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The Fabricated Shopping Experience: An Impersonal Impression on Consumerism
Title
The Fabricated Shopping Experience: An Impersonal Impression on Consumerism.
Creator
Nienass, Sherri, Poindexter, Carla, Isenhour, David, Kovach, Keith, Raimundi-Ortiz, Wanda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
I have a compulsion to document my surroundings. I do this in all forms possible; through a picture text-message, a point-and-shoot camera, or through a high end camera. Like most women in contemporary society, I feel an expectation to be gorgeous. While I do not feel this pressure directly from my boyfriend or close friends, I am constantly surrounded by advertisements for beauty products enforcing the importance of being attractive. My current occupation as a cosmetic counter makeup artist...
Show moreI have a compulsion to document my surroundings. I do this in all forms possible; through a picture text-message, a point-and-shoot camera, or through a high end camera. Like most women in contemporary society, I feel an expectation to be gorgeous. While I do not feel this pressure directly from my boyfriend or close friends, I am constantly surrounded by advertisements for beauty products enforcing the importance of being attractive. My current occupation as a cosmetic counter makeup artist relies on convincing women to enhance their appearance. I am fascinated by how easily I can persuade clients to purchase unnecessary products. My art is both a celebration and commentary on the beauty industry and contemporary consumerism. My approach to this series is varied and complex. The individuals photographed are unaware of their participation in the creation of my work. I do not intend to exploit the subjects or places that I photograph, rather my work comes from a very natural understanding of this environment based on several years working in a major department store. I attempt to attach multiple emotions of (-) empathy, humor, and sometimes sympathy (-) to the moments I capture. My work is not fabricated or recreated, (-) it is documentary. I am aware of the times I live in, and the people that inhabit these times and places. Once documented, the captured moments in time can be reflected on from a multitude of perspectives at a later place and time. Because I also contribute to the general shopping and grooming experience, the details of these images come from a trained eye and attentive approach. I have chosen to write this thesis in an auto-biographical narrative because I play many roles. I am the retail specialist, the artist, the photographer, and the consumer.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004316, ucf:49461
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004316
Rock-a-Buy Baby: Consumerism by New, First-Time Mothers
Title
Rock-a-Buy Baby: Consumerism by New, First-Time Mothers.
Creator
Afflerback, Sara, Grauerholz, Elizabeth, Carter, Shannon, Koontz, Amanda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Rock-a-Buy Baby: Consumerism by New, First-Time Mothers, is the first known sociological exploration of need-based consumption for babies, despite the baby gear industry being a $6-billion-dollar business (whattoexpect.com). Data stemmed from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with new, first-time mothers (3 months (-) 1 year postpartum) conducted within participants' households. The insights gained from the present study tell us a great deal about the (")needs(") that predominantly...
Show moreRock-a-Buy Baby: Consumerism by New, First-Time Mothers, is the first known sociological exploration of need-based consumption for babies, despite the baby gear industry being a $6-billion-dollar business (whattoexpect.com). Data stemmed from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with new, first-time mothers (3 months (-) 1 year postpartum) conducted within participants' households. The insights gained from the present study tell us a great deal about the (")needs(") that predominantly white, middle-class mothers socially constructed in anticipation of their first child, and the consumptive behaviors used to accomplish these "needs." Respondents had turned to similar resources (other mothers, online forums, consumer reports, books, magazines, etc.) to help them construct (")need(") and formulate decisions among commodities. Provided they were relying on comparable, if not overlapping, bodies of knowledge, mothers' narratives about consumer (")need(") were often congruent. Additionally, the ways expectant mothers accumulated items are ritualized and made tradition. The baby shower and gift registration process (which all of my respondents participated in to some variation) are social constructions; these practices, which are so strongly tied to consumption, also constituted reality for mothers, and inevitably, their babies.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004258, ucf:49502
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004258
The Sustainability of Overconsumption? A Discursive Analysis of Walmart's Sustainability Campaign
Title
The Sustainability of Overconsumption? A Discursive Analysis of Walmart's Sustainability Campaign.
