Consumer Behaviour is the first truly European consumer behaviour textbook, placing the subject clearly within its economic, psychological, sociological and historical context. The authors provide greater insight for readers by examining both the determinants and the consequences of consumer decision making. Antonides and Van Raaij include numerous examples, cases and sociodemographic data and provide complete coverage of core topics together with important new ones. Innovative chapters are included on:

• financial behaviour

• welfare, wellbeing and property

• families and household production

• consumption and the environment

• shopping behaviour.

Public alarm about the spate of recent product recalls, particularly of toys and other products used by children, has focused attention on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This book provides an overview of the prior authority of the CPSC to establish consumer product safety standards and to inspect and recall unsafe consumer products. This book also describes the new requirements for certification and testing and the effect of the stay of enforcement of these requirements announced by the CPSC, certain new safety standards established by the CPSIA and related implementation actions and issues. In addition, the authors assessed injury and death data sources used by CPSC, compared CPSC's consumer education efforts with key practices, and interviewed federal officials and groups representing the health and consumer interests of minority populations. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

"24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep" explores some of the ruinous consequences of the expanding non-stop processes of twenty-first-century capitalism. The marketplace now operates through every hour of the clock, pushing us into constant activity and eroding forms of community and political expression, damaging the fabric of everyday life.
Jonathan Crary examines how this interminable non-time blurs any separation between an intensified, ubiquitous consumerism and emerging strategies of control and surveillance. He describes the ongoing management of individual attentiveness and the impairment of perception within the compulsory routines of contemporary technological culture. At the same time, he shows that human sleep, as a restorative withdrawal that is intrinsically incompatible with 24/7 capitalism, points to other more formidable and collective refusals of world-destroying patterns of growth and accumulation.

This collection of classic and contemporary articles provides context for the study of advertising by exploring the historical, economic, and ideological factors that spawned the development of a consumer culture. It begins with articles that take an institutional and historical perspective to provide background for approaching the social and ethical concerns that evolve around advertising. Subsequent sections then address the legal and economic consequences of life in a material culture; the regulation of advertising in a culture that weighs free speech against the needs of society; and the ethics of promoting materialism to consumers. The concluding section includes links to a variety of resources such as trade association codes of ethics, standards and guidelines for particular types of advertising, and information about self-regulatory organizations.

This book deals with the entertainment industries and their engagement in widespread marketing of violent movies, music, and electronic games to children that is inconsistent with the cautionary messages of their own parental advisories and that undermines parents' attempts to make informed decisions about their children's exposure to violent content.

Contemporary societies are characterised by new and more flexible working patterns, new family structures and widening social divisions. This book explores how these macro-level changes affect the micro organisation of daily life, with reference to working patterns and gender divisions in Northern and Western Europe and the United States. Through detailed comparative analysis and case studies from France, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this collection demonstrates how, despite globalisation and the spread of neo-liberalism, states still exercise some autonomy in terms of the implementation of equalities and 'city time' policies. These policies affect people's capacity to organise their daily lives and ameliorate the adverse impact of new working patterns. However, the authors also show that, despite the proliferation of work-life balance policies which potentially encourage a greater reconciliation of caring and paid work, inequalities in the distribution of paid work and caring between men and women remain remarkably resilient. Bringing together academic analysis and policy studies, Gender Divisions and Working Time in the New Economy will appeal to students and scholars of comparative social policy, economic sociology, economic geography and sociology. In particular, those with an interest in issues of employment relationships, gender, welfare states, working time, work-life balance and 'city time' will find the book to be of great value.

Our Elgar Concise Introductions are inspiring and considered introductions to the key principles in business, expertly written by some of the world's leading scholars. The aims of the series are two-fold: to pinpoint essential principles of business and management, and to offer insights that stimulate critical thinking. Examining the psychological and social drivers of unsustainable and sustainable consumption, this Concise Introduction provides an insightful overview of the causes of unsustainable consumer behaviour and the instruments and interventions needed to create a sustainable consumption pattern. Key Features: Outlines how policy interventions can contribute to a transformation in the consumption pattern Based on a comprehensive model of the causes and consequences of (un)sustainable consumer choices Provides a precise account of how the structure and distribution of consumption are responsible for environmental problems Maps the roots of unsustainable consumption in human nature as well as in economic, institutional, social, and structural contexts Highlighting a variety of ways to promote sustainable consumption, from sustainability labelling to carbon taxes and infrastructure investments, this Concise Introduction will be essential reading for students and researchers in behavioural sciences, business and management, economic psychology, environmental sociology, and sustainable development.

