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

该讲习班将邀请学术界和非学术界的与会者讨论有关视觉文化、消费及其在圣诞节期间融入道德和宗教叙事的伦理反应的问题。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，批判性地探索当代圣诞节文化体验中面临的伦理困境，并就这种选择如何受到流行文化的影响以及如何通过宗教象征和仪式表达展开积极的对话。这场辩论的重叠层面在圣诞节节日期间加剧，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、广告和营销使用消费者的本能伦理意识，通常通过抵制来表达--圣诞节的伦理方法通常由宗教或慈善组织领导，但也包含与所有消费有关的更广泛的问题-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而受到欣赏，但在历史上仍依赖于它们--消费者的伦理或精神关切被转化为或从圣诞传统、仪式、物品、空间和叙事中窃取。这些交叉点提出的复杂问题在圣诞节的媒体方法中、在基督降临节和圣诞节的宗教象征和礼拜惯例中得到说明，以及通过消费者实践和消费空间。研讨会将结合对象导向和在线讨论、随笔发布和公众反馈，揭示“手电筒”问题，这些问题将提供新的研究和调查领域，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。讲习班的活动回应并解决了复杂的辩论，这些辩论可能超越宗教信仰，但往往依赖于共同的概念。这些辩论包括圣诞节和其他宗教节日在公平贸易、慈善捐赠、礼物赠送选择和贺卡等道德消费做法的背景下商业化的问题。一个项目工作坊将有流行文化、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说教、博览会和宗教广播的学术领袖参加。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、华威、伦敦、爱丁堡和格拉斯哥，代表着现有和新一代的专业知识。通过JISCmail主办的一个计时在线论坛将吸引不同学科的学者参与，并开发手电筒问题供研讨会讨论。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活动重叠但也相互背离的关键领域，以塑造伦理和道德的消费者决定。最后，在圣诞节期间举办的一个研讨会，将让公众就他们面临的决定提出创造性的想法，以解释、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。该项目的智力贡献将是一本关于伦理消费及其为日常生活带来的道德和精神问题的知情用户指南，并以圣诞节前后严肃而持续的批判性辩论为指导。该指导意见将通过存档的在线论坛和专题讨论会以及该项目的网页进行传播。这项工作的核心将是一份以通俗易懂的语言写成的面向广大受众的工作文件，它将为日常生活中的观众、消费者和宗教信徒制定指导方针，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.