Rise Of Consumerism Research Articles

Cinderella Reigns

The rise of consumerism has long occupied a prominent place in general accounts of the American past. Almost a half century ago, David M. Potter posited in his landmark People of Plenty (1954) that economic abundance was a defining feature of the American character. In 1973, Daniel J. Boorstin celebrated the emergence of "consumption communities" in his Americans: The Democratic Experience. More recently, Susan Strasser and Richard S. Tedlow have analyzed how mass merchandisers created a national mass market. 1 In addition, a legion of social and cultural historians has explored the complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship between mass marketing and American values. 2

The Rise of Consumerism

Abstract Consumerism in mental health began in protest against inhuman treatment received in psychiatric hospitals. It continues today in consumer involvement in a wide array of venues. Consumers are still involved in advocating against inhuman and harmful treatment and in advocating for effective mental health services that are provided with dignity and respect. Consumers are also involved in providing support and sustenance for each other in both informal and formal ways: in mutual self-help and in the provision of consumer-operated services. They are also involved in designing, conducting, and participating in research; and in participating in policy making bodies at the local, state, and federal levels. This paper outlines the many ways in which consumers have been and continue to be involved in impacting mental health treatment, research, and policy.

The future of Australasian psychiatrists: online or out of touch?

Objective: The aim of this paper is to examine the delivery of mental health care which will be enabled by the various communications technologies over the next 5 to 10 years.Method: A literature review, reviews of multiple Internet websites and the author's personal experience and opinions are combined to provide a commentary on the group of new technologies for communication available within health, and how they will affect the practice of psychiatry and psychiatrists over the next decade. The driving forces for these changes are the rise of consumerism, technological change and financial necessity, and it is evident that patients will have in future much greater choice of access to their therapists than at present. The health-care environment of the future will be different to today, as will the roles of psychiatrists, who will increasingly have to work as members of teams in an expert capacity rather than in traditional one-to-one practice.Conclusions: It is concluded that it is essential for psychiatrists to become involved in online health care, and in particular to join their patients on the Internet, and that there are major opportunities for Australasian psychiatrists to provide high quality psychiatric care across national boundaries, particularly into the Asia-Pacific region.

The future of Australasian psychiatrists: online or out of touch?

The aim of this paper is to examine the delivery of mental health care which will be enabled by the various communications technologies over the next 5 to 10 years. A literature review, reviews of multiple Internet websites and the author's personal experience and opinions are combined to provide a commentary on the group of new technologies for communication available within health, and how they will affect the practice of psychiatry and psychiatrists over the next decade. The driving forces for these changes are the rise of consumerism, technological change and financial necessity, and it is evident that patients will have in future much greater choice of access to their therapists than at present. The health-care environment of the future will be different to today, as will the roles of psychiatrists, who will increasingly have to work as members of teams in an expert capacity rather than in traditional one-to-one practice. It is concluded that it is essential for psychiatrists to become involved in online health care, and in particular to join their patients on the Internet, and that there are major opportunities for Australasian psychiatrists to provide high quality psychiatric care across national boundaries, particularly into the Asia-Pacific region.

Five cases, four actors and a moral: lessons from studies of contested treatment decisions.

The case of Jaymee Bowen (child B) illustrated the conflict that may arise over treatment decisions in the National Health Service (NHS). This article reviews four further cases involving disagreement between patients and families on the one hand, and health authorities on the other, and a fifth case in which a health authority questioned the treatment decision of a medical specialist. The cases illustrate the rise of consumerism in health care and the challenge for health authorities in weighing the claims of individual patients against the needs of communities. They also demonstrate the increasing role of lawyers and the courts in resolving disputes over treatment decisions. Clinicians were closely involved in all cases, both in recommending treatment options and in serving as independent advisers when disputes arose. The findings presented here indicate that there is a need to strengthen the process of decision-making in cases of this kind and to make greater use of evidence in informing decisions. In future, decision-making needs to be characterized by openness, reason giving, an appeals procedure and regulation of the process to ensure that these conditions are met. The funders of health care also need to consider each individual in his or her own right while also using their resources for the benefit of the population as a whole.

The obligation of mental health services to the least well off.

