DIALECTICS, DIFFERENCE, AND THE GEOGRAPHIES OF CONSUMPTION

In the current beginnings of the mapping of the consumer society there is an evident tension between political-economic and poststructuralis t accounts of consumption. It has been suggested that a philosophy of difference does nothing more than mimic a capitalist ideology of choic e; that it represents a levelling of philosophy to the vulgar status o f consumerism. The counterposition asserts a lack of tolerance to diff erence inherent in the rationalism of Marxism, which ultimately adhere s to production as its central, stabilizing, metaphysical concept. In examining such ideas we seek to ground judgmental positions with respe ct to the political status of consumption (and of production) in notio ns of collectivity and action. To this end we provide a brief discussi on of the history of consumer cooperation as a political force. More g enerally, by elucidating the political potentialities of different phi losophical approaches, which present themselves as opposites, we hope to interrupt-interminably and retroactively-the development of a geogr aphy of the consumer society which is simply additive to existing geog raphies of the productive society.