The thesis is an exploration of how young women are embedded within and (re)construct discourses of gendered identity within consumerist/capitalist culture, in relation to popular music. Theoretical analysis is juxtaposed throughout with interviews I conducted with 46 young women aged between 11 and 18 years old which took place in schools and a youth centre in Manchester and Salford. The importance placed on the interviews reflects my attempt to privilege young women as the primary focus of the research. The interviews were a means of situating young women's discursive engagement with popular culture in relation to gender identities. The main body of the thesis begins with an exploration of how young women are situated in relation to discourses of social class, ethnicity and sexuality, including how social class connects with young women's lives in relation to popular culture, how to theorise blackness and whiteness, and ways of opening up discussions of both heterosexuality and homosexuality. I then widen the remit of the thesis, by considering where the young women I interviewed are situated in relation to discourses of femininity, utilising theories of the 'male gaze', and of representations of the feminine in popular culture. How these young women's lives relate to feminisms, and feminist work, particularly in relation to structural inequalities, equal rights and sexual behaviour, are then investigated. Finally, the thesis analyses the extent to which the young women's talk in the interviews constructs themselves and others as individual consumers, and examines how this may impact on young women's lives. The thesis concludes how young women's accounts are embedded in a discourse of individualism. Societal structures which help to construct or maintain gendered, racial or sexual inequalities are often ignored in the young women's talk, since the individual as consumer is situated at the centre of their talk. Forms of feminism which attempt to explore inequalities beyond those of 'equal rights' then fail to impact on the young women as an audience. The young women's talk demonstrates that inequalities continue to exist in their lives, and yet popular culture does little to provide solutions or even acknowledgement of these inequalities. I suggest that since the analysis of the thesis has indicated that available feminisms have often failed to engage with young women in meaningful ways, in the future feminists need to highlight ways of challenging inequalities which young women encounter in their day-to-day lives.

This thesis is about ethical consumers. In some business circles ethical consumers are treated simply as one kind of consumer in a market society where a niche can be created to satisfy every preference. Conversely some advocates of more radical change propose consumer activism as part of a movement which will force ethical considerations into the decision-making of capitalist businesses and governments alike. Questions about ethics are central to consumer society. Unlike most recent research into the 'green' or 'socially conscious' consumer that has been based on either extensive quantitative surveys or focus groups, the research presented here analyses consumer decisions in a social context. Sixteen case studies of ethical consumers in differing circumstances are developed in considerable detail. Starting from the theoretical observation that being an ethical consumer presents apparently daunting difficulties, especially with respect to decision making, the research uses bounded rationality theory to explain how these cases maintain their self-image as ethical. From these data I suggest thinking of ethical consumers as adopting coping strategies. Those contributing to the study were seen to be 'distancing' themselves from practices they consider unethical, 'integrating' their lives around addressing the issues current in ethical consumer discourse and/or 'rationalising' their ethical consumption against their acceptance of consumer capitalism. Each strategy can be shown to reduce the scope and/or difficulty of decision making. Finally, consideration is given to the nature of ethical consumption as a political project. Individual consumers respond in diverse ways to a social discourse on any given ethical issue even where strong and clear consumption advice is given. I argue that ethical consumerism is limited by the capacity of individuals to give attention to more than a few actions. Its political significance is nevertheless enhanced by the unpredictability of consumer response.

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In this thesis I argue that within Canadian society, mainstream environmentalism has been constructed as a consumer-based activity that fundamentally excludes low income households and serves to support a capitalist economy. Historically, humans’ relationship to the environment has been based on economic benefit and so people readily accept this construction of environmentalism as it conforms to established social norms. Contemporary research has shown that eco-labeling is one of the primary marketing tools that give the impression of social structural change while keeping capitalism intact. This thesis critically examines documents from three Canadian sources: the Toronto Star newspaper, the David Suzuki Foundation website, and the Canadian Government. By applying the theories of social constructionism and representation, I show that these documents and articles have multiple levels and meanings about environmentalism that favour the capitalist agenda. This analysis also identifies four main ways in which these sources contribute to and reinforce the exclusion of low income families from Canadian mainstream environmentalism: 1) sources primarily promote ‘green’ consumables and disregard the associated cost of these goods, 2) sources do not acknowledge the constraints associated with level of access to non-consumable green resources, 3) sources shape environmental problems as economic issues by focusing on corporations, and 4) increased time commitments associated with green behaviour are not acknowledged. These three sources would suggest that the current form of environmentalism, as a consumer based construct, exclude low income household in mainstream Canadian society. By illuminating some of the problems with the current construction of environmentalism, it becomes possible to construct new perspectives on environmentalism that are both effective and inclusive. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-25 16:26:11.314

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Consumer policy of the developed countries might not fit the needs of the consumer of the less developed countries. The researcher contends that the less developed countries should be more concerned with macro issues rather than micro ones. The main objective of this dissertation is to assess the role of the free market system in protecting the consumers interest. This has been performed by investigating the field of passenger cars in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Two consumer surveys were carried out: One in Saudi Arabia in the period April-June 1987, and the other in the United Kingdom in the period August-September 1987. The findings of the consumer surveys support the concept that the more the economic system is oriented towards the market system, the more the augmentation of the consumer interest. It was found that a relation exists between consumer awareness, the levels of education and income as well as the environmental factors. Therefore, the best policy of the less developed countries to adopt is to accept the free market system, to increase productivity and to improve the educational standards of the consumer. Since it was found that bureaucracy discourages the consumers from claiming their rights, simplifying government procedures rather than overregulation should augment the consumer's interest. The findings of this dissertation do not present a new theory or support others, but they contribute more understanding to the consumer issues in the less developed countries.

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