Download or read book Children and Consumer Culture in American Society written by Lisa Jacobson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-12-30 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children play a crucial role in today's economy. According to some estimates, children spend or influence the spending of up to $500 billion annually. Journalists, sociologists, and media reformers often present mass marketing toward children as a recent fall from grace, but the roots of children's consumerism — and the anxieties over it — date back more than a century. Throughout the twentieth century, a wide variety of groups — including advertisers, retailers, parents, social reformers, child experts, public schools, and children themselves — helped to socialize children as consumers and struggled to define the proper boundaries of the market. The essays and documents in this volume illuminate the historical circumstances and cultural conflicts that helped to produce, shape, and legitimize children's consumerism. Focusing primarily on the period from the Gilded Age through the twentieth century, this book examines how and why children and adolescents acquired new economic roles as consumers, and how these new roles both reflected and produced dynamic changes in family life and the culture of capitalism. This volume also reveals how children and adolescents have used consumer goods to define personal identities and peer relationships — sometimes in opposition to marketers' expectations and parental intentions.

Download or read book Raising Consumers written by Lisa Jacobson and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the present electronic torrent of MTV and teen flicks, Nintendo and Air Jordan advertisements, consumer culture is an unmistakably important--and controversial--dimension of modern childhood. Historians and social commentators have typically assumed that the child consumer became significant during the postwar television age. But the child consumer was already an important phenomenon in the early twentieth century. The family, traditionally the primary institution of child socialization, began to face an array of new competitors who sought to put their own imprint on children's acculturation to consumer capitalism. Advertisers, children's magazine publishers, public schools, child experts, and children's peer groups alternately collaborated with, and competed against, the family in their quest to define children's identities. At stake in these conflicts and collaborations was no less than the direction of American consumer society--would children's consumer training rein in hedonistic excesses or contribute to the spread of hollow, commercial values? Not simply a new player in the economy, the child consumer became a lightning rod for broader concerns about the sanctity of the family and the authority of the market in modern capitalist culture. Lisa Jacobson reveals how changing conceptions of masculinity and femininity shaped the ways Americans understood the virtues and vices of boy and girl consumers--and why boys in particular emerged as the heroes of the new consumer age. She also analyzes how children's own behavior, peer culture, and emotional investment in goods influenced the dynamics of the new consumer culture. Raising Consumers is a provocative examination of the social, economic, and cultural forces that produced and ultimately legitimized a distinctive children's consumer culture in the early twentieth century.

Download or read book Playing with History written by Molly Rosner and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-14 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining cultural products geared towards teaching children American cultural identity, Playing With History highlights the changes and constancies in depictions of American identity since the advent of modern consumer society. The book examines political and ideological messages sold to children throughout the twentieth century through toys, dolls, books, and amusement parks.

Download or read book How Consumer Culture Controls Our Kids written by Jennifer Hill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gripping book considers the history, techniques, and goals of child-targeted consumer campaigns and examines children's changing perceptions of what commodities they "need" to be valued and value themselves. In this critique of America's consumption-based society, author Jennifer Hill chronicles the impact of consumer culture on children—from the evolution of childhood play to a child's self-perception as a consumer to the consequences of this generation's repeated media exposure to violence. Hill proposes that corporations, eager to tap into a multibillion-dollar market, use the power of advertising and the media to mold children's thoughts and behaviors. The book features vignettes with teenagers explaining, in their own words, how advertising determines their needs, wants, and self-esteem. An in-depth analysis of this research reveals the influence of media on a young person's desire to conform, shows how broadcasted depictions of beauty distort the identities of children and teens, and uncovers corporate agendas for manipulating behavior in the younger generation. The work concludes with the position that corporations are shaping children to be efficient consumers but, in return, are harming their developing young minds and physical well-being.