Since the 1970s public mental health policy has given priority to the least well off-those with the most severe impairments and those who are most indigent. Reforms during this era have focused on the social welfare as well as the health and mental health needs of this population. The author briefly examines the key service demonstration programs and policy changes of the past 20 years in the light of society's obligation to the least well off. Despite a variety of policy threats to the priority accorded this population in the 1980s, the focus on the least well off has been sustained. The mental health field could do a much better job, however, in implementing the lessons learned from service demonstration programs. Recent changes in managed care and social welfare policy challenge the field's commitment to the least well off. However, the rise in consumerism and self-advocacy has sounded a more optimistic note from a population determined no longer to be least well off.

Material Culture in Europe and China, 1400-1800: The Rise of Consumerism (review)

Material Culture in Europe and China, 1400-1800: The Rise of Consumerism (review)

Total hip replacement: not just for Christmas

The decision to offer joint replacement surgery should be viewed as entering into a long‐term relationship rather than a brief encounter. The rise of consumerism allied to the expansion of general practitioner fund‐holding and implementation of the ‘Patients' Charter’ has resulted in increased pressures on outpatient clinics, and the interface between primary and secondary care is central to the development of the NHS. The NHS reforms have produced guidelines on waiting times for outpatient attendances and operations, with the emphasis on a consultant‐based service. There are, however, no such guidelines for postoperative follow‐up.

The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945

The era between the world wars, from the roaring 20s to the grim days of the Great Depression, was a time of tremendous change. The United States became an increasingly urban culture as people left their farms to seek work in the cities. Many blacks moved North to escape the violence and racism of a resurgent Ku Klux Klan in the South. And, while life became more comfortable for many Americans during this period, by 1941 only half the population enjoyed the modern conveniences we now take for granted. With improvements in technology and the rise of consumerism (spurred by the new science of advertising) the country was expanding in every direction. However, for many Americans, daily life was fraught with uncertainty. Jobs and wages were unpredictable, labor unrest was constant, and savings vanished in the stock market. In this vividly detailed narrative, Harvey Green recounts an era of unprecedented change in American culture and examines the impact of these uncertain times on such aspects of daily life as employment, home life, gender roles, education, religion, and recreation.

Influencing consumer health care choices with quality of care information

Consumers are confronted by increasing amounts and types of information about the quality of health care available to them in the marketplace. This paper explores the state of current knowledge about the impact of quality of care information (QCI) on consumer health care decision making. The paper reviews recent studies of consumer response to information related to health and health care in areas related to QCI and choice of health care providers. The paper discusses recent trends in the availability of QCI and describes the rise of consumerism in health care and its implications for consumer health information policy.

Demarcating public from private values in evolutionary discourse

What I suggest we can see in this brief overview of the literature is an extensive interpenetration on both sides of these debates between scientific, political, and social values. Important shifts in political and social values were of course occurring over the same period, some of them in parallel with, and perhaps even contributing to, these transitions I have been speaking of in evolutionary discourse. The developments that I think of as at least suggestive of possible parallels include the progressive encroachment of public values into the private domain of post-World War II American life, the cold war, the rise of consumerism, and the flowering of what Christopher Lasch calls a “narcissistic individualism.”35 In popular language, the 1960s gave birth to the “me” generation. Perhaps the most tantalizing analogue is suggested by Barbara Ehrenreich's argument for the emergence of a new meaning (and measure) of masculinity — an ideal of masculinity measured not by commitment, responsibility, or success as family provider, but precisely by the strength of a man's autonomy in the private sphere, his resistance to the demands of a hampering female.36 It is tempting to speculate about possible connections between changes in scientific discourse and developments in the social and political spheres, but such connections, however suggestive, would clearly have to be demonstrated.

Nursing in the 1980s and 1990s — a challenge for managers

The 1980s have seen a significant number of pressures placed on the health care system and the nursing profession. Such pressures include an adverse economic climate, the impact of technology, the rise of consumerism, the transfer of basic nurse education into the tertiary education sector and the move to privatization in health care. These pressures require skills not previously expected of nurse administrators in order to effect a smooth transition through these times of change. Failure to manage effectively has led to staff shortages and increased industrial militancy, two symptoms present in Australia at the moment. An overview of the present climate in this country is presented for consideration of effective management practices for the future.

European youth opportunities?

European youth opportunities?

