Consumption and its discontents: addiction, identity and the problems of freedom

The focus of this paper is on the notion of 'addictive consumption,' conceived as a set of discourses that are embedded within wider sociohistorical processes of governance & control. It examines the discursive convergences & conflicts between practices of consumption & notions of addiction, which it notes are consistently represented in terms of the oppositional categories of self-control vs compulsion & freedom vs determinism. These interrelations are explored with reference to the development of notions of addiction, & their relation to shifting configurations of identity, subjectivity, & governance. Finally, it suggests that the notion of addiction has particular valence in advanced liberal societies, where an unprecedented emphasis on the values of freedom, autonomy, & choice not only encourage the conditions for its proliferation into ever-wider areas of social life, but also reveal deep tensions within the ideology of consumerism itself