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A review by tessyoung
Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism by Aja Barber
2.0
I'm torn over this book because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Given the subtitle I imagined that this book would be a deep dive into the complex and problematic relationship between our everyday addiction to fast fashion, and the structural conditions and inequalities on which it is built and which it fuels. Instead this is a broad brush treatment of these issues.
Stylistically it speaks directly to the audience and those it critiques as at the summit of the fast fashion hierarchy, it is part polemic and part call to action. In places it is repetitious and goes off on tangents requiring handbrake turns to get back to the main discussion. There is a great deal of first person reflection here, and use of the evolving self as the main exemplar for how we all need to change.
At the end of the day I don't think I'm the intended audience for this book. I think it would be good for a young person who is new to these debates. It would give them an overview without overly simplifying or omitting key elements of the debate, and the style may suit an audience more used to getting all their information online. This book reminded me of the old Virago "Young Person's Guide to Animal Rights' and 'Young Person's Guide to Saving the Planet' of the early 1990s and I was too old for them then so...
However, even passing it on to a young person there would be major caveats about the source material and the referencing. I feel I know enough about this subject to accept that what Aja says could be backed up by clear, rigorous research, except she largely doesn't do so. In places other research and reports are cited in the text, but are not included in the limited bibliography. I guess one needs to take title and author and 'google it'. Indeed most of the resources are online resources and podcasts, which again points to a much younger demographic. It's not that I don't listen to these things but that I'm too old fashioned and academic to write a book based on them alone.
As such I feel this book is a good one for those looking to educate themselves on these issue but don't know where to start. I hope it would inspire those who want to change behaviour - their own and that of corporations, but I fear that it would do little to convert the sceptic.
Despite my disappointment I'm glad to have read this, I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I do have a young person in mind to pass it on to and se what she makes of it...
Stylistically it speaks directly to the audience and those it critiques as at the summit of the fast fashion hierarchy, it is part polemic and part call to action. In places it is repetitious and goes off on tangents requiring handbrake turns to get back to the main discussion. There is a great deal of first person reflection here, and use of the evolving self as the main exemplar for how we all need to change.
At the end of the day I don't think I'm the intended audience for this book. I think it would be good for a young person who is new to these debates. It would give them an overview without overly simplifying or omitting key elements of the debate, and the style may suit an audience more used to getting all their information online. This book reminded me of the old Virago "Young Person's Guide to Animal Rights' and 'Young Person's Guide to Saving the Planet' of the early 1990s and I was too old for them then so...
However, even passing it on to a young person there would be major caveats about the source material and the referencing. I feel I know enough about this subject to accept that what Aja says could be backed up by clear, rigorous research, except she largely doesn't do so. In places other research and reports are cited in the text, but are not included in the limited bibliography. I guess one needs to take title and author and 'google it'. Indeed most of the resources are online resources and podcasts, which again points to a much younger demographic. It's not that I don't listen to these things but that I'm too old fashioned and academic to write a book based on them alone.
As such I feel this book is a good one for those looking to educate themselves on these issue but don't know where to start. I hope it would inspire those who want to change behaviour - their own and that of corporations, but I fear that it would do little to convert the sceptic.
Despite my disappointment I'm glad to have read this, I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I do have a young person in mind to pass it on to and se what she makes of it...