ABSTRACT
We are a nation of consumers. So axiomatic is this view that it is tempting simply to end there. But to do so would be to ignore the way that our opening claim flattens history and erases the decidedly contextual character of consumption. Just as our economic system has undergone profound changes in the transition from industrial capitalism to informational capitalism, so, too, has the practice, purpose, and performance of consumption. To speak profitably of consumption, then, necessitates that one first situate it within a particular historical and cultural milieu. Our specific interest in consumption concerns the contemporary moment or postmodern condition-the media-saturated, information-driven, hyper-capitalist landscape in which Fordism has given way to flexible accumulation, manufacturing to processing, standardization to individualization, certainty to skepticism, foundationalism to contingency, progress to exhaustion, and authenticity to simulacrum. Recognition of this shift and its contours is also crucial to understanding the role consumption now plays in the endless (re)construction of identity.
