Materialism versus memory

Collecting football shirts in the age of consumerism

Bibliographic Data

ID12698697
AuthorsJohn Konuk Blasing (0000-0001-6169-557X, University of Florida, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume24
Issue4
Pages366-381
Publication date2024-09-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Consumer Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1469-5405 • E-ISSN: 1741-2900
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14695405241283754
OpenAlexW4402710224
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

While the connection between consumption and travel has been documented, there has been little work on how consumption can go beyond simple materialism and sometimes even represent a reaction to the dominant trends of late modern consumer society. I use Walter Benjamin’s essay “Unpacking My Library” as an inspiration to understand the emotive connection between collecting, consumption, and memory. This paper uses an auto-ethnographic method, showing how the goal of furthering a collection of football shirts serves as a way to give agency to the consumer. Since collecting is typically related to the collector’s memory, consuming in the context of a collection is not simple consumerism or materialism. In this case, the object being collected is a football shirt, a representation of a specific locality. Collecting as a motivation for consumption serves as a way for the individual to respond to the dominant trends of homogenization and mass culture in sport created by globalization

Advertising · Business · Commodification · Consumerism · Economics · Economy · Football · Materialism · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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