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ephemera politics of consumption issue releasedephemera politics of consumption issue released This age of austerity comes on the back of a lengthened period of apparently rampant consumer excess: that was a party for which we are all now having to pay. A spectacular period of unsustainably funded over-indulgence, it seems, has now given rise to a sobering period of barely fundable mere-subsistence. Consumption, narrated along such lines, is a sin which has to be paid for. Beyond the deceptive theology of consumption, however, lies actual politics. In May 2012, we hosted a conference at Dublin’s Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland in order to analyse and debate the politics of consumption. This special issue is the outcome of the discussions which took place during that event. It features conceptual and empirical investigations into the politics of consumption, a head-to-head debate on the idea of consumer citizenship, a series of notes on the relationship between art, politics, and consumption, and reviews of two recent books. Taken together, these diverse pieces underline the need for a politically-oriented analysis of consumption, not only for the sake of informing academic debates but also for the sake of informing contemporary consumption practices. Consumption, we argue, is political: to approach it otherwise is to dogmatically seek refuge in a world of fantasy. CONTENTS Consumption matters The dialectics of progress: Irish ‘belatedness’ and the politics of prosperity Alienated consumption, the commodification of taste and disabling professionalism Towards a consumerist critique of capitalism: A socialist defence of consumer culture A liquid politics? Conceptualising the politics of fair trade consumption and consumer citizenship From politicisation to redemption through consumption: The environmental crisis and the generation of guilt in the responsible consumer as constructed by the business media The potential of consumer publics Utopias of ethical economy: A response to Adam Arvidsson Thinking beyond neo-liberalism: A response to Detlev Zwick The myth of metaphysical enclosure: A second response to Adam Arvidsson On things and comrades Can the object be a comrade? Commodity as comrade: Luibov Popova – Untitled textile design on William Morris wallpaper for Historical Materialism Re-appropriating Che’s image: From the revolution to the market and back again In praise of anti-capitalist consumption: How the V for Vendetta mask blows up Hollywood marketing Commodity fights in Post-2008 Athens: Zapatistas coffee, Kropotkinian drinks and Fascist rice Irish utopian realism? Consumption and its contradictions: Dialogues on the causes of buying |
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