‘Terra Incognita’?: re-spacing consumption in contemporary Ireland.

Resumo

In the context of continuing modernisation
and social and urban transformation,
this paper will review contemporary
representations and practices of consumption
in Ireland. The paper argues that in common
with other rapidly globalizing societies new
patterns of consumption have reconfigured
representations of place and society and
opened up a series of contradictions about
the role and identity of the state. The paper
explores how moral panic about consumption
open up debates about cultural identity
but argues that more attention needs to
be placed upon the social, economic and
spatial contexts of in which changes in
lifestyle and consumption have occurred.
The paper concludes that shifts in patterns
of consumption in Ireland reflect social and
geographical changes, the transformation of
contours of Irish identity and expectations,
together with the creation of new sources
of demand.