Download or read book Purchasing Power written by Elizabeth M. Liew Siew Chin and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be young, poor, and black in our consumer culture? Are black children "brand-crazed consumer addicts" willing to kill each other over a pair of the latest Nike Air Jordans or Barbie backpack? In this first in-depth account of the consumer lives of poor and working-class black children, Elizabeth Chin enters the world of children living in hardship in order to understand the ways they learn to manage living poor in a wealthy society. To move beyond the stereotypical images of black children obsessed with status symbols, Chin spent two years interviewing poor children in New Haven, Connecticut, about where and how they spend their money. An alternate image of the children emerges, one that puts practicality ahead of status in their purchasing decisions. On a twenty-dollar shopping spree with Chin, one boy has to choose between a walkie-talkie set and an X-Men figure. In one of the most painful moments of her research, Chin watches as Davy struggles with his decision. He finally takes the walkie-talkie set, a toy that might be shared with his younger brother. Through personal anecdotes and compelling stories ranging from topics such as Christmas and birthday gifts, shopping malls, Toys-R-Us, neighborhood convenience shops, school lunches, ethnically correct toys, and school supplies, Chin critically examines consumption as a medium through which social inequalities -- most notably of race, class, and gender -- are formed, experienced, imposed, and resisted. Along the way she acknowledges the profound constraints under which the poor and working class must struggle in their daily lives.

Download or read book Children Consumerism and the Common Good written by Mary M. Doyle Roche and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children, Consumerism, and the Common Good explores the impact of consumer culture on the lives of children in the United States and globally, focusing on two phenomena: advertising to children and child labor. Christian communities have a critical role to play in securing the well-being of children and challenging the cultural trends that undermine that well-being. Exploring themes in the tradition of Catholic social teaching, Mary M. Doyle Roche argues that children have a claim on the fruits of our common life and should participate in that life according to their age and ability. Roche utilizes the principle of the common good to analyze children's participation in the market and suggests opportunities for resistance and transformation in the context of the consumerism that pervades everyday life. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Material Child written by David Buckingham and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-26 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children today are growing up in an increasingly commercialised world. But should we see them as victims of manipulative marketing, or as competent participants in consumer culture? The Material Child provides a comprehensive critical overview of debates about children’s changing engagement with the commercial market. It moves from broad overviews of the theory and history of children’s consumption to insightful case studies of key areas such as obesity, sexualisation, children’s broadcasting and education. In the process, it challenges much of the received wisdom about the effects of advertising and marketing, arguing for a more balanced account that locates children’s consumption within a broader analysis of social relationships, for example within the family and the peer group. While refuting the popular view of children as incompetent and vulnerable consumers that is adopted by many campaigners, it also rejects the easy celebration of consumption as an expression of children’s power and autonomy. Written by one of the leading international scholars in the field, The Material Child will be of interest to students, researchers and policy-makers, as well as parents, teachers and others who work directly with children.

Download or read book Playing with History written by Molly Rosner and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis deals with the changing notions of American identity as conveyed and fashioned through children's consumer products throughout the 20th century. Each case study looks at a different period of time though a sampling of material culture, literature, and entertainment spaces. The thesis begins with the advent of the American toy industry in the early twentieth century and looks at the early implications of linking children's toys with patriotism and whiteness. Chapter two examines the Great Depression and the ways different groups used children's dolls and toys to elaborate a vision of the country they longed for during an unstable time. Chapter three looks at the consensus history of America as told through two children's history books series (Random House's Landmark Books and Bobbs-Merrill's Childhood of Famous Americans) published during the Cold War. Chapter four looks at Freedomland U.S.A., an American history themed amusement park that sprang up and then was quickly torn down in the Bronx in the 1960s. The thesis concludes with a chapter that looks at the production of a multicultural, global, but ultimately homogenous American girl through the many facets of the American Girl Brand from the 1980s to the present. Through these objects, books, toys, dolls, and amusement parks, this thesis traces the myths and lessons sold to children in their leisure items, making it clear that childhood is political. This set of cases, each concerned with American history, it becomes clear over the course of the last century, consumerism has become a primary way children learn to access American democracy and engage in political action.

Download or read book The Nineteenth Century Child and Consumer Culture written by Dennis Denisoff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the rise of consumer culture in the nineteenth century, children and childhood were called on to fulfill a range of important roles. In addition to being consumers themselves, the young functioned as both 'goods' to be used and consumed by adults and as proof that middle-class materialist ventures were assisting in the formation of a more ethical society. Children also provided necessary labor and raw material for industry. This diverse collection addresses the roles assigned to children in the context of nineteenth-century consumer culture, at the same time that it remains steadfast in recognizing that the young did not simply exist within adult-articulated cultural contexts but were agents in their formation. Topics include toys and middle-class childhood; boyhood and toy theater; child performers on the Victorian stage; gender, sexuality and consumerism; imperialism in adventure fiction; the idealization of childhood as a form of adult entertainment and self-flattery; the commercialization of orphans; and the economics behind formulations of child poverty. Together, the essays demonstrate the rising investment both children and adults made in commodities as sources of identity and human worth.

