Value of Anti

Value of Anti Introduction In the recent past, the process of critiquing consumerism has continued to occupy greater spaces in the mainstream business world. However, despite the constant denunciations, there remains to be no genuine or universally agreed analysis of consumerism. Processes of offering critiques have continued to elicit varied reactions as to which strategy offers the best mechanism of assessing the quality and outcome of consumer thinking.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Value of Antis of boycotts and selective shopping concerning such tangible icons as Nike, McDonalds, and Target appeal to the student of today due to their relativity. Overall, the recent political studies of consumerism argue that the shift to mass consumerism redefined gender roles, reshaped class politics, benefited the civil rights movement, altered residential landscapes, and ultimately determined political policy from the local level to the global realm (Carducci, 2006). Taking the political approach provides instructors a means of teaching institutional history from a private point of view: that of the everyday shopper.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Countercultural Views The cultural view of consumerism is allied to the concept of conformity. It asserts that the business culture wears the image of a monolithic, homogeneous, and hierarchical order. The view attempts to dominate the society and market segments by way of advertisement (Carducci, 2006). According to this concept, consumerism creates a sense of conformity, and it is the centerpiece of the consumerism ideologies of the moment (Frank, 2002). The prevailing argument against this notion is that it obscures the ordinary fact that consumerism is a rebellious act that justifies the obsolescence of the vicious economic cycles. According to modern consumerism, the most potent figure is a ‘hip consumer’ who expresses his individuality via making individual and informed choices. Therefore, culture jammers remain glorifying and supportive to the moving wheels of commerce since the 1960’s. Economic Approaches Certainly not as popular as the cultural, social o r political approaches, the economic approach to consumerism still exists. A general overview of the mechanics of consumptive patterns is Angus Deaton’s Understanding Consumption (Heath, 2001). Another recent economic text that is less dry (and less quantitative and empirical) is Richard Robbins’ Global problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Frank, 2002). Robbins’ work links the culture of capitalism to the worldwide ailments of poverty, disease, and social hierarchy. Empirical data can be useful in the instructional setting, but usually, not as attention getting as the other approaches. Modern social movements Social movements are campaigns calling out for change. Change in the mannerism of the way the society acts thinks and sometimes its change of underlining values. In today’s modern society, there has been rapid change in technology and more evolve consumer behavior. These social movements focus on informing and protecting the consumers by necessita ting honest advertising and packaging, improved standards and product guarantees (Kozinets and Handelman, 2004). They emphases on the setting polices that regulate the services, products, standards and methods of interests of buyers, advertisers, sellers and manufactures. Some movements include the YES Men and the Adbusters (Kozinets and Handelman, 2004). The YES Men movement is basically culture jamming activists group which deals with political and social issues of anti-consumerism, globalization, corporate crime and the environment. Since their initial sprang by the creation of a phony website, spoofing the world trade organization the Yes man movement has continuous performed large scale hoaxes. They describe this as a journalist collaborative effort to assist the media in narrating stories, which they consider significant. They often use a strategic way of deploying a satirical approach in which they pretense as a mighty entity and make shocking and ridiculous comments that cre ate a false impression of the original person or organization (Sanlin and Callaham, 2009). They make use of the media to broadcast their personal interpretation of the situation portrayed. Despite the fact that all their pranks are harmless critics, all way points out that there the danger of people overreacting for the few hours that the information is believed. They could also pose a potential risk to fool the government and major corporations using their skills commit a major crime (Carducci, 2006). Adbusters Media foundation is another social movement anti- consumerist. They use culture jamming to isolate reality of consumer comforts. It is a type of movement that attempts to defy corporations that define the mainstay of widespread media. This foundation hopes that its followers will reconstruct themselves though non consumption strategies. Consumer boycotts are politically and socially motivated movements for refusal to patronize particular industries and businesses. Their main significance is an effort to effect change or rather to punish a company due to an injustice perceived (Callaham, 2009). Critics of Boycotts have noted after major announcement of the operation significant decrease in stock prices has been realized in the target firms. The Anti consumerist stand is that commodities only supply short term fulfillments but not gratification of a happy society. The libertarian criticisms are mainly based on superiority perception. They believe that human beings have the right to make decisions for others what goods are necessary or luxurious and which are not (Sanlin and Callaham, 2009). Conclusion Consumerism was conceived as an explanation for the society’s choices made about consumption, which often do not represent fair and valuable judgment. In its quest to explain the nature of individuals and the society, consumerism asserts that individuals are always irrational, they are vulnerable to being brainwashed, and are kept in a state of impri sonment by actions of businesses. The later argument has attempted to generate critiques driven by normative elements, which has stimulated political critique in a liberal setting. The discussion shows that behaviors of consumerists are majorly driven by comparative preferences. On the other hand, rebel consumerism sense reveals that because individuals have standard values against which to judge products, they are duped by corporate advertisements. In this respect, they are unable to support processes of consumerism. Although consumerism has viewed rebel consumerism as being incapable of supporting the discourses of consumerism, it has received enormous support as the only potent process that can grant individuals a sense of choice while remaining independent of comparative preferences. References Carducci, V., 2006. Culture jamming: A sociological perspective, Journal of consumer culture, 6(1), 116-136. Kozinets, R.V., and Handelman, J.M., 2004. Adversaries of Consumption: consume r movements, Activism, and Ideology, Journal of consumer research, 31(4), 691-704. Sanlin, J., and Callaham, J., 2009. Deviance, Dissonance, and Detourenement. Culture jammers use of emotion in consumer resistance, Journal of consumer culture, 9(1), 79-115. Frank, T., 2002. New Consensus for Old: Cultural Studies from Left to Right, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. Heath, J., 2001.The Structure of Hip consumerism, Philosophy and Social criticism, 27(6), 1–17. Micheletti, M., 2003. Political Virtue and Shopping: Individuals, Consumerism, and Collective Action, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, Stearns, P.N., 1990. Social History Update: Encountering Postmodernism,† Journal of Social History, 24(2) p. 450.