Consumer production

From Geography

In The Practice of Everyday Life (1984), Michel de Certeau wanted to point out the way in which users operate and to 'make explicit the systems of operational combination [...] which also compose a culture'. De Certeau calls agents 'users', who are actually active and who he considers by the euphemistic term 'consumers'. Why? Because "Everyday life invents itself by poaching in countless ways on the property of others" (De Certeau, 1984, p. xii)

De Certeau tried to clarify the use of representations of societies and their modes of behavior. Because of the knowledge gained from these works, it would be possible and necessary to do so. How do consumers 'make' or 'do' (produce) in society when they walk through a city, when they buy products in a supermarket or when they watch (behavior) television (representation). This 'making' is producing, and according to De Certeau it is a hidden one because it is scattered over areas difened and occupied by systems of 'production'. Also, the increasing expansion of systems make consumers no longer leave any place.

This production subsequently corresponds another production: 'consumption'. This is the way consumers will use the products.

De Certeau gives us the example of the Spanish conquistadores who 'conquered' Indigenous Indians in Central America. The Indians managed to 'escape' the laws imposed on them without leaving them, by 'manipulating' them as 'consumers'.

Josse Groen

De Certeau, M., (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life University of California Press