Consumption is a serious issue that produces environmental waste, unfair labor practices and negatively impacts human health, say organizers of “The Interdisciplinary Science of Consumption: Mechanisms of Allocating Resources Across Disciplines,” the first of two Michigan Meetings to be presented this month. It will be May 12-15 in the Rackham Building.
Consumption also forces subunits of local and federal government to struggle to encourage monetary saving, reduce waste, increase recycling and deal with compulsive hoarding.
The conference will focus on mechanisms of resource-allocation decisions such as acquiring and discarding important resources, such as money, food and material goods. Speakers from marketing, finance, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and ecology will come together to share their knowledge on how organisms acquire resources to balance short- and long-term needs. Through a careful comparison of the mechanisms underlying these seemingly disparate processes, a unified model of resource allocation can be created that benefits basic science and society.
On May 12, primatologist and writer Frans de Waal, named by Time magazine in 2007 as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People, will speak in Rackham Auditorium. He currently is the director of living links at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Speaking on May 13 in Rackham Auditorium is economist and New York Times columnist Robert Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics and Public Policy in Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Frank has written numerous books including “The Winner-Take-All Society,” co-authored with Philip Cook, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and was included in Business Week’s list of the 10 best books for 1995.
Several plenary speakers are scheduled for May 13-14 in Rackham Amphitheatre. A Consumption Fair will be presented May 15 on the fourth floor of the Rackham Building.
The conference is funded by the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Department of Psychology, and the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society.
For times and more information go to consumption.umich.edu/MM10/. Look for more on the Michigan Meetings in the next University Record.
