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From: Sznaider Natan <[log in to unmask]> To: europe <[log in to unmask]> PLEASE APOLOGIZE CROSS POSTING CALL FOR PAPERS CONFERENCE OF THE RESEARCH NETWORK ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION THE ACADEMIC COLLEGE OF TEL-AVIV-YAFFO TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL SEPTEMBER 3rd - 5th, 2000 Organizer: Natan Sznaider If we take the long historical view, the fundamental meaning of consumption for both its proponents and its antagonists is as a sign of civilization. It was also Simmel who first made the heretical assertion that consumerism is a worthy replacement for religion. Many Jeremiahs have lamented that the people seem more concerned with commerce than god. But Simmel is the first, that doesn't lament, who points out that the Jeremiahs are right that consumerism is something that you can get lost in, but that this is because, like religion, it enacts a dreamworld with material objects. The cultivation of tastes expresses both our identity and our place in society -- our status -- just as the practice of religion used to. And it does it so through the objects of everyday life, just as religion used to. When left and right wing Jeremiahs cry out that "The people worship things," Simmel responds that the people worship through things, just as they always have. Under an advanced division of labor, every act of production and consumption, from your cup of coffee to your fax machine, links you to thousands of unseen others. In a society cut by thousands of little divisions, the force of taboo is much lessened. It is easy to mix and match, to discover personal tastes one never would have discovered without experiment, and never would have experimented with if it counted as a costly transgression. Consequently, such a society fosters individuation. And such individuation fosters personal ties that reach across and further knit together social divisions. What does this mixing and matching of identities have to do with consumption? Because it is accomplished through their commodification. Anti-modernists often bemoan that ethnic identities today are no longer "authentic," but are rather superficial, made up of musical tropes and clothing styles and exaggerated gestures that aren't passed down from generation to generation, but chosen through the influence of the mass media. But it is precisely this commodification that allows people to choose elements from various cultural traditions and blend them into a new identity. The same process also makes it easier for people to stray from their "original" identities -- or in conventional terms, to integrate into society. Uncommodified ethnic identities are closed to outsiders, and raise the costs for straying outside their walls: one either is or isn't. It's a big decision. But the more it becomes accepted that identity can be adequately manifested through symbolic gestures, that one can throw out large parts of tradition and still be accepted as part of the group, the more people are free to experiment without risking being cut off from their roots. These new ethnic identities are not necessarily weaker than the old ones. But mix and match identities are by definitions easier to mix and match. They are wholes that can interpenetrate each other through the choices of individuals that belong to more than one. They are thus group identities that can occupy the same social space. And this is how commodified ethnic conflicts can precipitate a progressively denser common core. I would like to explore these themes at the up-coming conference in Tel-Aviv, I invite you to propose theoretical, historical, anthropological or empirical materials dealing with these issues. Please sent your abstracts (no longer than 300-400 words) until March 31st to the following address (use attachments, fax or snail-mail). Final papers or drafts should be reaching me by July 15th. Natan Sznaider The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo 29 Melchet Str. Tel-Aviv 63825 ISRAEL FAX: 972-3-526-8100 e-mail: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%