Eric Arnould - Towards a Post-Capitalist Consumption Paradigm

Описание: Guest lecture by Eric Arnould, Professor Emeritus of Marketing at Aalto University Business School, founding figure of Consumer Culture Theory and globally acknowledged anthropologist of market and consumption studies

Towards a Post-Capitalist Consumption Paradigm: Neo-Animist Lines of Flight

Well-intentioned, reformist interventions like green consumerism or the sharing economy have taught us about the challenges in facing the ecological crisis. However, the ecological crisis worsens, and the limitations of neoliberal reformist approaches are documented.

Rather than continue to feed the dominant neoliberal paradigm by exhorting or nudging consumers to consume “green,” share or abstain, I argue for a new, neo-animist inspired consumption paradigm.

This paradigm reimagines the relationships between humanity and the rest of the biome. I thus reconsider the circulation of resources and their integration in neo-animist, value cocreating consumption practices in terms of gifting, reciprocal redistribution, and predatory symbiosis.

We identify prefigurative examples of these practices. Neo-animist ontology can help de-fetishize consumption and relativize the role of markets in a more resilient, respectful, and resource enhancing eco-economy. I propose directions for further research based on these principles and practices to encourage research to shift toward a neo-animist consumption paradigm.
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