Consumption Important Theorists Flashcards
Ordinary consumption - routine, repetitive, conventional use of goods.
Children gain autonomy through power to consume but are restrained/influenced by parents (financial and cultural restraints) (parents consume on behalf of kids) - consumption mediates child - adult relationship.
Martens et al, 2010
Parents pass on taste to children who are symbolic representations of parents
CC blurring boundaries of social stratification
Bourdieu, 1979, distinction
Early 20th c advertising of consumer goods was limited.
Cross, 2010
RESEARCH: children 8-12 yrs well endowed with cognitive defences
Scepticism, awareness of deception, rejected as con trick, mocked and parodied, commented upon motivations, stereotyping and patronising
Buckingham 1993
Others may be taken in
BUT
Pleasure in talking about adverts and knew all the jingles
2yrs handle toy differently whether seen on tv day before
By 3yrs prefer advertised brand to another which tastes the same
10/11 detect persuasive intent of advertisings
Webley et al, 2001
Childhood for sale.
Adverts increasingly aimed at children
CC pervasive and invasive
Children identified as a lucrative market
Michele Stockwell, 2005
Calls for more research on cognitive development of child ads
Must not hide persuasive intent
Marketing to be kept out of schools
End to viral marketing ethically murkey territory
End using friendship groups for marketing
Predicts mobiles next frontiers for marketing
Unwelcome and unhealthy consequences for kids and families
Michele Stockwell, 2005, CCs bid for our kids
Pester power
Buckingham 2005
Children’s purchasing power
Hollis 2002
U16 spend 3million of own money on consumer goods each year.
1b clothes and shoes
0.7b snacks and sweets
Children have more disposable income
More autonomy and choice
More leisure time - lifestyle
New types of leisure activities
These produce separate cultural spaces for children
Good childhood report, 2008
“No choice but to consume”
Giddens, 1991
passive, innocent & ‘natural’ child need protection from market forces
Cook, 2005 (the dichotomous child in and of consumer culture)
- child placed as naive consumers by parents
- exploited/exploitable child:risk
- parents as gatekeepers
- learn incrementally
- adult fears of ravages of capitalism
Children as empowered consumers
Cook, 2005 (the dichotomous child in and of consumer culture)
Moral cover & justification for marketers to target kids directly
Ideology of ‘knowing powerful child’ used to neutralise resistance
Agentic child as consumer, not so powerful within family - marketing isolating child from family setting
Enduring tensions between markets and moralities
Buckingham and Tingstad, 2010, childhood and consumer culture
It is a tension that continues to reproduce binary opposites such as sacred child/profane market, innocent child/media savvy child, exploited child/empowered child. Yet it is obvious by now that it is essential to move beyond these simple dochtomies and to discuss the ways in which consumer culture shapes children and childhood, and is shaped by them
Buckingham and Tingstad, 2010, childhood and consumer culture