Download or read book Buy Buy Baby written by Susan Gregory Thomas and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2009 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigative journalist examines how marketers exploit infants and toddlers and the broad, often shocking impact of that exploitation on our society It's no secret that toy and media corporations manipulate the insecurities of parents to move their products, but Buy, Buy Baby unveils the chilling fact that these corporations are using -- and often funding -- the latest research in child development to sell directly to babies and toddlers. Susan Gregory Thomas offers even more unnerving epiphanies: the lack of evidence that "educational" shows and toys provide any educational benefit at all for young children and the growing evidence that some of these products actually impair early development and could harm our kids socially and cognitively for life. Underlying these revelations is a dangerous economic and cultural shift: our kids are becoming consumers at alarmingly young ages and suffering all the ills that rampant materialism used to visit only on adults -- from anxiety to hypercompetitiveness to depression. Thomas blends prodigious reportage with an empathetic voice. Her two daughters were toddlers while she wrote this book, and she never loses sight of the temporal and emotional challenges that parents face. She shows how we can help our kids live at their natural pace, not the frenetic clip that serves only the toddler-industrial complex. Buy, Buy Baby helps us fight the power marketers wield by exposing the false fears they spread.

Download or read book Sold Separately written by Ellen Seiter and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A radical approach to children's TV. . . . Seiter argues cogently that watching Saturday cartoons isn't a passive activity but a tool by which even the very young decode and learn about their culture, and develop creative imagination as well. Bolstered by social, political, developmental, and media research, Seiter ties middle-class aversion to children's TV and mass-market toys to an association with the 'uncontrollable consumerism'--and hence supposed moral failure--of working class members, women, and 'increasingly, children.' . . . Positive guidance for parents uncertain of the role of TV and TV toys in their children's lives."--Kirkus Reviews "Sold Separately is about television and toys, and the various roles that they play in the lives of children and parents. In particular, Seiter examines toy advertising, both in print media and on television; TV commercials; toy-based video for girls, with an in-depth look at "My Little Pony"; action TV for boys, using "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" as her case study; and the stores where toys are sold, both Toys "R" Us and the more upscale shops . . . contains many provocative observations."--Women's Review of Books "Ellen Seiter has a holiday message for yuppie parents who feel guilty shopping at Toys "R" Us. The mass-produced toys that dominate the chain's shelves need not be the enemy of every right-thinking parent. "Ghostbuster" figurines and "My Little Pony" can share the toy chest with those sensible wooden blocks."--Chronicle of Higher Education "Emphasizing problems of socioeconomic class, gender, and race stereotyping, this study acknowledges the usual parental complaints about toys like Barbie and G.I. Joe, but insists that they do play an important role in children's culture, especially for working class families. A thought-provoking analysis."--Wilson Library Journal "In this thought provoking study, Seiter reasonably urges parents and others to put aside their own tastes and to understand that children's consumer culture promotes solidarity and sociability among youngsters."--Publishers Weekly "An important book for those desiring an overview of the toy industry's impact on consumer culture . . . it] presents a fair and well-balanced view of the industry."--Kathleen M. Carson, associate editor, Playthings "A refreshing, thoughtful, and insightful investigation of an enormously important subject--consumer culture for kids. . . . I can't recommend it highly enough."--Janice Radway, Duke University, author of Reading the Romance

Download or read book Longing and Belonging written by Allison J. Pugh and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-02-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Even as they see their wages go down and their buying power decrease, many parents are still putting their kids' material desires first. These parents struggle with how to handle children's consumer wants, which continue unabated despite the economic downturn. And, indeed, parents and other adults continue to spend billions of dollars on children every year. Why do children seem to desire so much, so often, so soon, and why do parents capitulate so readily? To determine what forces lie behind the onslaught of Nintendo Wiis and Bratz dolls, Allison J. Pugh spent three years observing and interviewing children and their families. In Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture, Pugh teases out the complex factors that contribute to how we buy, from lunchroom conversations about Game Boys to the stark inequalities facing American children. Pugh finds that children's desires stem less from striving for status or falling victim to advertising than from their yearning to join the conversation at school or in the neighborhood. Most parents respond to children's need to belong by buying the particular goods and experiences that act as passports in children's social worlds, because they sympathize with their children's fear of being different from their peers. Even under financial constraints, families prioritize children "feeling normal". Pugh masterfully illuminates the surprising similarities in the fears and hopes of parents and children from vastly different social contexts, showing that while corporate marketing and materialism play a part in the commodification of childhood, at the heart of the matter is the desire to belong."--pub. desc.