Creator
Adams, Kathleen, Jacques, Peter, Kiel, Dwight, Knuckey, Jonathan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This study inquires as to whether Walmart's sustainability campaign represents a sincere and holistic change throughout the company's global supply chain or if it is simply a public relations campaign which caters to the growing target market of (")next-generation(") consumers and justifies further expansion into (")emerging markets("). A critical analysis of Walmart's sustainability discourse is presented, using transcribed texts of various corporate and publicity-geared publications....
Show moreThis study inquires as to whether Walmart's sustainability campaign represents a sincere and holistic change throughout the company's global supply chain or if it is simply a public relations campaign which caters to the growing target market of (")next-generation(") consumers and justifies further expansion into (")emerging markets("). A critical analysis of Walmart's sustainability discourse is presented, using transcribed texts of various corporate and publicity-geared publications. Frequently utilized terms and themes are identified throughout the big-box retailer's sustainability campaign which convey a distinctly Neoliberal ethos(-)a political economy which lies at the heart of current practices of institutional unsustainability(-)and emphasize the role of the atomized individual(-)who may purchase protection from environmental risks via green products. Other themes, which are commonly associated with sustainability research, are glaringly absent: subsidiarity; human rights; steady-state economics; economic inequity; the precautionary principle. This research aims to shed light on the prospects for the sustainability of green overconsumption, which Walmart is leading the way in promoting, and for the continuation of the modern economistic zeitgeist into the twenty-first century.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004346, ucf:49416
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004346
Le Temps des Copains: Youth and the Making of Modern France in the Era of Decolonization, 1958-1968
Title
Le Temps des Copains: Youth and the Making of Modern France in the Era of Decolonization, 1958-1968.
Creator
Fedorka, Drew, Lyons, Amelia, Nair, Deepa, Crepeau, Richard, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This thesis examines the popular y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; phenomenon and its role in articulating a vision of modern France in the aftermath of decolonization. Y(&)#233;-y(&)#233;, a teen-oriented and music-based popular culture that flourished from roughly 1962-1966, was in a unique position to define what it meant to be young in 1960s France. I argue that the y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; popular culture, through its definition of youth, provided an important cultural channel through which to articulate a...
Show moreThis thesis examines the popular y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; phenomenon and its role in articulating a vision of modern France in the aftermath of decolonization. Y(&)#233;-y(&)#233;, a teen-oriented and music-based popular culture that flourished from roughly 1962-1966, was in a unique position to define what it meant to be young in 1960s France. I argue that the y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; popular culture, through its definition of youth, provided an important cultural channel through which to articulate a modern French identity after the Algerian War (1954-1962). Using a combination of advertisements, articles, and sanitized depictions of teenage pop singers, the y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; popular culture constructed an idealized vision of adolescence that coupled a technologically-savvy and consumer-oriented outlook with a distinctly conservative, apolitical, and inclusive social stance. It reflected France's reorientation toward a particular technological and consumer modernity while simultaneously serving to obscure France's recent colonial past and the dubious legacy of imperialism. To contextualize y(&)#233;-y(&)#233;, this thesis begins by examining the blousons noirs (black jackets) and the societal anxieties that surrounded them in the early Fifth Republic (1958-1962). By tracking the abrupt shift from the blousons noirs to y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; in predominant media representations of youth, this thesis provides a unique vantage point with which to interpret dominant discourses of the Gaullist Fifth Republic and its attempt to reinvent France into a modernized and decolonized consumer republic. As the work suggests, it was not a coincidence that the optimistic y(&)#233;-y(&)#233; youth, unburdened by the tribulations of France's recent past, appeared in full force within months following the recognition of Algerian independence in 1962.
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Date Issued
2015
Identifier
CFE0005612, ucf:50200
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005612