Suchergebnisse

The emergence of contemporary consumerism -- The consumer as chooser -- The consumer as communicator -- The consumer as explorer -- The consumer as identity-seeker -- The consumer as hedonist -- The consumer as victim -- The consumer as rebel -- The consumer as activist -- The consumer as citizen -- The consumer as worker -- The unmanageable consumer

Organizing Words includes a series of essays on some 220 widely used - and much debated - terms in the social sciences, and organization studies. Each essay explores the meaning and use of the word; and also the controversies they may have sparked. The book aims to be a first port of call for students, researchers, and scholars. - ;Organizing Words presents a series of essays on some 220 widely used - and much debated - terms in the social sciences, and organization studies. Each essay explores the meanings and uses of the word; and also the controversies they have sparked. The book aims to be

Psychoanalysis opens a variety of windows into understanding contemporary consumption and consumerism. The psychoanalytic theory of defence and the unconscious enables us to understand why commodities, from fast cars to luxury chocolate, so readily stand in to offer substitute gratification for deeper repressed desires and why the meaning of such commodities is liable to become mobile and unstable (Baudrillard, 1988 [1970]). The psychoanalytic concepts of narcissism (Freud, 1914) and the mirror stage (Lacan, 2006) provide powerful entry points into understanding our culture's obsession with image (Cluley and Dunne, 2012), whilst the theory of neurosis offers significant insights into the addictive and deeply irrational qualities of contemporary consumption (Lasch, 1980). Object relations theory (Winnicott, 1964) enables us to understand how material objects, from early childhood attachments to teddy bears, act as bridges between our sense of self and what we come to view as an external world deeply indifferent to our desires. Several other psychoanalytic concepts and ideas have proven particularly helpful in contemporary discourses on consumption. This essay draws its inspiration from Freud's theory of religion (Freud,1927, 1930) to test the view that the consumer's freedom to choose and construct an identity is an illusion in the technical sense – a fantasy that discloses deeper desires and offers substitute gratifications for the discontents inflicted on us by contemporary consumer culture. Like earlier illusions, the illusion of freedom and the derivative illusions of choice and identity may provide some consolation, but, arguably, then deepen the discontents for which they purport to offer comfort.

The ethic of criticism has stood at the heart of western pedagogy for centuries. It has been the basis of science, morality and art as well as for the building of social and political institutions. The author argues that this ethic of criticism is sometimes at odds with the ethic of care, one that commits the carer to look after and take responsibility for the well-being of the cared-for. This ethic of care is further undermined by contemporary consumerism and its inroads into the fields of education and learning. The resulting perception of management as a field of study for young people is entirely instrumental— an effective stepping stone to launch a career, but one devoid of either intrinsic interest or social value. The author makes a plea for an enduring reconciliation of an ethic of care with an ethic of criticism as the basis for management education that is both interesting and socially useful.