Year: 2007
Author: Roberta Sassatelli
Genre: Sociology
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd.
ISBN: 978-1-4129-1180-1
English language
Format: DjVu
Interactive table of contents: Yes
Number of Pages: 238
The monograph of American sociologist Roberta Sassatelli is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of consumerism in the context of its historical development and the role that it plays in modern Western society. The book also analyzes various theories aimed at understanding consumerism and consumerism.
Roberta Sassatelli - Consumer culture. History, theory and politics (2007)
Acknowledgements 1
Introduction: Born to consume 2
Structure of the book 6
PART 1. THE RISE OF CONSUMER CULTURE 9
1. Capitalism and the Consumer Revolution 13
Consumption, production and exchange 13
The genesis of consumer capitalism 20
From courts to cities, from luxuries to fashion 25
Summary 30
2. The Cultural Production of Economic Value 32
Commodity flows, knowledge flows 32
The invention of the consumer and the cultural trajectories of goods 35
Consumer society as historical type 41
Summary 50
PART 2. THEORIES OF CONSUMER AGENCY 53
3 Utility and Social Competition 57
The sovereign consumer 57
The limits of economic rationality 60
Fashion, style and conspicuous consumption 64
Beyond emulation 69
Summary 72
4. Needs, Manipulation and Simulation 74
From commodity fetishism to critical theory 74
Nature, authenticity and resistance 78
Postmodern pessimism 82
Social relations and consumption 84
Taste, Identity and Practices 91
Taste and distinction 92
Cultural classification and identity 98
Appropriating commodities 101
Ambivalence and practice 106
Summary 109
PART 3. THE POLITICS OF CONSUMPTION 113
6. Representations and Consumerism 117
The anti-consumerist rhetoric and the apology of consumption 118
Advertising cultures and their languages 125
Ideology, social differences and consumerism 131
Summary 136
7. Commodities and Consumers 139
Commoditization and de-commoditization 140
Goods, values and the boundaries of commoditization 147
The normalization of consumption 154
Summary 160
8. Contexts of Consumption 163
Leisure, commercial institutions and public places 164
The home, the commercialization of feelings and cultural consumption 170
Localized consumption in McDonaldized settings 174
Alternative consumption and social movements 182
Summary 190
Epilogue: Consumers, Consumer Culture(s) and the Practices of Consumption 193
Further Reading and Resources 199
References 204
Index 230
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