'Not Just for Christmas': Consumption, Popular Culture and Religious Observance

本次研讨会将邀请学术和非学术参与者讨论围绕视觉文化，消费及其在圣诞节道德和宗教叙事中的嵌入的伦理反应问题。跨学科研讨会将通过一系列活动，将不同的学者聚集在一起，批判性地探讨圣诞节在当代文化经验中面临的伦理困境，并就流行文化如何告知这些选择以及如何通过宗教象征和仪式表达这些选择展开积极的对话。这场辩论的层层重叠，在圣诞节期间愈演愈烈，将与日常生活中的可持续性和道德消费有关。该项目认识到以下关键的交叉点：-广播，广告和营销利用消费者的反思性道德意识，通常通过抵制来表达-圣诞节的道德方法通常由宗教或慈善组织领导，但也包括与所有消费相关的更广泛的问题-视觉文化中嵌入或嵌套的圣诞节叙事通常独立于其宗教起源来欣赏。消费者的伦理或精神关注被转化为圣诞传统、仪式、物品、空间和叙事，或从中挪用。这些交叉点引发的复杂问题在圣诞节的媒体方法、降临节和圣诞节的宗教象征和礼仪实践、以及消费者的实践和消费空间中都得到了说明。研讨会将采用对象导向和在线讨论、话语出版和公众反馈的混合方式，揭示“手电筒”问题，这将提供新的研究和探究领域，并根据不断变化的社会冲动和需求，对圣诞节进行必要的重新评估。讲习班活动回应和处理复杂的辩论，这些辩论可能超越宗教信仰，但往往依赖于共同的观念。这些辩论涵盖了圣诞节和其他宗教节日在道德消费实践的背景下的商业化，包括公平贸易、慈善捐赠、礼品选择和贺卡。一个项目讲习班将接待流行文化、地理、视觉文化、消费研究和社会历史领域的学术领袖，以及神学和讲道学、博览会和宗教广播领域的学术领袖。最初的参与者将来自纽约、戈尔韦、诺丁汉、埃克塞特、坎特伯雷、沃里克、伦敦、爱丁堡和格拉斯哥，代表现有和新一代的专业知识。通过JISCmail主办的定时在线论坛将吸引跨学科的学者，并在研讨会上讨论手电筒问题。一份工作文件将概述最初的手电筒问题，并强调流行文化和圣诞节宗教庆祝重叠的关键领域，但也会相互偏离，从而影响消费者的伦理和道德决定。最后，在圣诞节期间举办的研讨会将让公众参与到关于他们在解释、理解和参与通过视觉文化和消费呈现给他们的伦理、道德和精神问题时所面临的决定的生成思想中。在圣诞节前后严肃而持续的批判性辩论的指导下，该项目的智力贡献将是一个知情的“用户指南”，涉及伦理消费以及它在日常生活中引发的道德和精神问题。该指南将通过存档的在线论坛和专题讨论会以及项目网页进行传播。会议的核心将是一份“工作文件”，用通俗易懂的语言为广大读者撰写，它将为观众、消费者和宗教从业者在日常生活中提供指导，而不仅仅是圣诞节。

This workshop will engage academic and non-academic participants in the discussion of issues surrounding ethical responses to visual culture, consumption, and their embedding in moral and religious narratives at Christmas. The interdisciplinary workshop will, through a series of events, bring diverse scholars together to critically explore the ethical dilemmas faced in contemporary cultural experience of Christmas and open a positive dialogue over how such choices are informed by popular culture and also expressed through religious symbolism and ritual. The overlapping layers of this debate, intensified during the festive season of Christmas, will be related to sustainability and ethical consumption in daily life. The project recognises the following critical intersections:- Broadcasting, advertising and marketing employ the reflexive ethical awareness of consumers, often expressed through resistance- Ethical approaches to Christmas are often led by religious or charitable organisations, yet also embrace wider issues relating to all consumption- Embedded or nested narratives of Christmas in visual culture are often appreciated independently from their religious origins, yet are nonetheless historically reliant upon them- Ethical or spiritual concerns of consumers are translated into, or appropriated from, Christmas traditions, rituals, objects, spaces and narrativesThe complex issues raised by these intersections are illustrated in media approaches to Christmas, in the religious symbolism and liturgical practices of Advent and Christmas, as well as by consumer practices and in the spaces of consumption. The workshop will, using a mixture of object-led and online discussion, discursive publication and public feedback, reveal 'flashlight' issues which will offer new areas of research and inquiry, as well as provide a necessary reappraisal of Christmas in light of changing societal impulses and needs. The workshop events respond to and address complex debates which may transcend religious belief but which often rely upon shared conceptions. Such debates cover the commercialisation of Christmas and other religious festivals in the context of ethical consumption practices including Fair Trade, charity donations, gift-giving alternatives and greeting cards.A project workshop will host academic leaders in the fields of popular culture, geography, visual culture, consumption studies and social history, alongside those in theology and homiletics, exposition and religious broadcasting. Initial participants will come from New York, Galway, Nottingham, Exeter, Canterbury, Warwick, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and represent existing and new generations of expertise. A timed online forum, hosted through JISCmail, will engage scholars across disciplines and develop the flashlight issues for discussion at the symposium. A working paper will outline the initial flashlight issues and highlight the key areas where popular culture and religious celebration of Christmas overlap but also diverge from each other to shape the ethical and moral consumer decisions. Finally a symposium, staged at Christmastime, will engage the public with generative ideas about the decisions they face in interpreting, understanding and engaging with ethical, moral and spiritual issues presented to them through visual culture and consumption.The intellectual contribution of the project will be an informed 'user guide' to ethical consumption and the moral and spiritual issues it raises for everyday life, guided by serious and sustained critical debate around Christmas. This guidance will be disseminated through the archived online forum and symposium, as well as the project's webpage. Central to this will be a 'working paper', written in plain language for a wide audience, which will frame the guidance that these discussions have for viewers, consumers and religious practitioners in daily life, and not just for Christmas.