Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption

Citation

Clarke, I. (2000), "Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 1003-1006. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2000.34.8.1003.1

This book is the third in a series of texts on consumer research and policy edited by Gordon Foxall. For those of us that struggle (or even, for that matter, those that don’t) with the Postmodern perspective on consumption, Consuming People is a “must buy” and a critical read. The reason, quite simply, is that it builds a bridge between abstract postmodern theory and the reality of consumption in a “postmodern” world. Firat and Dholakia’s aim is to move away from the seemingly inherent and systematic “monkey see, monkey do” toolkit approach to marketing by providing a treatise about consuming people – “people in the act of consumption, and consumed by the act of consumption” (p. x). It provides a much‐needed counterpoint to management orthodoxy and the search for immediate “quick‐fix” frameworks. It does this by showing how consumers increasingly become disenchanted with the promise of the market and by elucidating how postmodern consumers need to be understood and treated (rather than just “managed”) in terms of the role of the market in the construction of meaningful life experiences.

The structure and approach taken in the book is to move between a “modernist” exploration of consumption, consumers and the role of consumption in society, which takes place in the first part of the text, to a powerful and subtle discussion on the paradoxes of postmodern consumption – especially the part it plays in the formation of individual identities and global fragmentation. Whilst the book is contextualised within the development of consumption in the United States, particularly Chapters 1‐5, this grounding is important in exposing the transformations taking place in the postmodern marketplace. Markets, in short, are now less vehicles for simply satisfying our needs, and more the arena of cultural life – a “theater” of consumption, with all the symbolism, emotion and aesthetics such venues demand.

Whilst it might be argued that Firat and Dholakia are less convincing than other recent approaches to postmodern consumption, the way in which it moves away from looking at consumer markets as reified “needs” to a metaphor of the market as the theatre within which consumers “navigate” and construct their own cultures is impressive. Even though it is short compared to other similar texts, the book is still more substantive in its approach to exploring these issues. Postmodern theorists may decry its failure to dig deeper into how consumption in a postmodern society erodes market power, but what comes across strongly to the reader is the longevity and sustainability of the market with a life force of its own. By any standards, therefore, Consuming People will form an important addition to any marketing academic’s bookshelf. The difference in its standpoint is that it makes a substantive contribution to the discourse on consumption for both taught and researched courses on marketing and consumer culture.