This conference will bring together people from oral history backgrounds to explore the continuing impact of changing lifestyles, leisure and consumption in modern Britain. It will explore the nature and development of the ‘consumer society’ through oral histories that address a range of areas including sport, food, fashion, music, media, tourism, heritage, museums, health, education and technology.

Oral history approaches to consumption seek to understand how contemporary practices have changed within living memory. They allow us to examine the relationship between consumption and identity, and to reflect on the changing place of consumption within everyday life. They also help us address different degrees of involvement from playful association to passionate commitment, from passive enjoyment to active participation, including the development of more ‘political’ forms of engagement with consumption such as the ethical and fair trade movements.

Appropriately for a conference with a theme of ‘Consumption’ the meeting is being held at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and will draw together a diverse range of oral history practitioners and researchers as well as people who use oral history as part of their work or interest in the media, museums, education, local history and entertainment. There will be a number of different conference strands including, though not limited to, sport, food, fashion, health, shopping and new media. Key note speakers will include Vanessa Toulmin from Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive.

Papers are invited which draw on current projects or recently completed work using oral history and related methods. Papers are welcome that deal with issues of gender, sexuality, race and class, exploring the links between production and consumption at a variety of scales from the local to the global. Presentations which include audio examples of oral history work are especially sought.