The consumer society and the over-affluent society are characteristic descriptions the age we live in. What happens to all the things we buy, use and consume, reject and throw away?
These themes were debated in an exhibition shown at Norsk Folkemuseum 19.04 – 30.12.2007. The exhibition was produced in cooperation with Fretex, the Norwegian Salvation Army branch dealing in second-hand items, with support from Norsk Kulturråd. The theme of the exhibition was use, consumption and reuse.
Use is the concrete handling of equipment, tools and goods. How long some things can be used has varied through time. It was, earlier, regarded as very necessary to use items as long as possible. If an item broke, it had to be repaired, and it was essential to have the knowledge of how to repair an item. Young girls used to learn to repair and darn clothes at school. In today’s Norwegian school, children learn about architecture and art history, but they no longer learn to sew a button on a shirt. What happens the day you lose a button, and are not able to sew it on again? It is easier to throw it away and buy a new shirt. Why, it’s so cheap! Many of the items made today are difficult to repair, and it is also difficult and expensive to get spare parts.
Consumption is to use up goods or services both literally and socially. Things become functionally useless when they are broken or physically worn out, but they may also become used up socially, aesthetically or symbolically. Groups with high social status, high cultural capital or high income, have through history wanted to show this through the consumption of luxury goods. Luxury is not necessarily restricted to a small group, but has become more and more accessible for most people. Is it possible to say that we have achieved some sort of democratization of luxury?
Norsk Folkemuseum would appreciate that the text folder and the texts from the exhibition are reused. They may be downloaded for free from this page:
Text folder
Main texts
Thematic texts