Consumer culture : history, theory and politics / Roberta Sassatelli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sassatelli, Roberta.

Standardized Title:

Consumo, cultura e società. English

Language:

English

Italian

Subjects (All):

Consumption (Economics).

Consumers--Attitudes.

Consumers.

Marketing--Social aspects.

Marketing.

Physical Description:

vi, 237 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Los Angeles : SAGE Publications, 2007.

Contents:

Introduction: Born to consume 1

Part I 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

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

Part II 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

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

5 Taste, Identity and Practices 91

Taste and distinction 92

Cultural classification and identity 98

Appropriating commodities 101

Ambivalence and practice 106

Part III 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

7 Commodities and Consumers 139

Commoditization and de-commoditization 140

Goods, values and the boundaries of commoditization 147

The normalization of consumption 154

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

Epilogue: Consumers, Consumer Culture(s) and the Practices of Consumption 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [204]-229) and index.

Translation of: Consumo, cultura e società.

ISBN:

9781412911801

141291180X

9781412911818

1412911818

OCLC:

71808554