Consumption as manipulation

The focus of this chapter is on three approaches to consumption which in different ways, both positive and negative, have had an enormous influence – and quite rightly so – on the development of cultural studies, especially in the UK. The first is the work of a group of German intellectuals (especially Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Leo Lowenthal and Herbert Marcuse) collectively known as the Frankfurt School. This section will also include a critical assessment of the politicaleconomy-of-culture approach as a way of demonstrating the continuing influence of the Frankfurt School’s work on contemporary cultural analysis. This is followed, in the second section, by a discussion of Leavisism (the work of F. R. Leavis, Q. D. Leavis and, Denys Thompson). The third section contains a discussion of the early work of the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes. Although these three bodies of work represent quite different traditions and different approaches to consumption, what connects them, as I have already said, is their influence on cultural studies, and what makes them of significance for the particular concerns of this book is the fact that, despite their many differences, all three operate with a model of consumption as manipulation. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of some of the problems with critical approaches that begin with the assumption that consumption is best understood as a form of manipulation.