Designing and Consuming: objects, practices and processes
Elizabeth Shove, Jack Ingram · 2004
Academic studies of consumption revolve around a repertoire of dominant concerns. Building upon this intellectual heritage, projects included in the cultures of consumption programme advance understanding and knowledge of the history and contemporary character of 'consumer culture' (projects by Warde and Whittle); the local and global intersection of consumption and production (Anderson, Redclift, Jackson, Kneafsey), consumer ‘citizenship’ (Clarke, Laing, Couldry, Birchall) and the relation between consumption and identity (Barnett, Breward, Morgan). Our proposal extends and enriches this theoretical range by engaging with fundamental questions overshadowed by these defining agendas and the disciplines on which they draw. Of all the aspects missing from consumption studies, and from the programme, perhaps the most startling is the 'stuff' itself. This is especially striking given the energy invested in understanding the development and use of tools, artifacts and services in other fields of social enquiry - especially in innovation studies, studies of science and technology, and in academic research on design. This project exploits the potential for theoretical development at the intersection of ideas about the objects, practices and processes of consumption. It does so not in the abstract but through the detailed investigation of cases and situations that address two of the programme’s research areas, namely, knowledge and the consumer and the impact of new technologies on consumption.