ABSTRACT
Poetry has been a part of the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) tradition from the beginning. At the first annual conference at Notre Dame, poems were printed in large font on easel paper and posted on the walls outside of the meeting rooms, which sometimes resulted in clogged corridors as readers, clustered in the hallways, jostled shoulders with attendees rushing to the next session. Ideally, CCT inquirers will move beyond a "pure" and "applied" dichotomous view of the future and integrate their options. Ardent critics and brute empiricists alike have argued that, for better and for worse, the gatekeepers of CCT are consumed with theorizing as the touchstone of worthy contribution. CCT research has focused on the economic sphere, even in the unpacking of the extraeconomic dimensions of consumer experience. For all its accomplishments to date, as any insurrection might be, CCT has been fraught from the beginning with conflicting goals, mixed intentions, and blind ambitions that are constantly being confronted.
