the consumer -ho spea.s in
this story*
>n all such accounts there is a gap bet-een consumer practices and the notion of
consumer society( one that is more often than not filled by some general characteriFation
of <the consumer=( -hich is needed to e8plain -hy they consume* >n /cEendric.=s case
he -elds Oeblen to the eighteenth"century lu8ury debate to produce the emulative
consumer* >n other accounts of consumer society -e are offered the manipulated
consumer( -hose tastes and preferences are given to him or her this a favourite of the
)eft from the 7ran.furt school critics on-ards$( the dreaming( fantasist consumer often
invo.ed in analyses of the department store$( the marginal utility rationalising consumer
of most economists( and the identity"creating consumer and the resisting consumer( found
in so much cultural"studies literature* The problem is not one of -hether or not such
consumers -ere so motivated C although ethnographic studies in -hich consumers spea.
for themselves rather than being ventrilo,uiFed by pundits and academics almost al-ays
reveal a more comple8 picture C but of ma.ing a particular type of consumer spea. for all
consumers* Thus most accounts of consumer society come -ith a stereotypical( ideal"
type consumer and debates about consumer society are also debates about consumer
identity* But as 7ine and )eopold have stressed( given the e8traordinary comple8ity of
consumption practices C not only in the present but in the past C it is inconceivable that
any one general theory of consumption -ill suffice* /oreover any interpretation that
moves from the motives of an aggregate of individual consumers to consumer society
entails an astonishing myopia* #ny remotely plausible account of consumer society
cannot overloo. the role of institutions C from the firm to the state C the topographies of
consumption( ,uestions of access and e8clusion( and the comple8 chains that lin.
production and consumption*
Such analysis certainly e8ists( but its absence from so much of the -or. debating
the e8istence of a consumer society can best to understood if -e turn to a closer analysis(
an historical account of the consumer society debate*
The term <consumer society= as opposed to consumptionPthe consumer is a
relatively recent coinage* The term -as not used at all before the late 05@'s and only
achieved anything li.e general usage in the 056's* Even the #merican economist George
Eatona( one of the maAor early apologists for post"War mass consumption preferred to spea.
of a mass consumption society rather than a consumer society* There have been three
phases of the consumer society debate C the first( bet-een c*05@'"14 occurred during the so"
called golden age of post"World War >> gro-th in Europe and the JS that combined ne-
levels of material abundance and unprecedented leisure time and that -as associated -ith
higher disposable incomes( particular consumer goods C especially cars( -hite"goods(
domestic appliances and televisions C and home o-nership* This -as a debate about the
mechanisms and virtues and vices of capitalist gro-th in the Cold War* The second began
in the late 6's but reached its apogee in the early 05?'s and pitted neo"liberals -ith their
preoccupation -ith the sanctity of individual choice against critics -ho sa- consumer
6
society as one devoted primarily to its o-n reproduction C the 7rench situationalist( Guy
:ebord=s Society of Spectacle C in -hich to ,uote 9erry #nderson( economic life itself
becomes so pervaded -ith symbolic systems of information and persuasion that the notion
of a independent sphere or more or less a"cultural production increasingly loses meaning*
The third phase of the debate( and -hich dates from the 5's C and -hich > don=t have time to
discuss C is that about the globalisation of capitalism and its effects*
7rom its inception the term <consumer society= -as not used as a sharp analytic tool
but as a large"scale( prescriptive characteriFation of a social order* Whether -e read the
panegyrics of cold"-ar liberals or the Aeremiads of often religious$ social conservatives or
hostile commentators on the )eft( discussion of consumer society -as C and to a large e8tent
remains " almost al-ays highly generaliFed and politically tendentious*
Which is perhaps to say that the debate about consumer society inaugurated C indeed
it -as essentially " a debate about the politics of consumption* Bbviously by this > am not
saying that there -ere no consumer politics before the end of World War >>* Bn the
contrary( at least since the late nineteenth century( if not earlier( both in Europe and the
