Sample Research Proposal on Catering the Culture of Consumption?

Introduction             Consumerism has strikingly directed the lives of every human being on Earth, across age, gender, social status, and cultures.  Identity, however, is at stake.  Consumerism has indeed transformed, and is still transforming societies.  The creation of policies, which addresses these issues of consumerism and the reconstruction of identities, proves to be the only way out.    Consumerism             The world has never gone this far without engaging in the act of consumption.  To consume is to survive.  From this simple idea, it has evolved into something complex.  To consume now is to confront social issues such as identity politics or recognition.  It is more than just being an economic activity.              There has been an expansion of consumerism at the global level (Chua 2000, p. 2).  One may be tired hearing of the term, but indeed, it has drastically transformed social, political, economic, and cultural activities on a global scale.  The term is called globalization.  That it is functional to consumerism is a fact that no one can deny.  The reason for the existence of multinational companies is the "multinational consumption" of the products itself.  Take for instance Coca-Cola or Coke, in which the company's global agenda for the new millennium is to produce a single taste (or perhaps thirst is a better word) for the Coca-Cola soft drink.              Consumption is said to be an "arena" whereby consumers actively or creatively utilize goods.  Goods or the representations of consumer culture are being associated with a purpose or function that is "symbolic" (Emmison 2003, p.15).  The arena being talked about simply refers to the market place, where products are being purchased.  Consumers no longer consume simply because of survival or there is a need to fulfill.  Products are now bought because consumers perceive a plus value to the product.              According to Lyon (1999), consumerism performs an important role if the functions of utility behind the commodities are being substituted by aesthetic matters (cited in Miles, Meethan & Anderson 2002, p. 2).  Consumers patronize a product because of the pleasure that they derive from it.  They perceive pleasure because it is what the producers ask of them to perceive.  Consumption is said to be an activity that has "a meaningfully and aesthetically pleasurable activity".  By assuming the role of being a consumer, one is able to construct or realize their true identities (Emmison 2003, p. 315+).              In reality, producers compete through the Mass Media, which has significantly turned into one of today's most important social institutions.  They appropriate cultural values to the product, which leads to two ends.  First, it legitimizes the product among the consumers.  Second, it paves the way for the capitalist goal, i.e. profit.  This is interrelated with politics in that, the producers promote values for the consumers to embrace in order to legitimize their positions.  This is why there is an endless satisfaction among consumers.  Likewise, there is still a growing social inequality not only on a local, national, but also on the international level.              Miles (1998) interprets Ritzer's concept on the modern consuming experience as that, it is so tightening that that a negative effect occurs on identity formation (p. 54).  This is because consumers are coerced to consume.  According to Lodziak (2002), the "alienation of labour" implies that individuals are forced to buy in order to thrive in the environment (cited in Emmison 2003, p.315+).  There occurs an issue of reshaping of identities, because consumers come into the cultural value of the product.    Cultural homogeneity             One of the issues behind globalization is homogenization against heterogenization (Shue 2002, p.211).  Consumerism serves the purpose of cultural homogeneity project of globalization.  Consumerism supports universalism.  The question is which culture will emerge to be the global hegemon?              There seems to be an answer to this question, Western culture.  The kind of lifestyles that is being propagated is but a Western lifestyle.  The Western way of living is said to be the standard way of living.  Therefore, for the consumer, it goes to show that buying a Western product implies a Western way of living.  This now opens the issue of identity.    Who am I?              According to Matthews (2000), Japanese consumers have embraced so much of these foreign products.  Its traditional commentators voice out their opinions in print criticizing the lost Japanese identities.  As for the Japanese consumers, they do not actually seem to care on this matter.  The author concludes that every society in this era lives in a conflict between the state and the market in relation to the shaping of its members' "way of life" (Matthews 2000, p. 10).  This is not only true for the Japanese, but for the Chinese, Hispanics, and all others alike.  There is even a time when the youngsters in urban China are featured in international print news magazines exposing their consumption behavior.  They consume Western products, and adopt the Western way of living.  They wear jerseys.  They go to nightclubs and party all night.  Even in their ear of music, they have resorted to listen to what is popular in the West.  In other words, their kind of popular culture is that of the Western pop culture.  Now where have all the traditional values gone?              Jean Baudrillard formulated a hypothesis saying that consumers do not have a choice but to inquire about "actualizing themselves in consumption".  The categories of objects have turned out to be "fetishized into categories of persons", "stereotyped personalities", complete with an array of distinctive values.  This set of values formulates the fresh rudimentary base of group morality (cited in Applbaum 2004, p. 5-6).  