Consumer culture : history, theory, politics

The book is organized to offer an historically-grounded and theoretically-informed analysis of contemporary consumer culture as well as a critical understanding of its diversity, reach and ambivalence. Throughout the book a variety of empirical examples illustrate the rich texture of consumer culture(s). The ambivalence of consumption is shown by looking at the various ways in which it can be conceived as an ordinary and yet socially regulated practice of appropriation: people typically remove commodities from their commercial codes and contexts, but do so by negotiating with routines and meanings which are otherwise deemed culturally appropriate, reasonable, fair and even “normal”. The book chapters are thus divided into three parts organized around three main dichotomies: production/consumption; rationality/irrationality; freedom/oppression. Both in lay and social scientific discourse, these dichotomies have been applied to understand contemporary consumer culture. Reference to them thus helps discussing its history, theory and politics, even though much of the book is concerned with showing that consumption challenges them and involves other, more complex patterns of relation. The first part on history maps the multifarious, spatially and temporally articulated historical development of (Western) consumer culture, thus providing a cultural reading of the vast socio-economic and geo-political transformations this has entailed. The second part on theory critically discusses the main theoretical approaches which have tried to model consumer agency from neo-classical economics to sociological classics, from critical theory to communication approaches, up to the recent emphasis on theories of practice and ritual de-commoditization. The third part on politics considers the political dimension of consumer culture, looking at the issue of representation and intermediation and in particular the role of advertising, at de-commoditization as a contested terrain where social actors negotiate hegemonic views of identity and choice, and finally the issues of globalization, localization and alternative consumption. While one part naturally leads into the following, each of them can be read separately. The text closes with a brief conclusion both helps drawing its overarching theses and threads together and offers some analytical tools for further investigation. Finally, a the very end of the book, the reader will find some selected suggestions for further reading. Their purpose is twofold: to mark out key studies related to the arguments proposed, and to point to auxiliary resources to orientate research and writing in the field of consumption