Emergence of the young consumption conscious citizen: Ethopolitics or ethnopolitics? Dr Teresa Davis, Sydney University
Friday 13 July 2012, 14:00
LT 03, Lancaster University Management School
The Consumer-Citizen (Johnstone, 2008) as a major subject has been ‘normalised’ in discourses of consumption (Slocum, 2004). In this paper we examine a particular strand of this citizenly identity in the context of ‘consumption consciousness’. Using interviews with Australian children about themselves, their consumption, its links to immediate community and the larger global community we uncover a new strand of this discourse. A new form of ethopower is seen as shaping a new ‘ethno consumer’ as one who is a ‘good’ green consumer-citizen constructed in relation to global political and consumption discourses. This ‘identification’ (Beckett, 2012) is seen as constituted by the discourses of environment, consumption and citizenship. We uncover how this constitution of the consumer citizen is manifested in the discourses of children’s identity of self and nation.
Teresa's main research interests lie in two areas. The first is in children as consumers, of particular interest is the relationship between advertising and marketing of food. The second area is culture and consumption where her interests lies in examining 'cultures of transition' such as consumption of/in childhood and migrant groups. Related areas of research include the socio-historical analyses of culture and consumption. Teresa has published articles in Sociology ,Consumption Markets and Culture and others. She has presented papers at many international conferences and invited seminars. Her teaching interests lie in consumer behaviour, and marketing communications. Teresa is the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust (UK) grant for 2011-2012, the International Research Network Grant is titled Discursive Families: Comparison of Magazine advertising in two countries.