There is a constant liking for products, because these are reinforced by the Mass Media.  Advertisements, whether in the form of print or electronic has bombarded every society.  Everywhere the consumers' senses perceive the value ingrained in the product.              What is beautiful?  Who are the beautiful female beings?  In Asia, particularly in the Far East, there has been a "fetish" to look Caucasian.  How many Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans are undergoing double eyelid surgeries in their chinky eyes just so that it will appear bigger?  How many Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malaysians are aiming for a whiter skin?  Why are most of these identities ashamed of their small bust sizes?  They would seek goods (breast enhancers) or services (breast surgeries) just to make their breasts bigger.  These are simple beauty concepts, but they mean a lot.  They are reconstructing their identities in accordance with the Caucasian identity, or the Western identity.              Look at popular culture in Asia.  Who are the leading personalities, but those who are "hybrid" ones or those who are in one way associated with the Western standard?  The audience identifies with these personalities.  Consumers are made to patronize them.    Modern Youth Lifestyle             Consumerism involves lifestyle.  Even lifestyle itself has evolved into something else.  Lifestyle denotes a sense of enjoyment.  It is taking pleasure in a culture of consumption.  The power of the purse is the key for the young people to youth leisure — multiplex cinemas, shopping centers, and music festivals.  Work as an area by which one can acquire the development of his identity, has decreased in value.  It has been replaced by self-presentation and lifestyle, which has been regarded as the significant resource for cultural capital.  A wide range of product lines and styles are being offered to the youth, saying that these are necessary for the construction of their identities.  "Fully-fledged citizens of a consumer society", as how Steven Miles described the youth of today.  A secure economic and social foundation is the strong ground for a consumer identity (Harris 2004, 165).               Social groups, such as peer groups, are based on specific lifestyle categories, which likewise determine their belongingness in a group.  The youth of this generation are subjugating themselves to their captor.  They are directing (or are being asked to direct) their lives toward the life of leisure.  The social groups that are positioned at the uppermost social ladder have the higher than the typical capacity to consume, and in return, they receive a higher degree of social prestige.  A teenager who holds a credit card at her age is deemed with social prestige.  There is much to find out in the young generation's courtship patterns too.  Nineteenth-century courtship practices belong to the domain of Church, family, kinship, and the rituals of the cultural communities.  In the 20th century, courtship practices have shifted its domain to the movie theaters, automobiles, restaurants, dance halls or clubs, and beaches, etc.  (Cere 2001, p.53).  This has a dangerous implication for an individual who is subsumed to a consumption culture at her very young age.  He is being socialized into a world that might undermine his future.              However, the world is composed of two kinds of individuals — the have and the have not.  Ironically, these modern lifestyles that speak of a higher social prestige, which are what the producers in the society are demanding from its consumers, are only afforded by who else but the producers themselves!  They have set the criteria for their consumers' lifestyle.  Existence is now based on consumption.  The big deal now is the signs of commodity instead of commodity itself.  Thus, consumers are losing their identities in this encounter of consumption (Baudrillard 1998; Bauman 1993; Clarke 1997; as cited in Clarke 2003, p. 13).  Whether active or passive, consumers have no choice but to consume.  There is a difficulty to change this hegemonic belief because it is embedded in the system already.  It takes a serious structural change to do this, yet, this will only give way to a range of debates and oppositions.    Policy Formulation: Two-way Process             Consumerism and identity reconstruction have significantly altered current policy formulation.  Producers influence policy formulation for the preservation of their class interests as well as their social status.  The lessons they have learned from the two concerns at hand have interestingly been used as their weapons in advancing their positions.  On the other hand, it cannot also be denied that consumers and the local governments have been active enough to preserve local cultural identities.  The succeeding paragraphs are tales of how consumerism and the reconstruction of identity have significantly influenced certain policies.              Consumerism occurs across ages, and it triggers even the child of the youngest age.  In Australia, there is this Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy in which, public or private institutions are specializing in childcare.  Simply put, this is the government's way of socializing the young citizens to be the best citizens of the country.  According to Giroux (2000), such privatisation and corporatism of childcare services reflect the global/local economic agenda in which the citizen is replaced by the consumer (cited in Press & Woodrow 2005, p.278+).  In this case, the parents' childcare is replaced by consumerism, an act that has been structurally legitimized.  The "invisible hand" of consumerism has touched even the childcare domain in the primary group — the family.              Is it possible for McDonald's to be your study space?  