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Event
The Crisis and Contradictions of Consumption
Registration is now closed. Contact Dan Cook (dtcook@camden.rutgers.edu) if you wish to attend.
The current global economic downturn has brought into relief key tensions and fissures that some say are endemic to consumer capitalism. In an effort to keep pace with idealized visions and versions of the good life, consumers for decades had collectively engaged in personal and household deficit livingrisky practices primed and enabled by corporate strategy and government monetary policies. Now that this house of cards has tumbled and left many in dire circumstances, most publicly iterated "common sense" posits a return to consumption levels of the past while, at the same time, warning of remaining in or living in debt. Consumption appears as both the problem and solution.
Nonetheless, as the crisis affects the U.S. and the EU in particular ways, China, India and their major trading partners continue growing and consuming at breakneck speed. At the same time US economic policy seeks to make Chinese goods more expensive, perhaps signaling a long-term Eastward shift of the epicenter of consumerism. Few raise questions about this schizoid process or about lessons learned regarding social, economic and environmental costs of unchecked consumerism.
The Consumer Studies Research Network (http://csrn.camden.rutgers.edu/) is sponsoring a one-day conference on The Crisis and Contradictions of Consumption to be held on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Friday, August 19, 2011.
There will be a Graduate Student Workshop where students will have papers commented on by faculty mentors.
Invited Panel
The highlight of the conference will be a Spotlight Panel of scholars addressing conference theme. We are pleased to announce George Ritzer and Robert Manning will participate in the panel. George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and author of numerous books and essays on consumer society and social theory, including the widely read The McDonaldizatoin of Society. (http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/People/gritzer.html). Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation and maker of the documentary film In Debt We Trust, is President of the Responsible Debt Relief Institute and has worked on issues of consumption, debt and banking for more than a decade (http://www.creditcardnation.com/).
Registration is now closed. Contact Dan Cook (dtcook@camden.rutgers.edu) if you wish to attend.
The CSRN, in existence for 12 years and loosely affiliated with the American Sociological Association, seeks to foster dialogue and debate among those who are interested in and concerned about the place of goods and commodities in social life.
Contact Dan Cook (dtcook@camden.rutgers.edu) or visit http://csrn.camden.rutgers.edu/ where present and past newsletters and a partial list of members can be found.
Conference Lodging
CSRN conference attendees may register for the special rate of $99/night (plus tax) at the Embassy Suites hotel. This rate includes a full, hot breakfast and is lower than the rate at Ceasar's Palace for those nights where the ASA is being held. It is walking distance from the CSRN conference site.
The rates are good for the nights of August 18 and August 19.
Embassy Suites Las Vegas
4315 Swenson Street, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States 89119
Tel: 1-702-795-2800 1-702-795-2800 Fax: 1-702-795-1520
http://embassysuites1.hilton.com/en_US/es/hotel/LASESES-Embassy-Suites-Las-Vegas-Nevada/index.do
Code: COS (Under Group/Convention Code)
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LocationUniversity of Nevada - Flora Dungan Humanities Building
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy.
Las Vegas, NV 89154
United States
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