Lallas, D. (2022). Consumption and Consumerism in times of crisis: Consumer Action and Discourse Repertoires. Athens: EKKE-Papazisis.

Abstract: In this book, we attempt to reformulate and critically interpret some basic ‘consumer action and discourse repertoires’ of middle-class research participants. These repertoires are deployed by the subjects in order to organize, perform and justify their consumption practices. We try to designate the consolidated modes of consumer action and forms of (conscious and unconscious) knowledge, that is the schemes of perception, evaluation and understanding, the values, targets and the duties which support and orientate the modes of action as well as the modes of feeling and desiring that are involved in these modes of consumer action. Furthermore, we point out the interpretative schemes invoked and deployed by the research participants in order to justify, understand and clarify their consumption practices. We also attempt to embed these repertoires with the historical context, aspiring to designate the effects of both the subjects’ material living conditions and the institutional discourses, techniques and practices regarding the shaping of these ‘consumer action and discourse repertoires’. Through these methodological pathways, we attempt to give an answer to the crucial (and not only cultural) question being, at large, the starting point of this research: In a period of economic crisis, but also afterwards, is consumerism –conceived as a cultural ethos started to be cultivated in 1960s, being shaped in 1980s and come of age as a middle-class way of life and heightened since the mid-1990s and in after years, at least until the outbreak of the Greek economic crisis in 2009/2010– reproduced, modified or does it lose its cultural validity?

Lallas, D. (ed.) (2022). Consumption, consumers, and Consumerism: Politics of Representations and Practices of Governance in Times of Crisis. Athens: EKKE-Papazisis.

Contributors: Vamvakas Vassilis, Nikos Demertzis, Yorgos Drosos, Iason Zarikos, Konstantinos Theodoridis, Dimitris Lallas, Yiannis Mylonas, Alexandros Sakellariou, Roberta Sassatelli, Mania (Maria) Sotiropoulou

Abstract: This collective volume attempts to designate the politics of representation of the consumer and the politics of signification of consumption and consumerism, during the crisis period – politics that are articulated into the discourses of different institutions. The study and discussion on these different discourses enable us to understand the, still to be formed, ‘order of discourse’ on consumption and consumerism. This ‘order of discourse’ is taking shape, as the antagonism among different politics of representation and signification is still being carried on. The contribution of this issue pertains to the designation of different discursive framings that attempt to form these categories through which we perceive, understand, and evaluate both consumption, consumption practices and, in general, our relationship with ourselves and with others, with objects, space, time as well as with the social and natural world.

Roberta Sassatelli's paper in English: The Normative Around Us: Notes for a Genealogy of Contemporary Consumer Society (link)

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Lallas D., Consumer sovereignty and the Greek economic crisis: (Dis)continuity of consumer sovereignty repertoires. Journal of Consumer Culture. April 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405221086073

Abstract: In this paper, I attempt to reformulate the (consumer) action and discourse, as these arise from the discourse of visitors at the biggest shopping mall in Athens. The qualitative data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with visitors at The Mall Athens. The cultural-consumer repertoires of the participants, i.e., their understanding, evaluation, and justification schemes of their consumer practices and desires, are analyzed from a constructionist point of view. The context of the ten-year-long Greek economic crisis is a promising field for the investigation of the concept, meaning, experience, and performance of consumer sovereignty. Hence, the very concept of consumer sovereignty is empirically “tested,” including its different conceptualizations and performances. In particular, two repertoires of consumer sovereignty arise, namely the power of free hedonistic choice and the morose rational prudence, while the crisis critically mediates and raises issues of (dis)continuity for these two repertoires.

D. Lallas and Y. Drosos, “Inspiring” and configuring consumer experience in times of crisis: An analysis of the discursive practices of an Athenian shopping mall’s promotional system. Journal of Consumer Culture, 2021 (Online) (pp. 1-20). https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405211039611

Abstract: This article focuses on the processes that the largest shopping mall in Athens has developed in order to produce meaning about itself as an institution of consumption, as well as the consumer experience and practices, and its visitors–consumers. From a poststructuralist perspective, we analyze the signifying articulations that the promotional discourse attempts, along with the linguistic and visual techniques which activate specific significations about this microcosm of consumption, the “fun” experience, fashion, beauty, shopping and entertainment practices, eating out, and the consumer subjectivity. The ultimate aim of this research is to point out the cultural role of such an institution with regard to the configuration of an order of discourse about consumption and the reproduction of the consumerist ethos during an economic crisis, as well as the possible effects that such a discourse might have on a wider cultural level.