Download or read book Consumer Culture written by Douglas Goodman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-11-17 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engrossing review of the development of global consumerism and its impact on sociological issues. The phrase "shop till you drop" has become as American as apple pie and the trend does not appear to be slowing. Consumer Culture begins with the history of the consumer culture, which reveals that our fascination with consuming shows not only the hidden significance of everyday items, such as sugar and fashionable clothing, but also reveals the uniqueness of our way of life. Consumer Culture also presents the views of economists and sociologists who see consumption as an expression of freedom. The book covers the social impact of consumption, examining such dubious milestones as physical attacks upon McDonald's and Starbucks, and best sellers that are critical of consumption. There is coverage of important research, such as whether consumers are making rational or impulsive choices and the effect of advertising on children.

Download or read book Childhood and Consumer Culture written by Vebjørg Tingstad and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, children have become an increasingly important consumer market, and there is growing concern about the 'commercialisation' of childhood. This book, now in paperback, sheds fresh light on these debates, offering new empirical data and challenging critical perspectives on children's engagement with consumer culture from a wide range of international settings. The contributions are written both by well-known scholars and emerging researchers, and include studies of the history of children's consumption in the USA and in Europe; discussions of new theoretical and methodological approaches to studying children's consumer culture; critical analyses of the practices and strategies of contemporary marketers; sociological accounts of the contexts of children's consumption in the family and the peer group; and culturally-informed analyses of the role of consumption in children's identity formation. Taken together, these studies outline a productive new agenda for research in this field, and provide ways of moving beyond established theories and approaches. -- Back cover.

Download or read book Born to Buy written by Juliet B. Schor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-08-19 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ads aimed at kids are virtually everywhere -- in classrooms and textbooks, on the Internet, even at slumber parties and the playground. Product placement and other innovations have introduced more subtle advertising to movies and television. Companies are enlisting children as guerrilla marketers, targeting their friends and families. Even trusted social institutions such as the Girl Scouts are teaming up with marketers. Drawing on her own survey research and unprecedented access to the advertising industry, New York Times bestselling author and leading cultural and economic authority Juliet Schor examines how a marketing effort of vast size, scope, and effectiveness has created "commercialized children." Schor, author of The Overworked American and The Overspent American, looks at the broad implications of this strategy. Sophisticated advertising strategies convince kids that products are necessary to their social survival. Ads affect not just what they want to buy, but who they think they are and how they feel about themselves. Based on long-term analysis, Schor reverses the conventional notion of causality: it's not just that problem kids become overly involved in the values of consumerism; it's that kids who are overly involved in the values of consumerism become problem kids. In this revelatory and crucial book, Schor also provides guidelines for parents and teachers. What is at stake is the emotional and social well-being of our children. Like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia, and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, Born to Buy is a major contribution to our understanding of a contemporary trend and its effects on the culture.

Download or read book The Commodification of Childhood written by Daniel Thomas Cook and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-20 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVThrough a study of industry publications over much of the century, shows how the U.S. children’s clothing industry produced increasingly refined categories of childhood./div

Download or read book The Consumer Society written by Neva R. Goodwin and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The developed countries, particularly the United States, consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources, yet high and rising levels of consumption do not necessarily lead to greater satisfaction, security, or well-being, even for affluent consumers. The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental, moral, and social implications of a consumer society and consumer lifestyles. Each section consists of ten to twelve summaries of critical writings in a specific area, with an introductory essay that outlines the state of knowledge in that area and indicates where further research is needed. Sections cover: Scope and Definition Consumption in the Affluent Society Family, Gender, and Socialization The History of Consumerism Foundations of Economic Theories of Consumption Critiques and Alternatives in Economic Theory Perpetuating Consumer Culture: Media, Advertising, and Wants Creation Consumption and the Environment Globalization and Consumer Culture Visions of an Alternative This book is the second volume in the Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series, which provides surveys of the most significant writings in emergent areas of economics -- an invaluable aid in fast-growing fields where genuine new ground is being broken. The series brings together economists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers to develop analyses that challenge and enrich the dominant neoclassical paradigm. The Consumer Society is an essential guide to and summary of the literature of consumption and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the deeper economic, social, and ethical implications of consumerism.