• Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us
  @TheSocyCinema

@thesocycinema / videos

Shop 'Til You Drop: The Crisis of Consumerism

4/10/2011

2 Comments

 
Picture
Tags: commodification, consumption/consumerism, marketing/brands, advertizing, conspicuous consumption, consumer culture, emulation, identity, materialism, veblen, 21 to 60 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 52:00
Access: no online access (trailer on YouTube)

Summary: This documentary offers an excellent overview of consumer culture. In the words of the documentary's creators, this film asks  "Are we too materialistic? Are we willfully trashing the planet in our pursuit of things? And what's the source of all this frenetic consumer energy and desire anyway? In a fast-paced tour of the ecological and psychological terrain of American consumer culture .... Taking aim at the high-stress, high-octane pace of fast-lane materialism, the film moves beneath the seductive surfaces of the commercial world to show how the flip side of accumulation is depletion -- the slow, steady erosion of both natural resources and basic human values" with an exploration of the "relationship between the limits of consumerism and our never-ending pursuit of happiness." This video would work great with consumption theories from Veblen to Juliet Schor (who is featured throughout the film). One limitation of the documentary is that while it explores the ecological impacts of consumption, it does not focus on the labor and social issues (e.g. sweatshops) related to the production of the goods that we consume. The film would also work well in combination with videos (such as this video on Fair Trade) and activities (e.g. using a smartphone app to explore consumption impacts) addressing more sustainable consumption to encourage students to think about possible solutions, but also to think critically about whether we can adequately address these social and environmental issues through consumer activism alone.

Submitted By: Paul Dean

2 Comments
Ed Wiseley
4/27/2015 02:18:33 am

Where can I find this video, in its entirety, in English?

Reply
Paul Dean
4/30/2015 02:10:59 am

Hi Ed, Unfortunately the Media Education Foundation (who produced the video) appears to only sell institutional copies of the film. You can see purchasing options at the "access" link above, or check nearby university libraries.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Tags

    All
    00 To 05 Mins
    06 To 10 Mins
    11 To 20 Mins
    21 To 60 Mins
    61+ Mins
    Abortion/Reproduction
    Aging/Life Course
    Art/Music
    Biology
    Bodies
    Capitalism
    Children/Youth
    Class
    Commodification
    Community
    Consumption/Consumerism
    Corporations
    Crime/Law/Deviance
    Culture
    Demography/Population
    Disability
    Discourse/Language
    Du Bois
    Durkheim
    Economic Sociology
    Education
    Emotion/Desire
    Environment
    Food/Agriculture
    Foucault
    Gender
    Globalization
    Goffman
    Government/The State
    Health/Medicine
    Historical Sociology
    Immigration/Citizenship
    Inequality
    Intersectionality
    Knowledge
    Lgbtq
    Marketing/Brands
    Marriage/Family
    Marx/Marxism
    Media
    Methodology/Statistics
    Multiculturalism
    Nationalism
    Organizations/Occupations/Work
    Political Economy
    Politics/Election/Voting
    Prejudice/Discrimination
    Psychology/Social Psychology
    Race/Ethnicity
    Religion
    Rural/Urban
    Science/Technology
    Sex/Sexuality
    Social Construction
    Social Mvmts/Social Change/Resistance
    Sports
    Subtitles/CC
    Theory
    Violence
    War/Military
    Weber

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @TheSocyCinema

    .

    Got any videos?

    Are you finding useful videos for your classes? Do you have good videos you use in your own classes? Please consider submitting your videos here and helping us build our database!

     

    Creative Commons License
​About Us      |      Facebook      |      Twitter      |      Pinterest      |      Tumblr
Creative Commons
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us