Lallas, D., Consumption, consumption practices and consumerism: conceptualizations and the necessity of semantic delimitation. The Greek Review of Social Research, 152 http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/grsr.21372

Abstract: Given the various conceptualizations of the terms ‘consumption’ and ‘consumerism’, their confusion and, hence, the analytical distresses emerged in the study of consumer phenomenon this article aims to conceptualize ‘consumption’ in terms of social practice, and ‘consumerism’ as a dominant ethos and way of life in late-capitalist, consumerist societies. The proposed conceptualization of consumption practices aspires to avoid a priori negative/condemnatory or positive/celebratory semantic attributions and, moreover, to support locally sensible studies that give prominence to the special traits of those practices and the relations, constructed by means of consumption practices, with the world of objects, the self, the others, the natural and social world, and with social time and space.

ANNNOUNCEMENTS AT CONFERENCES

15th Conference of the European Sociological Association, “Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures” (Barcelona_online 2021, August 31st-September 3rd).
Announcement: «Governmentality/ies And Consumer Protection Regime(s) Under Economic Crisis: Greek Political Parties’ Discourse (2010-2017) On “Affected Consumer”».
Speakers: Dimitris Lallas, Maria {Mania} Sotiropoulou, Iasonas Zarikos.

7th Conference of Hellenic Sociological Society, "Societies after crisis, Societies withous crisis?" (Athens, 23-25/09/2020).
Announcement: “CONSUMER PRACTICES UNDER/IN CRISIS? ACTION AND DISCOURSE REPERTOIRES”.
Speaker: Dimitris Lallas

7th Conference of Hellenic Sociological Society, "Societies after crisis, Societies withous crisis?" (Athens, 23-25/09/2020).
Announcement: “'ORCHESTRATIONS' OF THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE: A DISCOURSE ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE PROMOTIONAL METHODS OF AN INSTITUTION OF CONSUMPTION”.
Speakers: Dimitris Lallas & Yiorgos Drosos

14th Conference of the European Sociological Association “Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging” (Manchester, 20-23/8/2019).
Announcement: «Consumption and Consumption Practices: An overview of conceptual uses and a formation of these terms as analytical tools».
Speaker: Dimitris Lallas

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

D. Lallas, CONSUMER PRACTICES UNDER/IN CRISIS? ACTION AND DISCOURSE REPERTOIRES. In Proceedings of 7th Conference of Hellenic Sociological Society, "Societies after crisis, Societies withous crisis?" (Athens, 23-25/09/2020), pp. 480-491.

Abstract: This paper presentation focuses on consumer action and discourse repertoires of middle-class subjects of research. Empirical data has been collected via 20 semi-structured interviews with visitors of The Mall Athens, follow-up and snowball sampling methods. Utilizing methodological/analytical approaches of Practice theories and Cultural Repertoires, I’ll reformulate the repertoires of consumer action unfolded by research subjects and the discourse repertoires deployed by them in order to interpret and “justify” their consumer practices. Through their descriptions of what they do and their interpretations of what they say, the representations of themselves and others, the norms and precepts governing consumer practices, the values and goals to which these practices are oriented as well as the emotions they are related to will be discussed. Furthermore, possible modifications of these repertoires on account of the economic crisis will be discussed. This analysis is part of the research project «Consumerism in a Period of Economic Crisis: Consumption Practices and Forms of Governance», funded by Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation and conducted under the institutional support of National Center of Social Research.

D. Lallas & Y. Drosos, “ORCHESTRATIONS” OF THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE: A DISCOURSE ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE PROMOTIONAL METHODS OF AN INSTITUTION OF CONSUMPTION. In Proceedings of 7th Conference of Hellenic Sociological Society, "Societies after crisis, Societies withous crisis?" (Athens, 23-25/09/2020), pp. 492-506.

Abstract: This paper presentation is based on the analysis of the discourse articulated by a consumption institution, The Mall Athens, and promoted via social media. Our empirical data was collected from the Mall Athens Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. From a post-structuralist perspective, we attempt a multiperspectival discourse analysis, drawing methodological tools from Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Foucault. Our discourse analysis focuses on discursive practices (e.g. chains of equivalence, interdiscursivity) and linguistic techniques (e.g. modality, transitivity) whereby this consumption institution attempts to produce meaning regarding itself, consumer experience and practices, as well as those of its visitors-consumers. More specifically, we attempt to highlight the identity/-ies of The Mall Athens and its consumers, as well as the subjectification techniques and the techniques of conduct and care of the self being proposed in its discourse. This analysis is part of research project “Consumerism in a Period of Economic Crisis: Consumption Practices and Forms of Governance”, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation and conducted with the institutional support of the National Center of Social Research.

