"Consumed" offers a portrait of how adults are infantilised in a global economy that overproduces goods and targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers. Driven by a frantic imperative to sell, consumer capitalism specialises today in the manufacture not of goods but of needs. This provocative culmination of Benjamin R. Barber's lifelong study of democracy and capitalism shows how the infantilist ethos deprives society of responsible citizens and displaces public goods with private commodities. Traditional liberal democratic society is colonised by an all-pervasive market imperative. Barber confronts the likely consequences for our children, our freedom and our citizenship, and shows how citizens can resist and transcend the civic schizophrenia with which consumerism has infected them.
Consumed
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"Professor Barber is someone worth listening to." The Guardian"
About the Author
BENJAMIN R. BARBER is the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He is the author of a number of acclaimed books including Fear's Empire (ISBN 978 0 393 32578 2).
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most people - at least most people over 50 - know that there is something drastically wrong with the political, economic, and cultural environment of the developed world. In "Consumed" Barber offers an analysis of what has gone pear shaped. Former British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, may have spoken of the "unacceptable face of capitalism", but Barber goes further and argues that capitalism is now in its self-destruct phase which has severe negative impacts on civic and cultural life. The essence of Barber's argument is that the private sector no longer acts in the interests of the common good, and that the public or civic sector needs to be re-energised in order to act as a democratic brake on the excesses of privatisation. Indeed, Barber's devastating hatchet job on privatisation is remarkable considering that he is broadly sympathetic to capitalism per se. This latter fact may not endear him to those of a more leftist persuasion,and, although he is critical of present day consumer capitalism, he is,perhaps, too kind to the exploitation and inequality that capitalism has always generated.
The book is readable, with extensive documentation, and essential reading for cultural studies students, and, indeed, for anyone trying to obtain a better understanding of where we are and how we got there. Recommended.
The book is readable, with extensive documentation, and essential reading for cultural studies students, and, indeed, for anyone trying to obtain a better understanding of where we are and how we got there. Recommended.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`Consumed: how markets corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole' is one of those portentous works of modern American sociology, sitting alongside Bloom's `The Closing of the American Mind' or Ritzer's `McDonaldization of Society'. It shares the broad, sometimes grumpy critique of the former, and coins new terms and overstates its case like the latter.
In brief, Barber is searching for an account of consumerism to replace Max Weber's `protestant work ethic', which described a capitalism that was restrained, dependable, forward-thinking, responsible and hard working. In capitalism's later days, all the needs have been met and yet it is still growing, and to account for its new phase Barber proposes an ethic of 'infantilization'.
By this, he means that children must be indoctrinated to consume, and adults must be prevented from growing up, by a pervasive `infantilization' of culture.
It is a thought-provoking idea, and helpfully expanded in chapters on branding, citizenship, creative protest and so on. It is insightful, but isn't as compelling as Barber thinks - he seems intent on both coining a phrase as lasting as his 'Jihad vs McWorld' construction, and on being seen as a sociologist on a par with Weber.
Those are both for history to judge. In the meantime this is a constructive, imaginative, and useful attempt to explain the state of our consumer culture.
In brief, Barber is searching for an account of consumerism to replace Max Weber's `protestant work ethic', which described a capitalism that was restrained, dependable, forward-thinking, responsible and hard working. In capitalism's later days, all the needs have been met and yet it is still growing, and to account for its new phase Barber proposes an ethic of 'infantilization'.
By this, he means that children must be indoctrinated to consume, and adults must be prevented from growing up, by a pervasive `infantilization' of culture.
It is a thought-provoking idea, and helpfully expanded in chapters on branding, citizenship, creative protest and so on. It is insightful, but isn't as compelling as Barber thinks - he seems intent on both coining a phrase as lasting as his 'Jihad vs McWorld' construction, and on being seen as a sociologist on a par with Weber.
Those are both for history to judge. In the meantime this is a constructive, imaginative, and useful attempt to explain the state of our consumer culture.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By John Brewer
Format:Paperback
Subtitled "How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole", this is not intended for the dumbed-down consumer Barber holds to be victim of an overproducing capitalist system. The main argument - that through the use of infantilization, clever marketing folk have taken the concept of brand loyalty to a new level such that they don't simply capture their target and retain consumers from an early age, but that consumers are no longer expected or able to grow up to think for themselves - could have been confined to a shorter book but Barber has included a rich range of reference material to expand "Consumed" to address other issues besides. This pleases as much as it annoys.
Take privatization - yes, offering naming rights to academic buildings and over fellowships and chairs (as well as erecting giant ketchup bottles atop football stadia) to the highest bidder instead of accepting donations from grateful alumni is distasteful but this doesn't of itself impugn the purpose or integrity of what is being funded - Barber is himself Kekst Professor of Civil Society. And the devil's bargain made by some schools to force corporate donors' advertising on their students in return for financial support is at bottom a matter of choice and not forced upon them. His point is better made in describing examples of wholesale contracting out of public sector functions such as military security and interrogation.
Barber's observation that consumers are today persuaded to buy into an experience or lifestyle and that the product is incidental isn't new: barmen and hairdressers have known for many years how few customers visit for the drink or haircut.... Read more ›
Take privatization - yes, offering naming rights to academic buildings and over fellowships and chairs (as well as erecting giant ketchup bottles atop football stadia) to the highest bidder instead of accepting donations from grateful alumni is distasteful but this doesn't of itself impugn the purpose or integrity of what is being funded - Barber is himself Kekst Professor of Civil Society. And the devil's bargain made by some schools to force corporate donors' advertising on their students in return for financial support is at bottom a matter of choice and not forced upon them. His point is better made in describing examples of wholesale contracting out of public sector functions such as military security and interrogation.
Barber's observation that consumers are today persuaded to buy into an experience or lifestyle and that the product is incidental isn't new: barmen and hairdressers have known for many years how few customers visit for the drink or haircut.... Read more ›
4.0 out of 5 stars
Weapons of mass consumption - a must-read for every responsible marketer
31 Mar 2013
Format:Paperback
A defiant view on the modern culture of mass consumption that I would argue is critical reading for the modern, responsible marketer. Packed with stats, it can make for dense reading at times but stick with it because the learnings are clear and important.
While Barber's meticulous research may make uncomfortable reading for those who make their living out of it - targeting vulnerable demographics, exploiting wish-fulfillment and creating perceived `need' - it is nevertheless essential to look objectively at the role that marketing has to play in the state of the modern world.
The most deadly weapons of mass destruction become, in the words of Lily Allen, weapons of massive consumption. The manufacturing of needs has displaced the manufacturing of goods. Barber's placement within a global context is galling: '11.5% of the world's population [US, Canada & Western Europe] controls 60% of the world's consumer spending... 11% of the population [sub-Saharan Africa] controls only 1.2% of consumer expenditures.'
Go figure.
While Barber's meticulous research may make uncomfortable reading for those who make their living out of it - targeting vulnerable demographics, exploiting wish-fulfillment and creating perceived `need' - it is nevertheless essential to look objectively at the role that marketing has to play in the state of the modern world.
The most deadly weapons of mass destruction become, in the words of Lily Allen, weapons of massive consumption. The manufacturing of needs has displaced the manufacturing of goods. Barber's placement within a global context is galling: '11.5% of the world's population [US, Canada & Western Europe] controls 60% of the world's consumer spending... 11% of the population [sub-Saharan Africa] controls only 1.2% of consumer expenditures.'
Go figure.
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