| Through the lens of political philosophy and philosophy of education I explore how to better understand the character and consequences of consumerism and its impact on politics and education. I analyze several important political and pedagogical shifts: the shift from the political importance of production to the political importance of consumption, the shift from the grounding of capitalism in Puritanical self-restraint to self-preoccupation and self-gratification, the emergence of the semiotic features of consumerism as a self-enclosing discourse of signs and symbols, and the growing impact of consumerism on education. The emergence of a global political order centered around the celebration of consumerism demonstrates that all too often the West has been more successful at spreading consumer goods and values than the institutions and practices of democracy.;I begin by briefly considering the historical and etymological origins of consumerism, then investigate its growing influence on schooling. The first chapter traces the historical and etymological origins of consumerism linking it with several important thinkers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, liberal thinkers such as Hobbes and Locke, and locates the growing importance of consumerism in the relationship between Communism and Capitalism that dominated much of the twentieth century. Chapter Two looks closely at specific ways in which consumerism impacts the public education system, from school-business partnerships to advertising in school buildings and corporate-sponsored curriculum, as well as the influence of advertising and marketing on youth. Chapter Three examines Hannah Arendt's account of the public/private distinction through the lens of consumerism, and her account of the implications of the rise of consumerism to a position of political dominance. Chapter Four considers the new dimensions of consumerism by using Jean Baudrillard to consider the visual character of consumerism as a 'language' of signs that legitimates the metanarrative of capital and impedes resistance. Chapter five investigates possible pedagogical modes of resistance against the proliferation of consumerism, resistance against those same modes, and the importance of hope and the possibilities of political possibilities. In conclusion, I reconsider what is expected of philosophy, and suggest that it is a project of openness rather then prescription. |