SEMINAR

The findings of the Research Project Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance (Funded by H.F.R.I/G.S.R.I and Hosted by N.C.S.R-EKKE) will be presented and debated at a held virtually Seminar on 26th of February 2022. The research project refers to the study of the consumerism, as a cultural ethos, during the Greek crisis period. Consumption practices, consumer action and discourse repertoires, politics of consumer’s representation and politics of signification of the consumption and consumerism consist of this research’s objects of study. Furthermore, researchers and academics will present their studies concerning the issues of consumerism and crisis in the perspective of opening the relevant scientific discussion.

The zoom link of the seminar is the following: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89188357496?pwd=S2ZqeU9uSUdtTmlUeTQ0VndOSWNqdz09

Seminar program

Apostolos Papadopoulos (Greetings) 10:00-10:20 Dimitris Lallas (Presentation of the research project) 10:20-10:35

1. Advertising discourse, Consumers, and consumption in the context of the crisis (10:45-11:45) Vassilis Vamvakas (Advertising in Greece during the economic crisis) Yorgos Drosos (“Birthday at the Indian place”: The (rationalist) relationship between cause and effect in handling one’s bank savings as well as in audiovisual storytelling) I. Zarikos (Chair)

2. Political discourse for the consumption (12:00-13:00) Yiannis Mylonas (“Consumers” and “entrepreneurs” in the dominant discourse of the Greek recession) Iason Zarikos (The Greek residence between Crisis and Utopia) Mania (Maria) Sotiropoulou (Consumption and multi-level governance during the crisis) Y. Drosos (Chair)

3. Civil society and consumption (13:15-14:15) Konstantinos Theodoridis (“You have to be active, to become an active consumer, an active citizen”: Reconsidering the notion of citizen-consumer in the context of the economic crisis) Alexandros Sakellariou (Consumption and Orthodox asceticism: The Church's (anti-)discourse during the economic crisis) Margarita Komninou (Consumption as a means of protest and exercise of "sub-politics") M. Sotiropoulou (Chair)

Discussion panel: Consumption, Forms of Governance and Crisis (in English) (14:30-15:30) Roberta Sassatelli Stavros Stavrides D. Lallas (Chair)

The research project “Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance” is part of the field of Cultural Sociology and has as its object of study consumerism –understood as cultural ethos– and the consumer phenomenon in general in conditions of economic crisis. A central research question was whether and to what extent consumerism is in crisis, modified or reproduced in times of economic crisis. At the heart of this central question were sub-questions, the answers to which can clarify aspects of such a broad and complex phenomenon. More specifically, such sub-questions were: The main research questions were: Does consumerism continue to be a major cultural trend? Do the semantic contents of consumerism continue to mediate and shape the daily experience, practices and relationships of individuals? Is the consumer figure a key aspect of the subjects' identities? How do subjects perceive the role of the consumer? Do institutions / places of consumption, such as shopping malls, continue to be desirable destinations? How are consumer institutions advertised in the phase of the economic crisis? Under what conditions is the public discourse (political, journalistic) about consumption and consumerism formed? What kind of public discourse on consumption are given by consumer protection institutions and financial advocacy institutions?

In order to find answers to these critical (cultural, and not only) important questions, two research orientations were chosen: a) study of consumer practices and discourses of the subjects (visitors of a shopping mall) and b) study of the discourses, practices and techniques developing institutions, which seek the governance of subjects (as consumers). Thus, this research attempted to analyze the consumer phenomenon both at the micro level (practices, perceptions, experience, relationships of subjects) and at the macro level (political party system, consumer protection organizations, institutions representing economic interests, banking institution, consumer institution: shopping mall, journalistic and public discourse).

The theoretical framework of the research is informed by the developments in the field of study of consumption and utilizes the epistemological, methodological and theoretical perspective of the Theories of Practice and approaches the consumption in terms of Practice. Also, the term consumerism was conceptually constructed in order to be used as a heuristic-analytical tool. The methods used in the research project are semi-structured qualitative interviews, discourse analysis, qualitative (thematic) content analysis and on-site observation.

The adopted epistemological perspective of the research project is that of social constructionism and the epistemological framework has been shaped by the synthesis of epistemological assumptions of the "cultural turn", the "practice turn", the "spatial turn" and Actor-Network Theory.

