Conceptualisations of consumerism in the new politics of consumption

This paper is based on a three year ARC funded study of 'anti-consumerism' in the contemporary western world - a study involving qualitative interviews with critics, advocates and activists in Australia, North America and Europe. Drawing selectively on these interviews, I deal in this paper with the content of what participants had to say in relation to one particular theme; the apparent 'causes' of overconsumption and consumerism in the West. In doing so, I challenge conceptualisations of consumption activism as a field dominated by ideologues, puritans and dogmatists who lack self-reflexivity in the political positions they espouse.