TRACKING GLOBALIZATION in Tilley et al 2006 Handbook of Material - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

TRACKING GLOBALIZATION in Tilley et al 2006 Handbook of Material Culture the social and geographical lives of particular com- modities vehicles for narrating economic change, political power, and cul- tural identity. commodity biographies links geographically separate locales and connects producers and consumers strati- fied by class, ethnicity, and gender; they end with an argument about how the meaning of things shifts as a function of use by human agents in different social situations. fetishism – an attitude of inquiry well suited to making sense of economic circumstances in which accumulation of wealth and creation of value seem mysterious and occult

Critical fetishism, in short, challenges a geo- graphical view of globalization as ‘a spreading ink stain’ and instead promotes a spatial recog- nition of globalization as ‘partial, uneven and unstable; a socially contested rather than logi- cal process in which many spaces of resistance, alterity and possibility become analytically dis- cernible and politically meaningful’ (Whatmore and Thorne 1997: 287, 289). Critical fetishism Critical fetishism TRACKING GLOBALIZATION in Tilley et al 2006 Handbook of Material Culture the social and geographical lives of particular com- modities vehicles for narrating economic change, political power, and cul- tural identity. commodity biographies links geographically separate locales and connects producers and consumers strati- fied by class, ethnicity, and gender; they end with an argument about how the meaning of things shifts as a function of use by human agents in different social situations. fetishism – an attitude of inquiry well suited to making sense of economic circumstances in which accumulation of wealth and creation of value seem mysterious and occult

• In 2007, the worldwide denim market equalled USD 51.6

billion, with demand growing by 5% and supply growing by 8% annually.

• Over 50% of denim is produced in Asia, specifically China,

India, and Bangladesh.

Brass rivets from Namibian copper and Australian zinc: zip teeth from Japan: zip tape from France: thread made from petroleum in Japan and subsequently spun in Ireland: synthetic indigo dye which when discarded cuts

• ut light in water and so kills fish and plants; labour,

carried out in Tunisia, paying about 1.5 dollars per hour; and, cotton probably grown in a Majority World country using large amounts of water and probably a genetically modified seed . (adapted from Sinclair, 2001)(Keirl 2006)

A typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its life cycle (this includes the water to irrigate the cotton crop, manufacture the jeans, and the numerous washes by the consumer)

Aufman, (2011

• half of the population wears denim on any given day (not including south asia and

china) (Miller & Woodwood 2012)

• the global average is for people to wear jeans 3.5 days a week (Global Lifestyle Monitor 2008)
• the highest frequency is Germany (5.2 days a week)(ownership is on average 8,6

pairs per person)

• Globally more than six out of ten consumers (62%) say they love wearing denim,

(72 % in Brazil) (Miller & Woodwood 2012)