CONSTRUCTING THE NEW CONSUMER SOCIETY

Also by Pekka Sulkunen

THE EUROPEAN NEW MIDDLE CLASS: Individuality and

Tribalism in Mass Society

Also by John Holmwood

FOUNDING SOCIOLOGY? Talcott Parsons and the Idea of General

Theory

Also by Hilary Radner

SHOPPING AROUND: Feminine Culture and the Pursuit of Pleasure

Also by Gerhard Schulze

EXPERIENCE SOCIETY
Constructing the New
Consumer Society
Edited by

Pekk:a Sulkunen
Senior Research Fellow, Social Research Unit ofAlcohol Studies
University of Helsinki, Finland

John Holmwood
Reader, Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh

Hilary Radner
Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Theater
University ofNotre Dame, Indiana

and
Gerhard Schulze
Professor, Fakultiit Sozial-und Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Otto-Friedrich-Universitiit, Bamberg

Foreword by Erik Allardt

Consultant Editor: Jo Campling

-==
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-0-333-63132-4 ISBN 978-1-349-25337-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-25337-1

CONSTRUCTING THE NEW CONSUMER SOCIETY

Copyright © 1997 by Pekka Sulkunen, John Holmwood, Hilary Radner
and Gerhard Schulze
Foreword copyright © 1997 by Erik Allardt
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1997 978-0-333-63131-7
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For information, address:

St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

First published in the United States of America in 1997

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and

made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.

ISBN 978-0-312-15944-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Constructing the new consumer society I edited by Pekka Sulkunen ...
[et al.).
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-15944-3 (cloth)
I. Consumer behavior. 2. Consumption (Economics }-Social aspects.
3. Advertising-Social aspects. I. Sulkunen, Pekka.
HF5415.32.C658 1996
658.8'342--<lc20 96-10828
CIP
Contents
Foreword by Erik AUardt vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
1 Introduction: The New Consumer
Society - Rethinking the Social Bond 1
Pekka Sulkunen
PART I THE VISION
2 The Return of Dionysus 21
Michel Maffesoli
3 From Situations to Subjects: Moral Discourse
in Transition 38
Gerhard Schulze
4 Citizenship and Inequality in Postmodern Social
Theory 58
john Holmwood
PART ll NEW CODES OF HAPPINESS
5 The Genealogy of Advertising 81
PasiFalk
6 Producing the Body: Jane Fonda and the New
Public Feminine 108
Hilary Radner
7 The Politics of Representation: Marketing Alcohol
through Rap Music 134
Denise A. Herd
8 From the Margins to the Centre: Post-Industrial
City Cultures 152
justin O'Connor and Derek Wynne
9 'Gaming is Play, It Should Remain Fun!' The
Gaming Complex, Pleasure and Addiction 173
Sytze Kingma

v
vi Contents
PART III REGULATING NEEDS AND PLEASURES
10 The 'Consumer' in Political Discourse: Consumer
Policy in the Nordic Welfare States 197
Kaj Ilmonen and Eivind Stfl
11 Designing the Good life: Nutrition and
Social Democracy in Norway 218
Thor (Oivind jensen and Unni Kjcernes
12 The Construction of Environmental Risks:
Eco-Labelling in the European Union 234
Peter Simmons
13 Logics of Prevention: Mundane Speech and
Expert Discourse on Alcohol Policy 256
Pekka Sulkunen
14 Governance of Consumption 277
Gary Wickham

Index 293
Foreword
In contemporary affluent societies, recent decades have
brought forth radical social transformations including pro-
found changes in the everyday life of citizens. The East
European revolution, the weakening of class politics, the
increasing importance of interaction patterns of an expressive
nature at the expense of the influence of nationwide organisa-
tions, the simultaneous rise of both international and local
networks, and so on, have created new social contexts. In
these circumstances, it is not surprising that there is now an
intensive search under way in the social sciences to identity
the dominant logic of our times and for new visions about our
future. The writers gathered in this book, Constructing the New
Consumer Society, are fully engaged with this task. They repre-
sent different and sometimes contradictory points of view, but
the thrust of their arguments is that the breakdown of tradi-
tional barriers and structures requires social scientists to focus
on the motives and grounds for individual decisions much
more thoroughly than has been the case previously.
One of the most promising developments is their vision of a
new consumer society and of the emergence of social codes
emphasising consumer preferences, visual stimuli and the
moral right to search for Dionysian experiences. In 1950,
David Riesman and his associates in their book, The Lonely
Crowd, presented the first influential description of the change
from a society centred on production to one centred on
consumption. They focused on the American middle class,
describing how the type of social character dominant in
nineteenth-century society was being replaced by a new type
oriented to consumption, sociability and pleasure. According
to the writers of Constructing the New Consumer Society, this
orientation is now more total, both in terms of the number of
people involved and in terms of the realms of life affected.
They present a rich and wide range of ways in which this is so,
and provide an excellent realisation of Pekka Sulkunen's
declaration in his introductory essay that consumption, in a
theoretical sense, is very much more than the mere acquisi-
tion and depletion of goods.
vii
Vlll Foreword

