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Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Blue, S., Shove, E., Carmona, C., & Kelly, M. P. (2016). Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices. Critical Public Health, 26(1), 36–50. https://doi-org.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/10.1080/09581596.2014.980396

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: a social critique of judgement and taste. London: Routledge. 

Brown, S., Siegel, L., & Blom, S. (2020). Entanglements of matter and meaning: The importance of the philosophy of Karen Barad for environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 1-15.doi:10.1017/aee.2019.29

Chakravartty, P., Kuo, R., Grubbs, V., & McIlwain, C. (2018). #CommunicationSoWhite. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 254–266. doi:10.1093/joc/jqy003 

Corrigan, P. (1997). Theoretical approaches to consumption. In The sociology of consumption: An introduction (pp. 17-32). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781446216903.n2

Danius, S., Jonsson, S., & Spivak, G. (1993). An Interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Boundary 2, 20(2), 24-50. doi:10.2307/303357

Gordon, G. F. & Hill, C. (2015). Sustainable fashion: Past, present and future. Bloomsbury Academic.

Goodchild, P. (1996). Deleuze & Guattari: An introduction to the politics of desire. London: Sage.

Grosz, E. (2008). Chaos, territory, art: Deleuze and the framing of the earth. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. Routledge. 

Jackson, A., & Mazzei, L. (2012). Michel Foucault. In Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. A. (2013). Plugging one text into another: thinking with theory in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(4), 261–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800412471510

Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Klepp, I.G. & Laitala, K. (2014). Consumption studies: the force of the ordinary. In K. Fletcher & M. Tham (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion (pp. 121-130). Taylor & Francis Group.

Loehlin, J. (1999). From rugs to riches: Housework, consumption and modernity in Germany. Oxford: Berg.

O’Neil, J. K. (2018). Transformative sustainability: Learning within a material-discursive ontology. Journal of Transformative Education, 16(4), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344618792823

Peattie, Ken. (2010). Green consumption: Behavior and norms. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 35, 195-228. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-032609-094328

McIntyre, M. P. (2019). Shame, blame, and passion: Affects of (un)sustainable wardrobes. Fashion Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1676506

Pellandini-Simányi, L. (2014). Consumption norms and everyday ethics. Palgrave Macmillan.

Princen, T., Maniates, M., & Conca, K. (2002). Confronting consumption. MIT Press.

Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310222225432

Shove, E. (2014). Putting practice into policy: reconfiguring questions of consumption and climate change. Contemporary Social Science, 9(4), 415-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2012.692484

Smith, W. (2003). Consumption and the making of respectability, 1600–1800. Routledge.

Stigler, G., & Becker, G. (1977). De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. The American Economic Review, 67(2), 76-90. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1807222

Strasser, S. (2003). The alien past: Consumer culture in historical perspective. Journal of Consumer Policy 26, 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026331225908

Strasser, S. (1982). Never done: A history of American housework. Pantheon Books. 

Sullivan, A. (2016) Karl Marx: Fashion and capitalism. In Rocamora, A., & Smelik, A. (Eds). Thinking through fashion: A guide to key theorists. London: I.B. Tauris.

Tynan, J. (2016) Michel Foucault: Fashioning the body politic. In Rocamora, A., & Smelik, A. (Eds). Thinking through fashion: A guide to key theorists. London: I.B. Tauris.

Venkatesh, A. (1995). “Ethnoconsumerism: A new paradigm to study cultural and cross-cultural consumer behavior” in Costa, J. A. and Bamossy, G.J. (eds) Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity, (pgs. 26–67) Thousand Oaks, Ca., Sage Publications, Inc. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228528725_Ethnoconsumerism_A_New_Paradigm_to_Study_Cultural_and_Cross-Cultural_Consumer_Behavior

Warde, A. (2005). Consumption and Theories of Practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2), 131–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540505053090

Woodward, S. (2007). Why women wear what they wear (English ed., Materializing culture). Oxford; New York: Berg.

Zeynep, O.E., Atik, D., & Murray, J. B. (2020). The logic of sustainability: Institutional transformation towards a new culture of fashion. Journal of Marketing Management. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1795429

By selecting the critical theory lenses, you’ve chosen to look at clothing consumption norms from a critical perspective, searching for answers to why things are the way they are. A critical perspective is needed to understand the underlying issues associated with (over)consumption and why they occur in order to encourage more sustainable consumption.

In qualitative research, critical theory focuses on praxis and dialogue while questioning long-held assumptions about how the world works. It encourages researchers to use different ideological approaches, considering capitalism, race, gender, social class, and other frameworks for interpretation.

Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism helps to explain how consumption practices are linked with human evolution and the development of modern society. As a methodology, historical materialism argues that history is the result of material conditions rather than ideals. This suggests that tangible, material items have the ability to impact our thoughts and ideas, thus forming the basis of our perception of consumption norms. Marx’s theories can also be used to critique capitalism—the system responsible for much of what we consume—therefore providing new perspectives into what really controls our desire to consume and perceived needs.

Clothing consumption norms can also be viewed through the critical lens of feminism, as the purchase and care of clothing in the Western world has historically been linked to “women’s work.” Finally, when speaking about consumption and labor, it’s impossible to ignore how these also relate to racial inequalities. Therefore, critical race theory is an invaluable tool for viewing how consumption norms are formed through capitalist economies and at whose expense.

While exploring the resources below, try asking yourself these questions:

1. Which ideologies are being used to examine consumption norms in each article/book?

2. How do these different ideologies impact your view of this topic?

3. How can critical inquiry be used to promote social justice and encourage changes (instead of just providing interpretations)?

Read:

BBC News. (2020). Attenborough: 'Curb excess capitalism' to save nature. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-54268038?__twitter_impression=true

Danius, S., Jonsson, S., & Spivak, G. (1993). An Interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Boundary 2, 20(2), 24-50. doi:10.2307/303357

Loehlin, J. (1999). From rugs to riches: Housework, consumption and modernity in Germany. Oxford: Berg.

Smith, W. (2003). Consumption and the making of respectability, 1600–1800. Routledge.

Stigler, G., & Becker, G. (1977). De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. The American Economic Review, 67(2), 76-90. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1807222

Strasser, S. (1982). Never done: A history of American housework. Pantheon Books. 

Sullivan, A. (2016) Karl Marx: Fashion and capitalism. In Rocamora, A., & Smelik, A. (Eds). Thinking through fashion: A guide to key theorists. London: I.B. Tauris.

#criticaltheory

Embedding consumption in a larger web of social relations leads us to ask about the influences on consumption choices, including the location of power in structuring those choices.

(Princen et al., 2002, p. 15)

By selecting the post-structural lenses, you’ve chosen to interrogate the all-embracing frameworks of Marxism, liberalism, psychoanalysis, and so forth. This epistemological stance encourages you to view clothing consumption norms through the ways in which power and knowledge are created, specifically through language and discourse. It challenges you to look a little closer at how people talk about consumerism and the ways in which this discourse is used to construct identities.

In qualitative research, post-structural approaches draw from ethnographic and phenomenological traditions. These reject the idea of a “core self,” instead viewing subjectivity as something that is continually changing and influenced by social relations.

Post-structural thinkers provide a wide breadth of ways to look at clothing consumption norms, even if the connections are less obvious than other theoretical frameworks. For example, the work of Michel Foucault can be used to examine how consumerism and norms are linked to a “hierarchy of knowledge” and épistémè (background assumptions forming the basis of knowledge). Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of “habitus” contributes to the study of consumption norms as a way to bridge the effects of resources, past experiences, tastes, and aspirations. Moreover, his writings on “social space” invite us to think about the impact of moving more production offshore, thus creating greater distance (geographically and socially) between consumers and the production process. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari portray capitalism as a “desiring-machine” in their shared work, thus adding further context to the ways that consumption norms are shaped by systems of power.

While exploring the resources below, try asking yourself these questions:

1. How can clothing consumption norms be related to power structures?

2. In which ways do these structures attempt to emanate control over consumer behavior?

3. How is the production of consumption norms impacted by racism or heteronormative ideals, and how can we actively deconstruct these notions?

Read:

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: a social critique of judgement and taste. London: Routledge. 

Consumption and Social Stratification: Bourdieu's Distinction (The Association for Consumer Research): https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/7565/volumes/v21/NA

Corrigan, P. (1997). Theoretical approaches to consumption. In The sociology of consumption: An introduction (pp. 17-32). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781446216903.n2

Goodchild, P. (1996). Deleuze & Guattari: An introduction to the politics of desire. London: Sage.

Grosz, E. (2008). Chaos, territory, art: Deleuze and the framing of the earth. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Jackson, A., & Mazzei, L. (2012). Michel Foucault. In Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. New York, NY: Routledge.

Tynan, J. (2016) Michel Foucault: Fashioning the body politic. In Rocamora, A., & Smelik, A. (Eds). Thinking through fashion: A guide to key theorists. London: I.B. Tauris.

Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310222225432

#poststructuralism

[...] consumption norms hardly ever refer to a single value or pragmatic belief, but to a larger world view of interconnected normative and pragmatic ideas.