Jnited States( groups of consumers had banded together ,ua consumers to act as -hat the
Harvard historian )isabeth Cohen has usefully termed citiFen consumers( -ho ta.e on the
political responsibility -e usually associate -ith citiFens to consider the general good of the
nation through their consumption( bodies li.e the +ational Consumers )eague in the JS(
co"operative movements and guilds throughout Europe or the British Consumers
#ssociation* #nd governments( especially those -hich came to embrace Eeynsian
economics( had also recognised( -ith varying degrees of acceptance( that consumers
constituted an interest in society( along -ith labour and capital*
But( as Cohen has also sho-n( in post"-ar #merica a ne- consensus emerged
around a formulation that lin.ed the customer and the citiFen C the customer as citiFen C
the notion that the pursuit of private consumption -as in the national or public interest*
#s Cohen has -ritten( 7or at least a ,uarter of a century( the ideal of the Consumers
Repu!lic provided the blue"print for #merican economic( social and political maturation(
as -ell as for e8port around the globe* The Consumers Repu!lic had many appeals* >t
promised great prosperity through yo.ing employment and economic gro-th to high
consumer demand( and it provided a ready -eapon in the political struggles of the Cold
-ar( helping the Jnited States to Austify its superiority over the Soviet Jnion both at
home and abroad* But perhaps most attractive -as the -ay it promoted the socially
progressive end of greater economic e,uality -ithout re,uiring politically progressive
means of redistributing e8isting -ealth* Ho- this actually played out on the ground is
the subAect of her e8cellent recent boo.*
But this -as never Aust a domestic issue* The Cold War formulation of economic
development -as e8ported in theories that connected gro-ing affluence and the
o-nership of goods to conceptions of democracy* This sort of argument is -ell
represented in a classic( best"selling te8t of late @'s and early 056's( the political scientist
Seymour /artin )ipset=s Political "an* )ipset sa- consumer societies as resistant to
demagoguery and dictatorship* He measured democracy not only by education and
-ealth( but persons per motor vehicle( nos* of telephones( radios and ne-spapers per
capita* >n the more democratic European countries( there are 01 persons per motor
vehicle compared -ith 04& for the less democratic* >n the less dictatorial )atin"#merican
countries there are 55 persons per motor vehicle verses %14 for the more dictatorial*
>n short here -e see the e8plicit association of certain sorts of commodity
or more precisely the density of certain sorts of commodity$ -ith a particular
political regime* >n other -ords it is during the Cold War that #merican
1
commodities C the classic case( brilliantly used by Eubric. in :octor Strangelove
and s.ilfully deconstructed by :aniel /iller in his study of the Caribbean is( of
course( Coca Cola C come to represent the #merican liberal democratic$ -ay of
life* Consumption( conceived of some-hat unproblematically( as o-nership rather
than say as use$ becomes a .ey measure of politicsD a set of economic and social
practices signed through goods$ is conflated -ith a political vision or ideology of
the good* The appurtenances of a modern everyday life C cars( fridges and phones
C become part of -hat -as then a global struggle*
Than.s to the efforts of Cold War liberals the connection bet-een the
proAection of a certain #merican$ -ay of life and consumer goods has become
naturalised* But -e should recognised this conAunction as a historically specific
conse,uence of the ideological struggles of the Cold War -hich -ere sustained in
the #merican case not only by academic scholarship but by such bodies such as the
J*S* >nformation #gency and the State :epartment -hich deliberately sort to
e8port a particular version of the #merican -ay of life* Here -as capitalism=s
politics of the #merican -ay$ of everyday life( one that placed commodity culture
at its centre( and -hich has framed the debate about modernity( commodity culture
and consumer society ever since*
+o- the debate about the superiority of an #merican privatiFed regime of mass
consumption connects in many interesting -ays -ith the discussion of
late eighteenth"century Britain as the first consumer society* The literature on economic
development in the 05@'s and 056's loo.ed bac. to the e8perience of the first industrial
nation and its theorists to elaborate its models of gro-th* Thus The Stages of Econoic
