ABSTRACT

Between Demand & Consumption: A Framework for Research

CRIC Discussion Paper No. 40

Mark Harvey, Andrew McMeekin, Sally Randles, Dale Southerton,
Bruce Tether & Alan Warde

This paper presents the background considerations supporting an agenda for research on demand and consumption. Adopting an inter-disciplinary perspective, it isolates some tendencies in innovation studies and cultural studies which distract attention from the interdependence of processes of production and consumption. It is argued that it is most profitable to focus on the intermediate, intervening phases and institutional processes which link the behaviour of firms with the conduct of mundane social practices. This involves identifying some of the many ways that firms create markets for their products (in section 3) and some of the ways that social practices develop and adapt in the face of social change (see section 4). It is argued that changes in the structure of consumption are brought about by shifts in the structure of production and retailing; that changes in patterns of consumption emerge through macro-social shifts; and that there are changes in the form and content of social practices. Critical analysis of existing positions leads to preliminary consideration of an alternative conceptual framework for the analysis of the processes interstitial between demand and consumption, with emphasis on the changing configurations of production, distribution, exchange and consumption within and across different modes of provision.

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