We live in a world obsessed by luxury. More than ever, ‘luxury’ retains substantial importance in the economic, social and cultural life of the West and increasingly in the ‘emerging economies’ of Asia. Yet, luxury is not just a construct of affluent contemporary societies. Luxury as a concept and practice has a long, complex and well documented role in history as well.
Over the past two years, the Leverhulme-funded International Network ‘Luxury & The Manipulation of Desire’ has explored a series of themes concerning luxury past and present ranging from production to regulation and the globalization of the luxury trade and industry. We wish to bring together a group of scholars who have been actively engaged in historical, sociological, anthropological and business research on luxury and to provide an arena for dialogue between scholars and experts, journalists and business people in the luxury sector.
This three-day conference is co-organised by the Luxury Network, the Warwick Global History and Culture Centre and the Warwick Business School and will take place in London.
Themes include:
- Spaces of luxury production: workshops, factories, cities and countries of manufacture.
- National denominations; country of origin and country of manufacture; product identity, etc.
- International trade and commerce: channels of distribution; import-export operators; counterfeiting;
etc.
- The physical structures of retailing: boutiques, streets and markets, shopping malls, ‘luxury’ quarters,
luxury villages and luxury cities.
- The creation of ‘conceptual’ spaces through print, advertising and marketing.
- Luxury as events (ex. catwalks); luxury as spaces (houses, hotels, jets, yachts, etc.); and luxury as
experience (retreats; beauty farms; restaurants), etc.
- The online ‘spaces’ of luxury: web retailing, social media, blogs, etc.
- Networks of goods and people (ex. members’ clubs; timeshare, etc.) and related issues of access and
exclusivity.
- The public visibility of luxury, especially in urban environments and the juxtaposition between luxury
and poverty.
- Spaces of protest and opposition against luxury; activism and consumer protest.
Papers should be no more than twenty minutes long. Where possible we welcome proposals for sessions of three or four papers. To submit a proposal, please send a 200-word abstract of the proposed paper, together with a one page CV, to: Luxury@warwick.ac.uk Global History and Culture Centre, Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
The closing date for proposals is 15 September 2014. Successful candidates will be notified by the 15 October 2014.
The registration fee is £100 (£50 for students), payable by 1 December 2014. The late registration fee (after 1 December 2014) is £120 (£60 for students). One-day attendance is £60 (£70 for late registration) and for students £30 (£35 after 1 December 2014).
Please note that the registration fee covers lunch and coffee breaks, but does not include dinner or accommodation. Participants are expected to organise and cover the cost for their own travel. A small number of bursaries will be made available to graduate students.
If you have any further questions, please contact Ms Amy Evans, The Luxury Network, luxury@warwick.ac.uk
Organisers:
Giorgio Riello, Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick, g.riello@warwick.ac.uk
Rosa Salzberg, Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick, r.salzberg@warwick.ac.uk
Qing Wang, Warwick Business School, Qing.Wang@wbs.ac.uk