!rowth" a #on$Counist %anifesto( -ritten by the #merican economist and cold
-ar -arrior Walt !osto-( -hich bet-een 056' and 051% sold a staggering %6'('' copies
in English alone( -as an e8plicit attempt to use British history to the formulation of a
-iser public policy( to sho- that the -estern model rather than !ussian communism
-as the right -ay for-ard for the &
rd
World*
This emphasis on the British case -as( of course( in part because the obAect -as to
refute /ar8 -hose theory rested on an analysis of the British industrial revolution( and to
emphasise the benefits of the first <ta.e"off= into sustained gro-th rather than the
misfortunes it brought to many -hich -as -hy the scholarly debate about the so"called
standard of living controversy during the >ndustrial !evolution -as so bitter during the
Cold War$*
!osto- did not( of course( attribute Britain=s ta.e"off to gro-ing
demandPconsumption( though he did see the end of such gro-th as the arrival of a
<society of high mass consumption=* But he placed great emphasis in his analysis of the
British case on -hat he sa- as the most important pre"condition to successful gro-th in
contemporary transitional societies( namely a fle8ible and open political and social
regime -ith leaders a sort of liberal vanguard$ ready to embrace and encourage a culture
of innovation and novelty* These he supposed to be present in eighteenth"century
England*
The birth of a consumer society thesis connects to and elaborates this analysis*
/cEendric. cites !osto-=s account( reinforces his vie- of Britain as an <open society=(
and ta.es a highly optimistic vie- of the material circumstances of the industrial
revolution* #nd dra-ing on !osto-=s conclusion that <the age of mass consumption=
mar.s the full maturity of economic development( he refigures !osto-=s period of ta.e"
off 01?&"0?'%$ as the birth of consumer society* :ra-ing on analyses that sa- the
?
strength of contemporary capitalism to lie in the realm of consumption( /cEendric.
bac."proAected this into the eighteenth century* His analysis is sometimes seen as part of
Thatcherite neo"liberalism but its chief reference point is to the Cold War debate about
the best means to economic gro-th*
The defence of consumerism as the source of gro-th( and gro-th as the means to
consumerism -ere not( of course -ithout their critics* >n fact the term consumer society
-as used more often( before it passed into general usage in Aournalism( by its opponents
than by those -ho advocated consumer led gro-th* Though there have al-ays been
certain conservatives -ho have agoniFed about the destruction of traditional forms of
allegiance and community( the strongest criticisms of consumer society have consistently
come from the )eft* 7rom the critics of mass society C chiefly those German intellectuals
in e8ile in the JS from the 7ran.furt school( notably Herbert /arcuse C from the group
of 7rench critics( almost all of -hom had been associated -ith socialisme ou barbarie C
notably Henri )efebvre( ;ean"7rancois )iotard( Guy :ebord and ;ean Baudrilliard C and
in the #ngophone -orld from such +e- )eft intellectuals as !ichard Hoggart and such
#merican critics as 7redric. ;ameson*
>n the first phase of the consumer society( the debate mirrored pre"-ar
preoccupations -ith mass society( and emphasised the deadening( culturally empty(
conformist nature of mass consumption( its creation of false needs by -hat 9erry
#nderson has called a streamlined machinery of desire* >t focussed on the
mechanisms and conse,uences of manipulation by Oance 9ac.ard=s famous hidden
persuaders( paying special attention to mar.eting and advertising in the manufacture of
false -ants* Bn the one hand it recogniFed the po-er of consumer desireD on the other it
interpreted this as a form of passivity( because it -as the conse,uence of false
consciousness* >ts archetypical consumer -as manipulated and deluded( -hich is -hy
George Eatona=s bullish The /ass Consumption Society 0564$ -as concerned to rebut
this vie- by demonstrating that <the #merican consumer=( though not ruthlessly driven
by economic rationality -as not given to delusion( but sensible and discriminating*
:ebate about consumer society -as( once again( a debate about the character or nature of
the consumer*
While much of the historical literature inspired by The Birth of Consumer Society
mirrored the concerns of the first phase of the mid"t-entieth"century consumer society
debate( the interest in consumer practices and identity formation gre- out of the second
