Aims

The aims of this project are:

- To provoke informative interdisciplinary discussion on the overlap between ethical consumption, popular culture, and religious observance

- To provide scholarly background and critical dialogue on ethical consumption and its relation to visual and narrative culture, that will be valuable for researchers and a wider public audience

Rationale

Cyclical public debates exist around the commercialisation of Christmas, its position in mainstream culture, and the ‘nested narratives’ (Everett, 1996) of the religious festival. In 2007, for example, Christmas carols were described as having an appeal independent of their religious message (Today programme, BBC Radio 4, 17/12/07), and the outspoken secular figure Professor Richard Dawkins has described himself as a ‘cultural Christian’ (BBC News, 10/12/07). Similarly in the recent past, academic studies have found ‘little evidence of religious observance amongst participants’ (McKechnie and Tynan, 2006: 141).

In light of this sustained topicality, the workshop recognises the debate’s value in relation to ideology, ethics and faith in visual culture and consumer activity throughout the year and not just for Christmas. Given the insistence of long-held beliefs that Christmas is commercialised, or that the values of Christmas transcend belief, it is appropriate that the value of this debate be realised by a studied academic approach that would seek to engage and inform public debate and to provide opportunities for cultural growth.

Christmas is one of the most important seasons of the Christian liturgical year, yet at the same time many receive the ‘message’ of Christmas from popular culture. Thus Christmas as a ‘season of goodwill’ provides a general ethical or moral flatness (Latour, 2005) in social interaction. This is given a discursive dimension in the roles played by cinema, television, news media and religious broadcasting. In addition, the self-conscious nature of consumption at Christmas is symptomatic of what Lash and Urry have described more generally as ‘reflexive accumulation’ (1999: 60-61), meaning that any serious exploration of contemporary religious or generally held ethical responses to consumption at Christmas needs to take into account the role of the debate itself. For example, Miller’s ‘theory of Christmas’ (1993), has identified how the festival is both an inversion of ‘normal’ family relationships and an embodiment of the values and importance of family in society; Christmas is chosen as an illustration of the relationship that we have - or might come to expect - with consumerism and ethical wellbeing through the principle of gift-giving. This is perhaps why consumers visibly engage in alternative practices of consumption at Christmas, such as charity donations, charity greetings cards, Fair Trade and handmade gifts, and alternative cultural readings of Christmas tales.

Christmas itself occupies an important and unique place within scholarly understanding of visual culture, consumption and religion. Connelly (1999 and 2001) stresses the cultural importance of reflection on Christmas, in particular through film and media. He traces the gathering effect of references to the Englishness of Christmas, which have become part of a wider internationally relevant perception of the festival. In Christmas Unwrapped (2001), Horsley and Tracy (eds), bring together scholars of history, politics and theology in an American context, in which Christmas is seen to demonstrate a ‘religion of consumer capitalism’ (165). They suggest, but do not specifically engage with, alternatives to consumerism at Christmas. Susan Roll’s Toward the Origins of Christmas (1995) considers historical issues, and takes seriously contemporary practices of Christmas, engaging with the field of liturgy and raising important questions about the impulses behind the Western celebration of Christmas. Furthermore McKechnie and Tynan (2006) focusing on the British context, have addressed the widely-recognised concern that the social and moral values of Christmas gift-giving are undermined, or that gift-giving itself is ‘out of hand’ (139). They suggest that comparative work relating to religious observance and non-observance would constitute a fruitful area for future research. This workshop therefore seeks to host critical dialogue that reflects and will go on to inform public debate: theologians and religious teachers will engage with scholars of society, material and visual culture on the matter of the incorporation of Christian values into general issues of well-being and ethical consumption.

Workshops have the ability to develop pertinent debates into mature and practical critical interventions which can be disseminated through formal and informal mechanisms. This is suggested by organisations such as ethicalconsumer.org, which produces buyer’s guides, The Design Council’s RED project, which uses online publication to disseminate critical guidance on tackling social issues through design-led innovation, and alternativity.org, which provides a forum for faith responses to Christmas consumption. Workshops can be used to identify ‘flashlight’ issues - such as ‘cultural Christianity’ - which can illuminate the study of particular cultural practices now or in the past, as well as having the potential to guide cultural practices in the future. By initiating these through effective and wide-reaching interdisciplinary connections, this also offers the possibility of developing research into ethical approaches to consumption in the everyday, and ‘not just for Christmas’.