(Pellandini-Simányi, 2014)

“Post-post” includes the frameworks of posthumanism, indigeneity, anthropocene, feminist (new) materialism, and affect theory, which can be used to question the nature of agency, subjectivity, and the ways in which we view human connections. In qualitative research, these frameworks can be used to confound binarizations while accepting that ethics, ontologies, and epistemologies can’t really be separated from each other.

In the context of clothing consumption norms, these post-post theories can help us to decenter ourselves and think more about the materiality of mass consumption. For example, Jane Bennett encourages us to pay attention to the “aliveness” of matter in order to be more conscious about the objects that we consume. In her book Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (2010), she writes, “the sheer volume of commodities, and the hyperconsumptive necessity of junking them to make room for new ones, conceals the vitality of matter” (p. 5).

In essence, post-post perspectives allow us to re-conceptualize clothing consumption norms by asking what remains when “humanism” is no longer seen as the dominant force of the universe.

While exploring the resources below, try asking yourself these questions:

1. What are the distinctions between humans and the objects that they consume? How does everything connect on a larger scale?

2. What happens when we blur these distinctions, or view life within all of the objects that surround us?

3. What is the environmental cost of human consumption, and how do we justify this cost?

Read:

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Brown, S., Siegel, L., & Blom, S. (2020). Entanglements of matter and meaning: The importance of the philosophy of Karen Barad for environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 1-15. doi:10.1017/aee.2019.29

O’Neil, J. K. (2018). Transformative sustainability: Learning within a material-discursive ontology. Journal of Transformative Education, 16(4), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344618792823

Watch:

Jane Bennett: Art and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA

Karen Barad: Undoing the Future: https://bcrw.barnard.edu/videos/karen-barad-undoing-the-future/

#postpost

“[…] whether mass deception or means to self identification, the idea of buying new clothes at every season in now widely accepted, regardless of need. In the West, very few people own just enough clothes to get by – over consumption of clothing has become normalised.

(Gibson and Stanes, 2011)

Since “norms” are subjective and dependent on a particular time, place, and culture, an interpretive approach is essential for understanding the nuances of this phenomenon based on lived experiences. Using interpretive lenses will allow you to better understand clothing consumption norms by determining commonalities of these experiences and perceptions within a particular group.

In qualitative research, interpretive approaches reject positivist outlooks, believing there is only one answer or objective truth. Instead, it believes in multiple truths made possible through a constructivist standpoint, and thus knowledge is dependent on how the observer constructs meaning. The concept of interpretivist is rooted in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy (German Idealist Tradition) as well as Edmund Husserl’s introduction of phenomenology, or the study of lived experiences and perceptions of a particular individual or group. Other interpretive research traditions include symbolic interaction (emphasis on linguistic and gestural communication), hermeneutics (theory and methods of interpretation, especially texts), dramaturgy or dramatism (interactions dependent on time, place, and audience), ethnomethodology (use of conversations and gestures to construct a common sense view), and ethnography (situated study of peoples and cultures), which has been used by many researchers to better understand consumption norms and the reasons why people choose to dress themselves in a certain way.

While exploring the resources below, try asking yourself these questions:

1. How do these works help to make consumption norms “visible” and provide meanings?

2. Is there a way to objectively observe consumption norms, or will it always be filtered through the researcher or writer’s own language, social class, race, etc.?

3. How does your own subjectivity affect how you read these works?

Read:

Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

McIntyre, M. P. (2019). Shame, blame, and passion: Affects of (un)sustainable wardrobes. Fashion Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1676506

Pellandini-Simányi, L. (2014). Consumption norms and everyday ethics. Palgrave Macmillan.

Venkatesh, A. (1995). “Ethnoconsumerism: A new paradigm to study cultural and cross-cultural consumer behavior” in Costa, J. A. and Bamossy, G.J. (eds) Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity, (pgs. 26–67) Thousand Oaks, Ca., Sage Publications, Inc. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228528725_Ethnoconsumerism_A_New_Paradigm_to_Study_Cultural_and_Cross-Cultural_Consumer_Behavior

Woodward, S. (2007). Why women wear what they wear (English ed., Materializing culture). Oxford; New York: Berg.

Zeynep, O.E., Atik, D., & Murray, J. B. (2020). The logic of sustainability: Institutional transformation towards a new culture of fashion. Journal of Marketing Management. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1795429

#interpretivism

[…] American materialism, which requires buying ever-increasing numbers of products purchased in ever-shorter cycles, is antimateriality. The sheer volume of commodities, and the hyperconsumptive necessity of junking them to make room for new ones, conceals the vitality of matter.

(Bennett, 2010, p. 5)

How are people drawn into more or less sustainable practices and how do their lives and careers sustain the lives and careers of the practices they reproduce?

(Shove, 2014)

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