phase of the consumer society debate -ith its neo"liberal preoccupation -ith individual
choice and its reconceptualisation of consumer society as an overarching( all"embracing
semiotic order*
The conte8t for these developments -as a ne- emphasis on fle8ible rather than
mass production( the greater distancing C both physical and psychic " bet-een production
and consumption( the focus on forms of consumption that emphasiFed individuality rather
than conformity( and the gro-ing importance of technologies of reproduction and
simulation* >f the mass"society criti,ue that consumption -as numbingly conformist had
achieved some purchase( and not Aust on the )eft( its puritanical sense that consumption
beyond basic needs -as false( unnecessary and alienating came under fire( and not Aust
from free"mar.et liberals*
Thin.ing of consumption as a means to produce meaning( as the articulation of
signs and symbols( and therefore vie-ing consumer society as a semiotic system( had t-o
rather contradictory outcomes* Bn the one hand there -ere those -ho follo-ed the
e8tremely influential -or. of /ichel de Certeau on everyday life that emphasised that
even -ithin the constraints of contemporary capitalism consumers had agency " could
5
create something -ith its o-n meaning( shape their -orld and identity in their o-n
image* Bn the other -as the vie-( associated particularly -ith ;ean Baudrilliard( that
consumption -as totalising( all"embracing( inescapable( a regime or order -hose obAect
-as to endlessly reproduce itself* Consumption=( he -rote( is neither a material
practice( nor a phenomenology of affluence* >t is not defined by the food -e eat( the
clothes -e -ear( the car -e drive( nor the visual and oral substance of images and
messages( but in the organiFation of all this as signifying substance* Consumption is the
virtual totality of all obAects and messages presently constituted in a more or less coherent
discourse* Consumption( in so far as it is meaningful( is a systematic act of the
manipulation of signs* Consumer society is a semiotic -orld mar.ed by constant
change and permanent stasis* This is not so much a thesis of individual manipulation C as
in the criti,ue of the 7ran.furt school C as of massive and collective delusion( the source
of post"modern resignation and despair*
But( yet again( -e face the same problems that -e have seen in every version of
<consumer society= C an archetypal consumer C the free chooser( or the ma.er of signs C
and a general characterisation of consumer society bereft of any middle ground* >ndeed
the general characterisation of consumption as a signing and symbolic practice has had
the effect of treating consumption as an almost totally autonomous realm devoid of
economic and social conte8t( of seeing the distancing of consumption from production as
a real rupture or divorce*
What then to concludeL >f > am pressed to ans-er the ,uestion did the late
eighteenth century see the Birth of Consumer Society( > -ill ans-er( <no=* But my
preferred ans-er is to say that this isn=t a very good ,uestion( because it is not a very
good -ay of thin.ing about either consumption or consumerism in the eighteenth(
t-entieth or t-enty"first century* This isn=t Aust because of the political freight the
consumer society debate has had to carry C though it has largely been a non"too"covert
debate about the mar.et and its role in our lives C but because its language( assumption
and frame-or.( as used by both its apologists and critics( has obscured the middle ground
C bet-een the individual consumer and society C and made it difficult to develop -hat
!obert /erton called <middle"level= e8planations* What -e need is a much better
understanding of the processes -hich connect forms of production and consumption(
studies that attend to consumer politics( both in the sense of the role of regulatory bodies
and systems of la- and of consumers acting collectively( a far more subtle and comple8
understanding of the contested and contradictory meanings of consumption practices(
-hich include the self"understanding of the consumer( and a stronger sense of the
relationship and distinction bet-een consumerism and consumption* )est you as an
audience find me guilty this evening of delivering a Aeremiad( let me say that > thin. that
these sorts of investigation are no- truly under -ay( and that than.fully -e have begun
to move beyond the consumer society debate* >ts al-ays fashionable to be post
something* > Aust hope that -e are post Cconsumer society*
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