Consumption and the Globalization Project: International Hegemony and the Annihilation of Time (International Political Economy)

224 Pages·2008·1.21 MB·English

by  Edward A. Comor

Consumption and the
Globalization Project
International Hegemony and the
Annihilation of Time
Edward A. Comor
PPL-UK_CGP-Comor_FM.qxd 3/27/2008 1:03 PM Page i
International Political Economy Series
General Editor:Timothy M. Shaw, Professor and Director, Institute of International Relations,
The University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago
Titles include:
Hans Abrahamsson
UNDERSTANDING WORLD ORDER AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Poverty, Conflict and the Global Arena
Andreas Bieler, Werner Bonefeld, Peter Burnham and Adam David Morton
GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING, STATE, CAPITAL AND LABOUR
Contesting Neo-Gramscian Perspectives
Morten Bøås, Marianne H. Marchand and Timothy M. Shaw (editors)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REGIONS AND REGIONALISMS
Paul Bowles, Henry Veltmeyer, Scarlett Cornelissen, Noela Invernizzi and
Kwon-Leung Tang (editors)
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBALIZATION
A Critical Reader
REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBALIZATION
A Critical Reader
Sandra Braman (editor)
THE EMERGENT GLOBAL INFORMATION POLICY REGIME
Edward A. Comor
CONSUMPTION AND THE GLOBALIZATION PROJECT
International Hegemony and the Annihilation of Time
Giorel Curran
21st CENTURY DISSENT
Anarchism, Anti-Globalization and Environmentalism
Martin Doornbos
INSTITUTIONALIZING DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND RESOURCE STRATEGIES IN EASTERN
AFRICA AND INDIA
Developing Winners and Losers
GLOBAL FORCES AND STATE RESTRUCTURING
Dynamics of State Formation and Collapse
Bill Dunn
GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING AND THE POWER OF LABOUR
Myron J. Frankman
WORLD DEMOCRATIC FEDERALISM
Peace and Justice Indivisible
Marieke de Goede (editor)
INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND POSTSTRUCTURAL POLITICS
Graham Harrison (editor)
GLOBAL ENCOUNTERS
International Political Economy, Development and Globalization
Patrick Hayden and Chamsy el-OjeiIi (editors)
CONFRONTING GLOBALIZATION
Humanity, Justice and the Renewal of Politics
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Axel Hülsemeyer (editor)
GLOBALIZATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Convergence or Divergence?
Takashi Inoguchi
GLOBAL CHANGE
A Japanese Perspective
Kanishka Jayasuriya
STATECRAFT, WELFARE AND THE POLITICS OF INCLUSION
Dominic Kelly and Wyn Grant (editors)
THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN THE 21st CENTURY
Actors, Issues and Regional Dynamics
Mathias Koenig-Archibugi and Michael Zürn (editors)
NEW MODES OF GOVERNANCE IN THE GLOBAL SYSTEM
Exploring Publicness, Delegation and Inclusiveness
Craig N. Murphy (editor)
EGALITARIAN POLITICS IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
George Myconos
THE GLOBALIZATION OF ORGANIZED LABOUR
1945–2004
John Nauright and Kimberly S. Schimmel (editors)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SPORT
Morten Ougaard
THE GLOBALIZATION OF POLITICS
Power, Social Forces and Governance
Richard Robison (editor)
THE NEO-LIBERAL REVOLUTION
Forging the Market State
Fredrik Söderbaum and Timothy M. Shaw (editors)
THEORIES OF NEW REGIONALISM
Susanne Soederberg, Georg Menz and Philip G. Cerny (editors)
INTERNALIZING GLOBALIZATION
The Rise of Neoliberalism and the Decline of National Varieties of Capitalism
Ritu Vij (editor)
GLOBALIZATION AND WELFARE
A Critical Reader
Matthew Watson
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL MOBILITY
International Political Economy Series
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Consumption and the
Globalization Project
International Hegemony and the
Annihilation of Time
Edward A. Comor
Associate Professor
and
Rogers Chair in Journalism and New Information Technology
University of Western Ontario
Canada
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© Edward A.Comor 2008
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90
Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom
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ISBN-13:978-0-230-52224-4 hardback
ISBN-10:0-230-52224-6 hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Comor,Edward A.,1962–
Consumption and the globalization project :neo-imperialism and the
annihilation of time / Edward A.Comor.
p.cm.— (International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-230-52224-6 (alk.paper)
1. Consumption (Economics) 2. International economic relations.
3. International relations. I.Title.
HC79.C6C6354 2008
339.4’7—dc22 2008011810
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe,Chippenham and Eastbourne
PPL-UK_CGP-Comor_FM.qxd 3/27/2008 1:03 PM Page v
From my parents, the past
With my wife, the present
To my son, the future
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Contents
List of Illustrations and Table ix
Preface x
List of Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
Consumption and growth 4
Consumption, consent and American foreign policy 5
The globalization project 7
Globalization and commodification 9
Hegemony and consumption 11
Globalization, time and space 13
Chapter previews 15
2 Power, Hegemony and the Institution of Consumption 19