In Singapore it is, provided that students come during nonpeak hours, while for the United States it is not.  According to Chua (2000), McDonalds, being the American space in Singapore has become the students' familiar and eventually familial space (p. 191).  On the contrary, the US had a policy that regulates "teenage hangouts" (Leidner 1993, cited in Chua 2000, p.191).  This policy minimizes the kind of lifestyle that its youngsters are pursuing.  In the latter case, the government is making use of its structural power to reshape the identity, or to prevent its young citizens from asserting the identities that they want to create among themselves.  It is in this manner that the policy is said to be anti-Democratic to a certain extent.              What is inside an MTV-center?  It is a private space.  An individual or group of individuals can watch movies, drink free, or do anything once the door gets locked.  This is a kind of activity that the youngsters would love to consume.  This has opened new doors for the sex industry.  The Chinese government dealt with this by requiring a surveillance cameras, but has only resulted into protests as it undermines their privacy.  And so, a new government policy has been implemented.  Such centers are asked to be closed by 3 in the morning (Chua 2000, p. 175).              South Korea has implemented and open-door policy of increasing the importation of foreign goods, for the purposes of liberalization.  The result has been protests from both sides and from both the young and the old.  Some has resisted saying that an exposure to foreign goods that symbolize the West might lead the country into a process of Westernization, thereby putting identity at stake.  However, the young individuals have also voiced out their right to live the way they want.  In other words, they have fought to consume the goods that they seek pleasure from (Chua 2000, 76-78).  The immediate response undertaken has been to resist the purchase of these goods.  The same circumstance also occurred in the United States of America when Wal-Mart still did not trade with China.  China is proving that it is indeed the world's factory, based on the fact that most products, from toys to clothes to even cars, bear the mark — Made in China.  It has been reported that Wal-mart and some other big retailers have implemented a "Buy American" Policy (Sands 1996, p.13).  Consumer goods are more than just economic goods, but cultural goods.  Playing with symbols is what matters these days.  They signify meanings, by which consumers act or react upon.    Counter-attacking the Dark Consumer Culture             Identity defines one's being.  One is meaningful because of the identity that he possesses.  This is true not only on an individual level but also on a group level.  One of the drawbacks of consumerism is the gradual loss of identity among its consumers.  There is no problem with having a contact with the other culture.  But when it supersedes the local identity, that is where the turmoil starts.              Shue (2002) sees an irony taking place in China behind the economic prosperity.  A recovery of oriental philosophies and values, authentic native past, and a search for the genuine essence of "Chineseness," were all explicitly authorized by the new nationalist discourse, even as the marketizing and privatizing effects of China's crypto-capitalist economic reforms were destabilizing nearly all the familiar routines of social life… (p. 216).  Thus, at the back of the growing modernization, there is also an ongoing Westernization.  This is exactly what policies should guard.  Modernization is not bad, but policies have to back-up its backlash.              According to Hsing (2001), China is living in a post-Mao society, wherein the Chinese are no longer denied of the capitalist mode of consumption.  Chinese urban residents are reported to be indulging themselves into products that suit their "novelty, status indication," and so on.  Note that these products are of either Western or revived "traditional Chinese".  These are a combination of "personal and social, a conscious and unconscious reading and practicing of a better life" (p. 311).  For most Chinese, they forewarn the same for the fear of ending in cultural ruins.  Pei proposes that a state that respects the values of "greater civic freedom, tolerance and individual rights" is the real solution to fill China's values .              In general terms, the way to preserve the identity of the cultural group is through basically agency on the one hand, and policy formulation and implementation on the other.  Consumers themselves should assume the role of active participants of social change, while the government has the command to regulate these foreign cultural goods.              A longtime activist in French consumer policy formation, Jacques Ghestin, has made an emphasis on the basic political nature of consumer regulations, " It is a matter of knowing to what extent we should encourage the production and distribution of products in large quantity, permitting a certain number of defects for which the consumer will suffer the consequences, and to what extent we should place a heavier weight of responsibility on producers and distributors in order to pressure them to produce less, but also to produce better.  Such a choice, whose economic and social consequences can be considerable, is essentially political.  (cited in Trumbull 2000, p. 436).  Policies or laws are necessary to legitimize their act of preserving national interests as well as identities.    Conclusion             The culture of consumerism has drastically altered the most important domains of both the private and the public sphere.  It is a modern day phenomenon and its effects are yet to come.  Policies are the best forms of social regulations.  Human agency on the other hand has to take place as well.  These are the measures to take in order to drive the captor away.