The study of cultural repertoires, and in particular the repertoires of consumer action and discourse, which utilize the subjects of the research (20 middle-class visitors of consumer institutions, such as shopping malls / method of sample collection: follow up and snowball sampling / semi-structured quality interviews / method: Grounded Theory) to perform and to understand, interpret and justify their consumer practices before, during and after the economic crisis (2009 / 2010-2018), highlights among others that consumerism, as a cultural ethos, retains its attractiveness and binding on middle-class subjects. If we compare the ideal-typical components of consumerism, as we defined it as a cultural ethos and as a way of life that characterizes the middle classes of Greek society, with the components of the repertoires of consumer action and discourse of the middle-class subjects of this research we can claim that there are continuities between the cultural trends, mentalities, values, attitudes and representations before and after the crisis, but also during it. In this sense, consumerism as a cultural ethos and way of life, characterizing the middle-class strata before the outbreak of the economic crisis and its (differentiated) repercussions, continues to reproduce and survive even after the crisis to a large extent. As critical effects of the socio-economic crisis but also of its discursive framing by dominant (anti-consumerist) discourses – advocates of austerity and frugality– we can diagnose by strengthening a tendency for reasonable monitoring and organization of consumer spending, especially for those subjects who have increased liabilities (from the coverage of mortgage loans to the satisfaction of children's needs and desires) and more or less financial difficulties and for those who insecurity and uncertainty about the future continue to hover over their lives - whether it is based on financial (limited) resources or because of traces of past (during the financial crisis) traumatic experience. Turning to living models of austerity and thrift is an open question, which will be answered by later research, as such radical shifts and upheavals of established morals and lifestyles take time to take place and, let alone, to be understood by the subjects themselves and clarified by social researchers. If we take into account a) the historically substantiated position on the coexistence of trends and requirements of austerity and waste, asceticism and consumerism, the existence of this "cultural tango", b) the critical imaginative consumer hedonism as a central element of the consumerist ethos and way of life c) consumer-pleasures that can be experienced even on the basis of limited financial resources, d) slow-moving processes of cultural transformation (transformation of cultural repertoires and subjectivities) and e) to a significant extent - reproduction of basic elements of the consumerist ethos and way of life in the repertoires of consumer action and discourse of the subjects of the present research, we consider that the answer we can give to the central, opening question of this research is that consumerism as a cultural ethos and as a way of life retains its attractiveness and commitment for the middle-class subjects.

Utilizing the analytical methods of discourse analysis and qualitative (thematic) discursive content analysis for the study of the institutions, such as the largest shopping mall in Greece (The Mall Athens), consumer protection organizations (INKA [General Consumer's Federation of Greece], KEPKA [Consumers Protection Center], EKPOIZO [Consumers' Association “The Quality of Life”]), an independent authority (Consumer Ombudsman) and the state body (General Secretariat of Consumer Protection), a bank (Piraeus Bank), the organizations defending financial-employer interests (SEV [Hellenic Federation of Enterprises], GSEVEE [The Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants], ESEE [The Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship]), the Greek political parties (debates in the Greek parliament plenary sessions during the period 2010-2017) and the public and journalistic discourse (Kathimerini tis Kyriakis and Avgi tis Kyriakis, during the period 2010-2016), allows us to understand the emerging Greek "order of discourse" for consumption and consumerism. This is an order of discourse that is being processed as competition between different politics of representation and signification continues. We are dealing with different discursive framings which attempt to form categories through which we perceive, understand, and evaluate both consumption, consumption practices and, in general, our relationship with ourselves and with others, with objects, space, time as well as with the social and natural world. Adopting the perspective of social constructionism, it emerges that consumption and the consumer are areas of moral conflict and normative discourses operate on the basis of collective values and projects for personal and social order (Sassatelli, 2007, Consumer Culture, Sage) to construct the meaning of consumption, the emotions associated with it and the values and patterns of self-understanding and action of the subjects.

Dimitris Lallas, PhD in Sociology (Department of Sociology, Panteion University, 2010). Postdoctoral Researcher (National Centre for Social Research) & Scientific coordinator of research project “Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance”, funding by Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (H.F.R.I)/General Secretariat for Research & Innovation (GSRI). He has taught sociology as Tutor-Counselor on the Module Special Topics in European Civilization (EPO42) of the Undergraduate Program: Studies in European Civilization, at Hellenic Open University and as adjunct lecturer at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Macedonia (Thessaloniki), as well as at the Department of Economics of Athens University of Economics and Business. As postdoctoral researcher, he collaborated with National Centre for Social Research in SECSTACON project (‘Socio-economic class and Status and Consumption: Social Stratification, Mobility and Urban Consumption in Athens’) [2013]

e-mail: lallasdimitris@gmail.com

Yorgos Drosos is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University. His Ph.D. research focuses on horror films and TV series of the 21st century, and draws on a variety of disciplines and methodological tools, including aesthetics, discourse analysis, anthropology, psychology and qualitative interviews with fans and artists of the genre. He is currently an associate researcher in the “Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance” research program, conducted by the Greek National Centre for Social Research (Εθνικό Κέντρο Κοινωνικών Ερευνών – ΕΚΚΕ) and supervised by Dimitris Lallas, Ph.D. He has participated in a variety of international conferences, both in Greece and abroad.

