Saturday, 20 November 2010

Protest Graphics





Brands, Consumerism and Graphic Agitation

Making sense of American Influence:

Rise of consumer culture
Birth of modern capitalism
Rise of the corporation
Branding
Transnational corporations
Graphic Resistance

History:

  • Industrial Revolution started in England in the late 18th century (late 1700s)
  • James Watt invented the steam engine in 1769
  • start of large scale industry in UK & US (e.g. railways, mining, textiles, etc)
  • needed more money than partnerships could raise
  • corporations have only existed for approx. 500 years
  • started to gain real power in the last 2-300 years
  • they are neither “natural” nor inevitable
  • they are an integral part of contemporary capitalism
  • Traditionally businesses owned & run by limited no. of people who pooled their resources & profited or lost out according to the business‟s success/failures
  • a corporation‟s strength comes from its ability to combine the capital & hence the economic power of an unlimited no. of people
  • early corporations were constructed so that the individual investors were “personally liable” for the business‟s debts
  • just owning one share meant that they were liable without limit!
  • stockholding was not popular until that risk was removed

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