Books in the Consumption and Public Life series

With studies of China, India, West Africa, South America and Europe, this book provides a global perspective on food consumption in the modern world. Combing ethnographic, historical and comparative analyses, the volume celebrates the contributions of Jack Goody to the anthropology of food.

This book presents a new intellectual history of neoliberalism through the exploration of the sovereign consumer. Invented by neoliberal thinkers in the interwar period, this figure has been crucial to the construction and legimitization of neoliberal ideology and politics.Analysis of the sovereign consumer across time and space demonstrates how neoliberals have linked the figure both to the idea of democracy as a method of choice, and also to a re-invention of the market as the democratic forum par excellence. Moreover, Olsen contemplates how the sovereign consumer has served to marketize politics and functioned as a major driver in a wide-ranging transformation in political thinking, subjecting traditional political values to the narrow pursuit of economic growth. A politically timely project, The Sovereign Consumer will have a wide appeal in academic circles, especially for those interested in consumer and welfare studies, and in political, economic and cultural thought in the twentieth century.

By examining cultural consumption, tastes and imaginaries as a means of relating to the world, this book describes the effects of globalization on young people from an aesthetic and cultural perspective.

This book critically reviews recent social scientific investigations of consumption, a controversial topic with moral overtones, and of popular public interest and political and economic significance.

This collection of original ethnographically based research from five continents, provides insights into the dynamics of stability and change in our globalizing world. The chapters comprising Live Experiences of Public Consumption give a vivid account of how cultural and economic value intertwine at face-to-face encounters in marketplaces.

Consumers are not usually incorporated into the sociological concept of 'division of labour', but using the case of household recycling, this book shows why this foundational concept needs to be revised.

This book explores the politics borne of consumption through the case of coffee activism and ethical consumption. It analyses the agencies, structures, repertoires and technologies of promotion and participation in the politics of fair trade consumption through an exploration of the relationship between activism and consumption.

This book provides a detailed analysis, within an EU setting, of what we may mean by the phrase 'consumer citizen'. The author's discussion then moves on to examine ideas of territorial and membership dimensions of European consumer citizenship and the policy initiatives that help define and encourage the consumer citizenship role.

This book investigates the transfer of parent country organizational practices by the retailers to their Chinese subsidiaries, providing insights into employment relations in multinational retail firms and changing labour-management systems in China, as well as their impact on consumer culture.

This book provides a sociological perspective on fitness culture as developed in commercial gyms, investigating the cultural relevance of gyms in terms of the history of the commercialization of body discipline, the negotiation of gender identities and distinction dynamics within contemporary cultures of consumption.

This book examines the public controversies surrounding lifestyle risks in the consumer society. Comparing news coverage of the 'globesity' pandemic in Britain and the USA, it illustrates the way moral panic brought children's food marketing to the centre of the policy debates about consumer lifestyles.

Providing a detailed account of contemporary outdoor advertising and its relationship with urban space, this book examines what the outdoor advertising industry tells us about the commercial production of urban space, what industry practices reveal about contemporary capitalism, and how ads and billboard structures interface with spaces of the city

This book explores the personal savings and credit discourses surrounding post-war British consumer culture. This cultural history highlights the contradictory meanings of home ownership, domesticity, women's consumerism, and banking deregulation that underwrote unprecedented financial crisis and consumer indebtedness.

This collection of original ethnographically based research from five continents, provides insights into the dynamics of stability and change in our globalizing world. The chapters comprising Live Experiences of Public Consumption give a vivid account of how cultural and economic value intertwine at face-to-face encounters in marketplaces.

This is the first book to focus on governance and cultures of consumption, expanding the debate and raising new conceptions and policy agendas. It questions the changing place of the consumer as citizen in recent trends in governance, the tensions between competing ideas and practices of consumerism, and the active role of consumers in governance.

This book interrogates the global utopian vision for smart energy technologies and the new energy consumer intended to realise it. It enriches and extends the possibilities of four residential smart strategies: energy feedback, dynamic pricing, home automation and micro-generation, focusing on how they are being integrated into everyday practice.

Across the world, there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the tempo of modern life. Described simply as the 'slow phenomenon', this volume explores this new brand of living that entails not simply slowing down but an embracing of alternative activities that promote meaning, thoughtfulness, engagement and authenticity.

With studies of China, India, West Africa, South America and Europe, this book provides a global perspective on food consumption in the modern world. Combing ethnographic, historical and comparative analyses, the volume celebrates the contributions of Jack Goody to the anthropology of food.

Across the world, there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the tempo of modern life. Described simply as the 'slow phenomenon', this volume explores this new brand of living that entails not simply slowing down but an embracing of alternative activities that promote meaning, thoughtfulness, engagement and authenticity.

This analysis leads to a consideration of the ways in which religions and secular spiritualities can contribute to a new ecological consciousness, and to the adoption of less destructive and rapacious ways of life.

Democracy is based on the belief that the media gets the attention of voters. But is this plausible in an age of multiplying media, disillusionment with the political system and time-scarcity? This book addresses this question, and charts experiences of 'public connection'.

This is the first book to focus on governance and cultures of consumption, expanding the debate and raising new conceptions and policy agendas. It questions the changing place of the consumer as citizen in recent trends in governance, the tensions between competing ideas and practices of consumerism, and the active role of consumers in governance.

As conscientious consumers, we become overwhelmed with alarms about food contamination, climate change, chemical pollution and other environmental and health-related risks. This book explores green and politically engaged consumersim, asking the question: does green labelling offer ways toward a greener and more democratic society?

This volume casts a critical eye on representations and practices of consumption in the Western world. It offers a unique contemporary perspective on the themes of counter-consumerism, ecological crisis and sustainability that are rising fast on the political and cultural agenda.

Harold Wilhite makes an important new contribution to the interpretation of changing consumption in India, using an ethnographic approach to interrogate the rapid growth in the consumption of household durables, beauty and cleanliness products, exploring how the engagement of local practices with the globalizing economy result in change.

This book provides a timely forum for current thinking on consumption and citizenship, exploring overlaps and tensions between them. Experts from history, theory, media studies, law, and civil society, retrieve alternative traditions of consumption and citizenship in West and East, and evaluate the civic prospects of consumption for the future.

Democracy is based on the belief that the media gets the attention of voters. But is this plausible in an age of multiplying media, disillusionment with the political system and time-scarcity? This book addresses this question, and charts experiences of 'public connection'.

How much is acceptable to consume? What is appropriate to consume and which goods fall into the disapproved category? Answers to these questions vary widely across time and space. This book examines the sources of this variation by providing an account of how everyday consumption norms develop, why they differ and why they change.

As sales of fair-trade goods explode across the globe, Fair Trade and the Citizen-Consumer provides a timely analysis of the organizations, institutions and grassroots networks behind this growing movement.