A Sociological Analysis ALAN WARDE Consumption and Public Life The series will be a channel and focus for some of the most interesting recent work on consumption, establishing innovative approaches and a new research agenda New approaches and public debates around consumption in modern societies will be pursued within media, politics, ethics, sociology, economics, management and cultural studies More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14914 Alan Warde Consumption A Sociological Analysis Alan Warde University of Manchester Manchester, United Kingdom Consumption and Public Life ISBN 978-1-137-55681-3 ISBN 978-1-137-55682-0 DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55682-0 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957709 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Cover illustration: © JIPEN / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd The registered company address is: The Campus, Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Acknowledgements This book represents work conducted over more than 25 years Consequently, I am indebted to very many friends and colleagues who have contributed ideas, careful criticism and practical advice, as well as sympathy and encouragement Many of them I have worked with closely on material that is reflected in this book, including writing formative articles and chapters Early in the period I worked in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University where collaboration with Lydia Martens on a research project on eating out was a crucial step in developing an understanding of consumption But I also had the benefit of cooperation with Celia Lury, Andrew Sayer, Elizabeth Shove and John Urry and a band of graduate students who attended a regular seminar on consumption The European Sociological Association’s Research Network (RN05) endured early versions of sections of many of the chapters and stalwarts of that group have been fine companions and critics, among them Isabel Cruz, Jukka Gronow, Bente Halkier, Kai Ilmonen, Tally Katz-Gerro, Margit Keller, Keijo Rahkonen, Pekka Sulkunen, Monica Truninger and Terhi-Anna Wilska That network also involved colleagues working specifically on food consumption, including Unni Kjaernes, Lotte Holm and Roberta Sassatelli, with whom I have had many constructive discussions Two ESRC programmes, The Nation’s Diet and Cultures of Consumption, provided contexts for developing ideas of consumption and practice in an interdisciplinary context facilitated by their directors, Anne Murcott and v vi Acknowledgements Frank Trentmann, who provided me with critical encouragement So did the Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition at the University of Manchester where I had the benefit of sustained working on themes of consumption with Mark Harvey, Andy McMeekin, Sally Randles, Dale Southerton, Bruce Tether and Mark Tomlinson The Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) provided an interdisciplinary context and the opportunity to work on ‘Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion’ with Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Elizabeth Silva, David Wright and Modesto Gayo, from whom I learned much about cultural consumption The Sociology Department and School of Social Sciences at Manchester provided the opportunity to work with Fiona Devine, Yaojun Li, Wendy Olsen, Bev Skeggs, Gindo Tampubolon and another fine group of PhD students In the last few years, at the Sustainable Consumption Institute, also in Manchester, ongoing discussions with its current director, Dale Southerton, and postdoctoral researchers and research fellows Isabelle Darmon, Jo Mylan, Jessica Paddock, Dan Welch and Luke Yates, who share interests in food, consumption and theories of practice, have been pivotal in developing some of the key ideas in the later part of the book Luke Yates read the complete manuscript in scrupulous detail and I thank him especially for that I also want to thank the Collegium of Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki where a two-year tenure of the Jane and Aatos Erkko Research Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society allowed me time to marshal both plans and material for this book Many others have helped me along the way, including graduate students, research associates and seminar audiences who I have no space to list but who have engaged with me in argument and drawn important points to my attention I have been fortunate to have very extensive stimulation and support for over 20 years from Jukka Gronow, Sue Scott and Dale Southerton, and I thank them greatly since many of their excellent ideas have been incorporated into the text I am also grateful for permission to reuse some material from previously published work Chapter is a slightly modified and slightly extended version of A Warde (2005) ‘Consumption and the theory of practice’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2): 131–54 It is published here with permission from Sage Publishers Chapter includes short passages from A Warde (2015) ‘The Sociology of Consumption: Its Recent Acknowledgements vii Development’, Annual Review of Sociology, 41: 117–34 and A Warde (2014) ‘After Taste: Culture, Consumption and Theories of Practice’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 14(3): 279–303 Reuse is with the permission of Annual Reviews and Sage respectively A short passage from A Warde (ed.) (2010) ‘Editor’s Introduction’ to Consumption (Volumes I–IV) (London: Sage, Benchmarks in Culture and Society Series) is reproduced in Chapter with permission from Sage An earlier version of Chapter was contained in A Warde (2004) ‘Practice and Field: Revising Bourdieusian Concepts’, CRIC Discussion Paper No 65, April, CRIC: University of Manchester Also, a short passage has been used in Chapter 9, with permission from Abstrakt Forlag AS: A Warde (2015) ‘Social Science, Political Economy and Sustainable Consumption’, in P Strandbackken and J Gronow (eds.) The Consumer in Society: A tribute to EivindStø (Oslo: Abstrakt Forlag AS) (2015), pp 85–102 University of Manchester June 2016 Alan Warde Contents Introduction Part I The Development of the Sociology of Consumption 13 Sociology and Consumption 15 The Development of the Sociology of Consumption 33 Part II 57 Consumption as Appropriation: On the Use of ‘Consumption’ and Consumption as Use 59 Consumption and Theories of Practice 79 Part III Consumption and Practice Consumption, Taste and Power Practice and Field: Revising Bourdieu’s Concepts 103 105 ix x Contents Reassessing Cultural Capital Part IV 127 Consumption, Critique and Politics 155 Consumption and the Critique of Society 157 Sustainable Consumption: Practices, Habits and Politics 181 10 Illusions of Sovereignty and Choice 205 References 225 Index 253 ... was a crucial step in developing an understanding of consumption But I also had the benefit of cooperation with Celia Lury, Andrew Sayer, Elizabeth Shove and John Urry and a band of graduate students... general argument about how best to analyse consumption sociologically A couple of other chapters have been available as long, and provisional, working papers which are not necessarily easy to access... Southerton, and postdoctoral researchers and research fellows Isabelle Darmon, Jo Mylan, Jessica Paddock, Dan Welch and Luke Yates, who share interests in food, consumption and theories of practice, have