The Rise of Consumerism in Periodontics

Dentists can and should capitalize on the consumer movement. Consumerism is good practice management. This opinion is consistent with the excellent overview of changes in periodontics during the 1970s that are described in other articles of this symposium. No dentist can guarantee good periodontal health or successful treatment if the patient is not responsible doing all he can to prevent periodontal disease. When the patient has this attitude and has modified his oral hygiene habits in accordance with the recommendations of the general dentist, the patient then has the right to expect that most forms of gingivitis and periodontitis will occur only rarely, if at all.

The rise of consumerism

The rise of consumerism

College teaching and the adult consumer: Toward a more sophisticated student body

This article describes the development of the student consumerism movement. It identifies the factors which have caused the rise of consumerism as an issue in education today-the implications of a change in the age of majority, changing demographics and enrollment trends, and the broader social and political pressures for improved educational services-and some of the results of the consumerism movement. A preliminary report on the response of the University of Nebraska and several other institutions of higher education in Nebraska to this movement is presented in the article. The Nebraska response, an innovative experiment supported in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, is an attempt to make students more sophisticated consumers of their own education.

Advocacy and Research: A Parent's Perspective

The reduction in public expenditures for research and the rise in consumerism have combined to make parent advocate groups a potentially powerful and active force on behalf of research. This article attempts to outline this present situation from the parents' viewpoint, including parental hesitation about research and researchers, suggestions on developing a “research constituency,” areas of research of particular interest to parents, the rights of human subjects, and the implications of parent involvement in accountability.

A Case for Comparative Advertising

Abstract Comparative advertising was considered bad manners by most everyone in the past and still is by some today. But with the rise of consumerism. the Federal Trade Commission recognized this technique's potential to replace the traditional, non-specific “Brand X” with a more meaningful direct comparison. Realizing that comparative ads also had the potential to misinform. NBC. ABC. American Association of Advertising Agencies and National Association of Broadcasters issued their own individual guidelines. Some examples of acceptable and successful comparative advertising are discussed.

Marketing in the Age of Strict Liability

T HE practice of marketing, although normally in a state of flux, is from time to time subject to major shifts, which most often occur as a consequence of changes within the environment. The current marketing era began after World War II, when business recognized that technology had solved many of the problems of production and when the life style of consumers had been transformed from one of scarcity to one of limited abundance. During this era, business has moved to adjust production to the needs of consumption. The resulting consumer orientation, with related changes, has been called the marketing concept. Accordingly, many changes have occurred in marketing strategy; the change in emphasis from price competition to nonprice and innovative competition is among the most important.1 Currently, the environment of marketing is again in ferment. Growing awareness of the social responsibility of business, along with the corresponding rise of consumerism, has triggered investigations by federal agencies and state legislatures. These actions have resulted in the passage of legislation to establish guidelines for marketing decisions and the creation of agencies to administer these standards. Another aspect of this changing environment is that many courts have reconsidered the traditional legal doctrines relating to the liability of manufacturers for the goods they sell. While manufacturers were once relatively well insulated from loss due to actions by injured consumers who had purchased from resellers, they are now vulnerable to suit from a vast array of claimants in most jurisdictions.2 It is quite possible that marketing is at the threshold of another momentous change. The changing social and legal environment is forcing manufacturers to take greater responsibility for the goods they produce and sell. The signal for this change is the evolution and widespread acceptance of the doctrine of strict liability.

La sociedad urbana y la irrupción de la Modernidad en España, 1900-1936

En el primer tercio del siglo XX se produjo una aceleración del crecimiento urbano y de la transformación socioeconómica por los efectos combinados de la segunda revolución industrial, el nacimiento de la sociedad de masas y las consecuencias de la Gran Guerra, expresados en la transformación del espacio urbano, el cambio demográfico, la transformación de las economías urbanas, los mercados laborales, los estilos de vida, los comportamientos sociales, políticos y culturales en el conjunto de la trama urbana española, bajo el liderazgo de las grandes ciudades como Madrid, Barcelona y Bilbao. En estos años la Modernidad alteró las coordenadas sociales, políticas y culturales, con la aparición de nuevos actores sociales y políticos, de nuevos usos y costumbres. En los años veinte la electricidad, el teléfono, el automóvil, el cinematógrafo, la prensa, la radio, el deporte, la moda y la publicidad fueron la expresión más visible de la gran transformación experimentada por la sociedad urbana.