Understanding consumption as political and moral practice: Introduction to the special issue

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal of Consumer Culture addresses the complex intersections and interrelationships that exist among everyday consumption practices, broader ideological structures, and moralistically infused citizenship ideals. The politicized marketplace relationships (and recursive effects) that emanate from these intersections are not reducible to conventional dichotomies between the marketplace and the body politic or between consumption and civic engagement. Building upon this insight, the articles in this special issue cast new theoretical light on how political ideologies and moralistic narratives — often reproducing entrenched class, gender, and racial hierarchies — are institutionalized and contested through consumption practices.