DD101 – TMA02 (2014)

TMA Question:Outline the argument that ‘rubbish is not worthless’

Gail Crowther, Tim Davies, Craig Hammond (DD101 Preston Cluster)

Considering the Question …

• Looking at … Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis of contemporary ‘consumer society’ – As opposed to ‘production-based’ social

organisation

Social Class(Production)

Consuming – rubbish …

• Bauman argues that contemporary society is organised around the principles of consumption, rather than ‘production’.

• ‘Freedoms’ in a consumer society, tend to understood as:

– “the freedom to choose how to satisfy individual desires” (via the medium of the consumer market)

• As a consequence, individual ‘freedom’ has become privatised and commodified – a development which in turn fuel’s increasing consumption

• Identity itself becomes based on the process and products of consumption

What defines who ‘we’ are?

SeducedRepressed

• Zygmunt Bauman

Thorstein Veblen: Conspicuous Consumption

Thompson’s ‘Rubbish Theory’

Thompson’s ‘Rubbish Theory’

Thompson’s ‘Rubbish Theory’

• Any examples of artefacts making the transition from the ‘transient’ category

• Through the ‘rubbish’ category• To arrive at the ‘re-valued’ (durable) category?