Conceptualizing power 20
Consumption as an institution 24
The capitalist dynamic and the mediation of change 29
Consumption and hegemonic order 32
Carrots, sticks, treadmills and common sense 36
Conceptual systems 40
Hegemonic framing 43
3 The Birth of Capitalist Consumption 47
From feudalism to capitalism: Existential implications 48
The decline of community, the ascent of the impersonal 52
Capitalism and the mediation of relations 55
Competitive consumption and the new bourgeoisie 57
Temporal transformations and working class life 61
Commodity fetishism, electricity and the department
store 63
Twentieth-century advertising and working class
consumption 67
The press, radio and branding 68
Television, suburbia and the commercialization of
conceptual systems 72
Transforming conceptual systems 75
vii
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viii Contents
4 Global Civil Society or Global Consumer Society? 80
GCS and globalization theory 81
ICTs, identities and the GCS delusion 86
GCS’s more sophisticated proponents 91
From delusion to the reality of illusion 94
Towards a different GCS 99
5 ‘Developing’ Political Economies and Global Consumer Society 106
Global consumer society? The case of India 107
Indian ‘middle class’ consumption 113
Global consumer society? The case of China 117
Post-revolution consumption 122
The ‘developing’ world and abstract universalisms 124
The global commodification of human relations 127
Common sense and resistance 132
6 Neo-Imperialism, Consumption and the Crisis of Time 135
America’s neo-imperialist turn 136
The globalization project challenged 142
Time, space and the ascent of the sensual 145
Temporal neglect-cum-imperial policy 147
Suicidal implications 151
Contradiction, resistance and a plea for time 154
Alternative futures 157
7 Conclusion 160
Notes 172
Bibliography 191
Index 199
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Illustrations and Table
Illustrations
Illustration 2.1 US personal savings, as a percentage
of disposal income, 1950–2006 28
Illustration 2.2 US household debt, 1950–2006 28
Illustration 2.3 Treadmill at Pentonville Prison,
North London, 1895 37
Illustration 3.1 A medieval market (n.d.) 53
Illustration 3.2 Elizabeth I, 1533–1603 58
Illustration 5.1 VICCOtoothpaste advertisement 115
Illustration 5.2 A nation of products (1931/32?) 119
Illustration 5.3 Sinceretoothpaste advertisement (1935) 120
Illustration 5.4 BMWadvertisement 128
Illustration 7.1 ifnotnow.comadvertisement 168
Table
Table 3.1 Pre-modern and modern experiences,
perceptions and imaginations 76
ix
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Preface
Shortly after September 11, 2001, US President George W. Bush urged his com-
patriots to go shopping. If Americans fail to go about their lives as normal–
visiting malls, buying things, racking up debts – the ‘evil-doers’ will win.
On this rare occasion, George Bush was correct; the edifice of the contem-
porarypolitical economy is, in fact, built on the grounds of a consumption-
dependent framework.1 In the context of the contemporary globalization
project, this framework’s construction is secured more through consumerist
identities than workplace satisfactions, more as a result of acquisitive aspira-
tions than civic achievements. As Bush’s post-terrorist-attack appeals under-
line, this emerging world (dis)order also at times reveals itself as something
of a house of cards, instantaneously interconnected and vulnerable to a
range of consumption-related disruptions – from inflation to deflation, from
energy shortages to ‘liquidity’ crises.
Despite the ecological implications of our systemic compulsion to produce
and consume evermore, and the geopolitical ramifications of this dynamic
(involving a deepening dependency on both oil and cheap labour), con-
sumption itself arguably has become the core indice of not just individual
‘success’ but also national ‘development’. Capitalist consumption - as a his-
torically constructed way of thinking, acting and relating - constitutes an
essential but contradiction-laden institution. Its core agent - the much-
vaunted ‘sovereign’ consumer - is ideally free to do virtually anything except
withdraw from consuming. After all, if that choice were acted upon, the
edifice would collapse.
Remarkably, consumption, and, more generally, the commodification of
social (and international) relations, remains a relatively neglected subject
among political economists and students of international studies. One
reason for this could be that consumption often is regarded as a local if not
individual activity, thus not the ontological concern of international politi-
cal economy (IPE). Another explanation, most relevant for neo-Marxists, is
the tendency to focus on production (and labour more specifically) as the
essential moment in the political economic cycle rather than examining
production and consumption (as well as circulation and exchange) as
inter-dependent elements of the political economy’s production process.2
Additionally, we might speculate that students of IPE, as with other academ-
ics, tend to underassess subjects entailing unfamiliar heuristics. Certainly,
consumption - especially its anthropological, sociological and psychological
aspects - warrants the application of theories and approaches that generally
lie outside the typical IPE specialist’s area of expertise.3 In particular,
x