e-mail: yorgosdrosos@gmail.com

Iason Zarikos, PhD in History (Department of International and European Studies, Panteion University, 2020). Research Assistant in research project «Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance». He has worked in Greek and EU-funded research projects. His doctoral thesis was an intellectual history of Greek Liberalism in late 20th century. He has co-authored a monograph on the 1970’s and co-edited two volumes on transatlantic monarchy (Bloomsbury, 2022). He has also published papers on the history of Liberalism, Consumerism, as well as the theory of ideology and History.

e-mail: iasonzar@gmail.com

Maria (Mania) Sotiropoulou, PhD candidate in Political Science (University of Crete). Research Assistant in research project «Consumerism in a period of economic crisis: Consumption practices and forms of governance». Her research interests include Political parties and social representations, Political Sociology, Greek political system, Political Behavior and Electoral Sociology. She has participated in research projects of oral history, recording and study of the political staff in the local government in the 2019 elections, as well as study of the political discourse of the parties for the consumption during the period 2010-2017.

e-mail: mswthropoulou60@gmail.com / polp497@pol.soc.uoc.gr

Roberta Sassatelli is Professor of Sociology at the Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna. She has a strong interest in consumer culture, cultural theory, food studies, leisure studies, visual studies, gender studies and the sociology of the body. She is currently co-editor of the Journal European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie. Her main research projects focus on contemporary consumer cultures, with particular attention to the moralities of consumption and questions of sustainability, the forms of knowledge implied in cultural consumption and production, and issues of gender and embodiment. Her most recent books are Italians and Food (2019) Palgrave, Basingstoke; Corpo, genere e società (2018) Il mulino, Bologna (with R. Ghigi).

e-mail: roberta.sassatelli@unibo.it

Nicos Souliotis is Senior Researcher at the National Center for Social Research (EKKE). He holds a diploma in Sociology from the Panteion University (1994-1998) and a PhD in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (1998-2005). His research activity and publications concern issues of urban sociology, sociology of culture and economic sociology (https://ekke.academia.edu/NicosSouliotis).He recently published a book entitled Economists technocrats in Greek political scene 1974-2019 (Οικονομολόγοι τεχνοκράτες στην ελληνική πολιτική σκηνή 1974-2019), Alexandria.

e-mail: nsouliotis@ekke.gr

Georgia-Cleo Gougoulis is Assistant Professor of Folk and Popular Culture at the Department of History and Archaeology (former Department of Cultural Heritage Management and New Technologies), University of Patras since 2014. A graduate of the Department of Philology of the University of Athens (1978), she attended the postgraduate seminar on Folklore organized by A. Kyriakidou-Nestoros and E. Skouteri-Didaskalou (1978-1980) at the University of Thessaloniki and specialized in Social Anthropology at University College London (MSc 1986, Ph. D. 2004). Her postgraduate studies were partly sponsored by the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation. Her research interests and publications revolve around material culture studies, folklore studies, anthropology and museum studies, focusing on Greek children’s culture and the anthropology of play. In 2005 she was awarded the BRIO prize for her research on Greek children’s play. Editor of an international, interdisciplinary special volume on children’s play of the Museum Journal Ethnographica (1994), she has co-edited two more thematic volumes of the journal Ethnographica (Tribute to Epirus, 1995 and Museums and Folk Culture, 2003) and the books Paidi kai pachnidi sti Neoelliniki Koinonia.19os kai 20os aionas (Children and play in Modern Greek Society. 19th and 20th Centuries), Athens Kastaniotis, 2000 and To Elliniko Paichnidi. She has recently edited three special sections on children’s play in the Antiquity (vol. 132/2020), in Byzantium (vol. 133/2020) and the Contemporary era (v. 134/2020) of the journal Aρχαιολογία και Τέχνες (Archaeology and Arts). She is currently preparing with Dimitris Lallas an interdisciplinary reader on consumption.

e-mail: cleogou@upatras.gr, cleogougoulis@yahoo.gr