Democratization Of Consumption Research Articles

Chinese-manufactured commodities and African agency in the democratization of consumption: the example of electronic devices in Cameroon

Liberalizing the economy brought both social and economic complications to the lives of many Cameroonians and growing numbers of affordable commodities manufactured in China. Focusing on electronic devices (primarily mobile phones, computers, recording gadgets and solar kits), this article considers how these new private possessions have become integrated into existing practices of social representation and to what extent they have transformed the lives of Cameroonians. The article examines through whose agency these commodities arrived, the findings being based on interviews with travelling traders and consumers and upon observations on Cameroonian and Chinese markets in the 2010s. It highlights that African importers of Chinese-manufactured products carefully select and order supplies in China that are affordable and meet the tastes of local consumers. The availability of these goods enables Cameroonians to engage in the consumption of global commodities, heightening their sense of global connection, whilst also concurrently complicating the display of social hierarchies. The importation of these commodities also created business opportunities for numerous traders and service providers.

DEPARTMENT STORE AS SPACE OF URBAN CONSUMPTION IN 1920-1930S IN SOVIET UKRAINE

In the article, the features of department stores as trade establishments in Soviet Ukraine in 1920-1930s are examined. Department store is investigated as a unique space of urban consumption. It got the special place in ideology and propaganda and “fixed the victories and advantages of Soviet cultural trade”, the democratization of consumption. Department stores were to become a model of successful Soviet trade management and marketing. In urban space, department stores became the symbol of novelty, sufficiency and example for other trade institutions. Special attention is given to the transition in public discourse the image from “customer” to “consumer” during 1920-1930s. The innovativeness of univermags let to the use of modern tendencies in the arrangement of space, in particular, window displays and counters. It has been analyzed how department stores were equipped according to the last requirements of time with the help of mechanical devices and refrigeration units. The experience existence of universal type institutions was not as unique as it was in line with the world tendencies of trade modernization. But by borrowing and transforming the idea of universal trade into Soviet realities, the Bolshevik authorities gave it new meaning. In the Ukrainian department stores at that time a new commercial space was planned for the premises, showcases and counters were equipped, but despite these innovations, the shortage of goods, queues and state control of the market continued to remain. It has been concluded that state department stores could have become a model of successful Soviet management and marketing in the field of trade. Nevertheless, it was not enough to create a properly equipped store space, because consumer and department store was dependent on the ideological and economic policies of Soviet authorities. At the same time, the opening of department stores became a new stage in the development of Soviet trade, where the consumer could have become the main actor of these processes. However, in spite of this fact, during 1920-1930s a “new Soviet consumer” with its culture and consumption practices was created.

Taste: A bloodless revolution

Abstract The public debates about taste arrived in the public domain during the eighteenth century although the practice of creating social divisions through the discipline of rules of etiquette has had many precedents. The consumer age is distinguished by a trade in taste: conspicuous consumption becomes a new social mode. Individuals consumed goods and services in order to demonstrate their capacity to consume. Consumption was not limited by need but became an expression of taste that in turn reflected social mobility and wealth. The training of taste was a new commodity with the democratization of consumption and with the publication of books on household protocols and the rules of conduct at social events. The churning of distinctions through the ‘trickle down’ and the ‘springing up’ of changes in style becomes intertwined with social mobility and industrial modernity which, in turn, produces a divorce between fashion and taste. A further consequence is that being fashionable is increasingly a sign of the lack of taste, although it was not always so.