The new consumer society is constituted by many different

characteristics and dimensions, and this book represents a
number of different points of departure. It is a truly impres-
sive collection of essays presenting original and even profound
views about the social character and game in today's devel-
oped societies. There are essays discussing new emphases on
sensuality, visualisations, bodily experiences, symbolisation of
life-styles, as well as analyses of the new social bonds, new
social contracts, forms of moral discourse, rationalities and
new tokens of citizenship. There is a common core despite
their different viewpoints. All the authors are keen both to
observe latent features of contemporary societies and to
search for what is new in the forms and logic of consumption.
The heterogeneity of viewpoints, however, contributes to its
readability and, appropriately, its pleasures. Naturally, there
are issues which are left open and unanswered, but the book is
a treasure for all who strive to comprehend what present
societal change is about and who are themselves searching for
new ways of understanding the society of today.

ERIK ALLARDT
Professor, Member of the Academy ofFinland
Notes on the Contributors
Pasi Falk is a Senior Research Fellow and Docent at the
Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland. He
is the author of The Consuming Body and has published widely
on sociological theory and on the sociology of consumption.

Denise A. Herd is Associate Professor of Sociology at the

University of California, Berkeley, USA. She has published on
alcohol use, culture and race in American society.

John Holmwood is Reader in Sociology at the University of

Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author of Explanation and
Social Theory (with A. Stewart) and Founding Sociology? Talcott
Parsons and the Idea of General Theory. His research interests are
in sociological theory and issues of inequality and welfare in
modern societies.

Kaj Dmonen is Professor of Sociology at the University of

Jyvaskyhi., Finland. His publications are on the sociology of
food consumption, on social movements and on social
theory.

Thor 0ivind Jensen is Associate Professor at the Department

of Administration and Organization Theory at the University
of Bergen, Norway. His published work is mainly on citizen-
ship and the welfare state.

Sytze Kingma is Research Fellow at the Universities of

Tilburg and Amsterdam and teaches sociology at the
Tilburg Academy of Architecture, The Netherlands. His
research interests are in matters of consumptive pleasure.

Unni Iqrernes is Research Fellow at the National Institute for

Consumer Research, Norway. Her publications include studies
in the sociology of nutrition, with particular interest in food
policy.

IX
X Notes on the Contributors
Michel Maffesoli is Professor of Sociology at the Sorbonne,
Paris, France. His research covers a wide range of topics in so-
ciological theory and in postmodern culture. Two of his books
have been published in English translations: The Shadow of
Dionysus: A Contribution to the Sociology of the Orgy and The Time
of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Societies.

Justin O'Connor is Senior Research Fellow at the Manchester

Institute for Popular Culture at the Manchester Metropolitan
University, England. He has published on cultural theory and
cultural policy.

Hilary Radner is Associate Professor in the Department of

Film, Television and Communication at the University of
Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. She is the author of Shopping
Around: Feminine Culture and the Pursuit of Pleasure, and co-
editor of Film Theory Goes to the Movies

Gerhard Schulze is Professor in the Fakultat Sozial-

und Wirtschaftswissenschaften of Otto-Friedrich Universitat,
Bamberg, Germany. He is the author of Experience Society and
several other works on cultural consumption.

Peter Simmons is Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study

of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, England. He
has contributed to books and journals on 'green' consump-
tion and environmental issues.

Eivind St0 is Head of Research, Social Sciences, at the

National Institute for Consumer Research in Norway. He has
published articles on consumer policy, advertising and con-
sumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaints.

Pekka Sulkunen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Social

Research Institute of Alcohol Studies and Docent of Sociology
at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is the author of The
European New Middle Class: Individuality and Tribalism in Mass
Society and other books and articles on consumption, con-
temporary society and social theory.
 Notes on the Contributors xi
Gary Wickham is Chair of the Sociology Programme at the
School of Social Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, Western
Australia. He is the author of Foucault and Law: Towards a
Sociology of Law as Governance (with A Hunt) and articles on
social theory and on the sociology of law.

Derek Wynne is Co-Director of the Manchester Institute for

Popular Culture at the Manchester Metropolitan University,
England. He is the editor of the The Culture Industry and the
author of publications in the area of cultural sociology. His
research interests are in cultural change and the new middle
class.