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about the programme
Consumption has returned to the centre of public affairs, government policy making, and intellectual life in recent years, in Britain as well as more globally. Consumption and related issues of consumers’ rights and interests, consumer culture and consumer policy inform today major debates about the future of democracy and the nation-state, wealth and welfare, economic governance, the role of new technologies and the environment, and the changing relationship of commerce and culture in contemporary societies.
Cultures of Consumption is a major, multidisciplinary Research Programme that seeks to deepen our understanding of consumption and consumers, past and present, and to highlight political, economic, and cultural implications for the future. The £5m Programme, the first collaboration between the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. More details of the programme’s aims and approaches can be found in the programme’s revised specification.
The programme is directed by Professor Frank Trentmann
The programme has funded 26 individual research projects
A programme of International Visiting Fellowships has attracted 13 scholars from 7 different countries to the UK to contribute to the work of the programme
The programme has also involved a large number of events including a series of public lectures
A wide range of publications have resulted from the programme, from books to a series of working papers
Contact Us
Cultures of Consumption
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
LONDON
WC1E 7HX
Tel : 020 7079 0601
Fax : 020 7079 0602
Email : esrcconsume@bbk.ac.uk
Programme Administrator Stefanie Nixon
Advisory Committee
Ms Frances Blunden
Principal Policy Advisor, Which?
Ms Anna Bradley
Expert on financial services
Paul Cann
Director of Policy,
Help the Aged
Professor John Caughie
Professor of Film and Televison Studies,
University of Glasgow
Professor Rachel Cooper
Director, Adelphi Research Institute for Creative Arts and Sciences,
The University of Salford
Professor Martin Daunton (Chair)
Master of Trinity Hall,
University of Cambridge, President of the Royal Historical Society
Mr Evan Davis
Economics Editor, BBC News
Professor Ben Fine
Department of Economics, SOAS
Professor Julia Hobsbawm
Chief Executive, Editorial Intelligence Ltd
Professor Tim Lang
Prof of Food Policy, Dept. of Health Management & Food Policy, City University
Mr Simon Lidington
Managing Director, The Insight Exchange
Mr Nick Macpherson
Permanent Secretary, HM Treasury
Mr Ed Mayo
Chief Executive,
National Consumer Council
Professor Frank Mort
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester
Ms Lucy Neville-Rolfe
Corporate Affairs Director, Tesco
Dr Don Slater
Reader in Sociology, London School of Economics
International Visiting Fellows
The Cultures of Consumption International Visiting Fellowship programme brought 13 scholars from 7 different countries to work as part of the research programme.
2003-04
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Uwe Spiekermann
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
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History of Nutrition/Eating in Germany in the 20th Century |
October 2003 –
January 2004 |
Stephen Kline
Simon Fraser University,
Canada
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Public Debates about Sedentary Lifestyle Risks and Media Saturated Childhood |
February –
May 2004 |
Erika Rappaport
University of California, USA
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Tea Parties: Britishness, Imperial Legacies, and Global Cultures |
June –
August 2004 |
Richard Wilk
Indiana University, USA
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Working Class Consumption and the Origins of Modern Consumer Culture |
September –
December 2004 |
2005
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Adam Arvidsson
Film & Media Studies
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Vices and Virtues: On the Social Production of Immaterial Values |
January –
March 2005 |
David Goodman
Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
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Scaling Reputation: Spatial Constructions of Quality and Value in Speciality Food Networks |
April –
June 2005 |
Mark Bevir
Political Science
University of California, Berkeley, USA
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Consumers as Citizens: Governance, History and Democracy |
July –
September 2005 |
Susan Strasser
Dept. of History
University of Delaware, USA
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Promotion and Product: The Case of Proprietary Medicine
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September –
December 2005 |
2006
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Ferenc Hammer
Art Theory and Media Studies Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
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Desire: A Critical History of Blue Jeans in Socialist Hungary (1960-1990) |
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Bruce Williams
Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
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Media Consumption & the Connection Between Public and Private Life |
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Michèle Ollivier
Department of Sociology
University of Ottawa, Canada
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Cultural Diversity, Eclecticism, and Cosmopolitanism Tastes, Identity, and Status in Quebec Society |
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Roberta Sassatelli
Dipartimento di Discipline della Comunicazione, Università di Bologna, Italy (now at Universit` di Milano)
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Critical Consumerism: Virtue, Responsibility and Consumer Choice |
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Daniel Cook
Department of Advertising, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (from September 2007, at Rutgers University-Camden)
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Edible Culture: Children's Food, Subjectivities and Commercial Meaning |
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