Consumer Culture and Society
- Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy - John Carroll University, USA
July 2016 | 272 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.
Consumer Culture and Society offers an introduction to the study of consumerism and mass consumption from a sociological perspective. It examines what we buy, how and where we consume, the meanings attached to the things we purchase, and the social forces that enable and constrain consumer behavior. Opening chapters provide a theoretical overview and history of consumer society and featured case studies look at mass consumption in familiar contexts, such as tourism, food, and higher education. The book explores ethical and political concerns, including consumer activism, indebtedness, alternative forms of consumption, and dilemmas surrounding the globalization of consumer culture.Foreword and Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1. Introduction: Historical Context and Theoretical Tensions
PART I. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Chapter 2. Objects of Consumption: Commodities and Mass Consumer Society
Chapter 3. Subjects of Consumption: Passive Dupes or Active Agents?
Chapter 4. The Places and Spaces of Consumption
PART II. APPLYING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: CASE STUDIES
Chapter 5. Food
Chapter 6. Tourism
Chapter 7. Higher Education
PART III. ETHICAL CONCERNS AND CONSUMER ACTIVISM
Chapter 8. Political Consumerism and the Consumer Movement
Chapter 9. Credit and Debt
Chapter 10. Alternative Forms of Consumption
Chapter 11. Conclusion: The Globalization of Mass Consumer Culture
References
Index