Manufacturing technology, manufacturing consumers : the making of Dutch consumer society

In the twentieth century, production and consumption rapidly grew, accompanied by businesses’ frantic search for new markets. Many new institutions, corporations, interest groups, research organizations, trade groups, shops, and laboratories were involved in the search. Twentieth-century European mass consumption did not exist; it had to be projected, represented, constructed, and produced. In other words, mass consumption involved sustained work on the part of producers and consumers. By applying the concepts of mediation and mediation junction this book shows how consumption and economic production in twentieth-century Netherlands developed in tandem with social and institutional arrangements. The volume draws upon recent studies on the mediated manufacturing of houses, kitchens, cars, radio and TV sets, and snacks their consumption and their consumers in the Netherlands. In describing the Dutch consumption trajectory, it also shows how the Dutch experience helped build a European version of consumer society.