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Consumption and the Globalization Project: International Hegemony and the Annihilation of Time. By Edward A. Comor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 209 pp. ISBN 9780230522244.
Many of the arguments made in Edward A. Comor's book, Consumption and the Globalization Project: International Hegemony and the Annihilation of Time will not be new to most readers. Much of this book is dedicated to providing a historical account of the rise of capitalist consumption, its expansion via globalization and their interdependence. These are topics that have been considered at length in communication and cultural studies literature. However, Comor writes to fill a "lacuna" in the field of international political economy (IPE), where consumption is often dismissed as a merely personal activity, while production is favoured as the "essential moment in the political economic process" (p. xi). In an attempt to revisit the place of consumption and globalization in IPE studies, Comor situates these topics within our contemporary global political economic system. He provides an interdisciplinary account of the role that capitalist consumption practices play in constituting global economic structures as well as the conceptual frameworks we use to resist the project of globalization.
Comor shows that capitalist consumption, as a stiucturing institution, neglects history and "annihilates time" in favour of "efficiency, fashion and immediate gratification" (p. xi). The implications of this structure his inquiry: How has this annihilation of time altered our modes of dissent and with what consequences? In what way is the lack of historical consciousness responsible for international violence and disorder? What kind of critical reflective practices are needed to reverse this trend? The author examines these issues by carefully historicizing the rise and growth of consumer capitalism and its expansion. With particular attention paid to...