do you own a diamond? how and why did you acquire it? have you ever given someone a diamond? what...
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DO YOU OWN A DIAMOND?
HOW AND WHY DID YOU ACQUIRE IT?
HAVE YOU EVER GIVEN SOMEONE A DIAMOND?
WHAT DOES THE DIAMOND YOU’VE GIVEN OR RECEIVED MEAN TO YOU?
HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS?
WHERE DID THAT MEANING COME FROM?
SOCIAL
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL
WARCOLONISALISMIMPERIALISMAPARTHIED LAND CLAIMS ENVIRONMENT GOVERNANCE
MARRIAGEFEMINISMMYTHOLOGYRELIGIONSEX-ROLE STEREOTYPINGCLASSCONSUMPTIONSOCIAL VALUES
GLOBALIZATIONMONOPOLY
INVESTMENTMARKETING
ADVERTIZINGCOMMODIFIATION
UNDERGROUND ECONOMY
LABOURECONOMIC VALUE
Are Diamonds A Commodity?
Commodities are things of value, of uniforn quality, that are produced in large quantities by many different
producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent.
Marx says that a commodity is simply any good or service offered as a product for sale on the market. It
has a use value, and exchange value and a price.
History of Diamonds
History of Diamonds
Vasco da Gamma
History of Diamonds
Koh-I-Noor
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
Hope Diamond
History of Diamonds
History of Diamonds
Expression of Betrothal
1477 – Mary of Burgundy received a diamond engagement ring from Maximilian I
Famous Diamonds
Koh-I-Noor
Hope Diamond
Cullinan I
How do you come to value a thing?
• Human values• Institutional values• Psychology• Advertising
A Structural Analysis of Conspicuous Consumption Behaviour – 2006 – Chaudhuri and Majumdar
Social Structure
Primary Objects of
Consumption
Drivers of Behaviour
Consumers Principal Behaviour Dimensions
Precapitalist-Feudal
Slaves, Women, Food
Military and Political Powers
Nobility Pure Ostentation
Modern Capitalist
Very Expensive Products, e.g.
Diamonds
Social Power and Status
Nobility and Upper-middle
Class
Ostentation, Signaling and Uniqueness
Post Modern Image and Experience
Self-expression and Self-image
Middle Class and the Masses
Uniqueness and Social
Conformation
Interviews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQ3fZkTcaA
Class vs. Status
Diamonds: A Focal Point
The Diamond Myth– Enter De Beers
“A diamond is lost without its mythology; it becomes nothing but a chunk of clear carbon polished to a high sheen,
no better than a piece of common quartz picked from a streambed during a summer picnic. We thirst for diamonds
because we believe them to be rare and because they are perceived by others to have a certain power – power from wealth, power from love, power from crackling sexuality, power from kinship with all of the above. The belief in a
diamond’s power is its power”(Tom Zoellner )
“A Diamond is Forever”• “Capitalism’s ultimate trick had been pulled
off. Somebody had finally learned how to sell rocks” (Tom Zoellner)
• "The true genius of De Beers lies in having created a connection, and sustaining in the popular imagination a connection between something that has no value at all. You can't eat it, you can't drive it home, you can't make clothes out of it, you can't build houses out of it, and creating a connection between that valueless item and something that is extremely valuable, which is human love. They created that connection — they made it up — and they've sustained it.“ (Matthew Hart)
The Central Selling Organization: A Benevolent Monopoly?
• “Whether the CSO’s measure of control amounts to a monopoly I would not know, but if it does it is certainly a monopoly of a most unusual kind. There is no one concerned with diamonds, whether as producer, dealer, cutter, jeweler or customer who does not benefit from it” (Henry Oppenheimer)
• 17 Charterhouse Road: The Sights
Marketing Strategies
Targeting Perceived Markets
Implicit Messages of the Ad Campaigns
• “Diamonds are something that men do for women” (Koskoff)
• “The male-female roles seemed to resemble closely the sex relations in a Victorian novel. Man plays the dominant, active role in the gift process…it permits the woman to pretend that she has not actively participated in the decision. She thus retains her innocence – and the diamond.”
(Epstein)
Critique of the Ad Campaigns “But the fact that the
parody is that obvious, because it lies so close to the reality, is the most damning indictment of the sheer misogyny and contempt for healthy relationships that the diamond industry has based its marketing upon.” (Anil Dash)
The End of the Monopoly?• Enter the Canadian,
Australian diamond producers
• Selling diamonds online• Synthetic Diamonds• Anti-trust action against
De Beers• De Beers as a private
company• The New Image of De
Beers
Pricing• “ [gem diamonds] are of no use, but as
ornaments; and the merit of their beauty is greatly enhanced by their scarcity, or by the difficulty of getting them from the mine. Wages and profit accordingly make up, upon most occasions, almost the whole of their high price” (Adam Smith)
• "Diamonds are of very rare occurrence on the earth's surface, and hence their discovery costs, on an average, a great deal of labour-time.....If we could succeed at a small expenditure of labour, in converting carbon into diamonds, their value might fall below that of bricks." (Karl Marx)
More than marketing…
• Complex and multi-faceted intersection of several factors
• Breach of promise• Victorian Culture• World Politics• Establishment of GIA, 4
C’s criteria,
How Diamonds Are Mined
PandaPit, Ekati Mine, NWT
How Diamonds Are Mined
Artisanal Mining
Where Diamonds Are Mined
Where Diamonds Are Mined
Who’s There Already
Dene NWT
San Bushmen, Botswana Aboriginal, Australia
Impact Benefit Agreements•preferential employment for aboriginals, •community-based recruitment, •training and support programs, •preferential contracting with aboriginal businesses,•and funding arrangements whereby the company provides the community with money to mitigate any negative impacts on hunting and fishing as a result of mining.
Environment
Blood Diamonds
Amputation is Forever
http://www.amnestyusa.org/diamonds/d4.html
Kimberley Certificate
SOCIAL
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL
WARCOLONISALISMIMPERIALISMAPARTHIED LAND CLAIMS ENVIRONMENT GOVERNANCE
MARRIAGEFEMINISMMYTHOLOGYRELIGIONSEX-ROLE STEREOTYPINGCLASSCONSUMPTIONSOCIAL VALUES
GLOBALIZATIONMONOPOLY
INVESTMENTMARKETING
ADVERTIZINGCOMMODIFIATION
UNDERGROUND ECONOMY
LABOURECONOMIC VALUE
Living with the Tensions
• Re-visiting course concepts
• Kanye West example • Meaning is multi-
faceted and complex