What if the problems of modern society don't come from production, but rather consumption and the system of cultural signs? In this classic work from the defining intellectual of the postmodern, Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign takes Marx's critique of political economy and its analysis of the commodity form as the starting point for an analysis of signs and their meaning in modern society. Influenced by Lefebvre's critique of everyday life, Barthes's semiology, and Situationism, Baudrillard analyses how objects are encoded within the system of signs and meanings that constitute contemporary media and consumer societies. Combining semiological studies and sociology of the consumer society, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign contains Baudrillard's most extensive engagement with Marxism and shows him at a critical juncture for the development of his thought.

'Magnificent ... groundbreaking ... a triumph' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads 'A masterpiece, a delight to read ... a rare and beautiful thing' Gerard DeGroot, The Times What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers, and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British empire to the present. Astonishingly wide-ranging and richly detailed, Empire of Things explores how we have come to live with so much more, how this changed the course of history, and the global challenges we face as a result. 'I read Empire Of Things with unflagging fascination ... elegant, adventurous and colourful ... gleefully provocative' John Preston, Daily Mail 'Such a pleasure to read ... From Victorian department stores to modernist kitchens, his book revels in the things that most historians tend to overlook' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

In today's world, considerable time and effort is devoted to appearance, both for individuals and organizations; the right look, an impressive title, a favourable connection. The focus is on the surface, with considerations of substance often overlooked. In this book, Mats Alvesson demystifies some popular and upbeat claims about a range of phenomena, including the knowledge society, consumption, branding, higher education, organizational change, professionalization, and leadership. He contends that a culture of 'grandiosity' is leading to numerous inflated claims. We no longer talk about plans but 'strategies'. Supervisors have been replaced by 'managers', and managers are referred to as 'executives'. Management itself is about 'leadership'. Giving advice is 'coaching'. Companies become 'knowledge-intensive firms'. This book views the contemporary economy as an economy of persuasion, where firms and other institutions increasingly assign talent, energy, and resources to rhetoric, image, branding, reputation, and visibility. This second edition uses a wide range of empirical examples to illuminate the realms of consumption, higher education, organization, and leadership in the 21st century. Exploring new areas such as strategic management in higher education, title inflation, and the increasing imbalance between knowledge, manual, and care work, this provocative and engaging book challenges established assumptions and contributes to a critical understanding of society as a whole.

Most of us who live in the North and the West consume far too much - too much meat, too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt. We are more likely to put on too much weight than to go hungry. We live in a society that is heading for a crash. We are aware of what is happening and yet we refuse to take it fully into account. Above all we refuse to address the issue that lies at the heart of our problems - namely, the fact that our societies are based on an economy whose only goal is growth for growth's sake.

Serge Latouche argues that we need to rethink from the very foundations the idea that our societies should be based on growth. He offers a radical alternative - a society of 'de-growth'. De-growth is not the same thing as negative growth. We should be talking about 'a-growth', in the sense in which we speak of 'a-theism'. And we do indeed have to abandon a faith or religion - that of the economy, progress and development--and reject the irrational and quasi-idolatrous cult of growth for growth's sake.

While many realize that that the never-ending pursuit of growth is incompatible with a finite planet, we have yet to come to terms with the implications of this - the need to produce less and consume less. But if we do not change course, we are heading for an ecological and human disaster. There is still time to imagine, quite calmly, a system based upon a different logic, and to plan for a 'de-growth society'.

Consumer capitalism dominates our economy, our politics and our culture. Yet there is a growing body of research from a range of disciplines that suggests that consumer capitalism may be past its sell-by date. Beyond Consumer Capitalism begins by showing how, for people in the developed world, consumer capitalism has become economically and environmentally unsustainable and is no longer able to deliver its abiding promise of enhancing quality of life . This cutting-edge book then asks why we devote so little time and effort to imagining other forms of human progress. The answer, Lewis suggests, is that our cultural and information industries limit rather than stimulate critical thinking, keeping us on the treadmill of consumption and narrowing our vision of what constitutes progress. If we are to find a way out of this cul de sac, Lewis argues, we must begin by analysing the role of media in consumer capitalism and changing the way we organize media and communications. We need a cultural environment that encourages rather than stifles new ideas about what guides our economy and our society. Timely and compelling, Beyond Consumer Capitalism will have strong appeal to students and scholars of media studies, cultural studies and consumer culture.

What makes political freedom valuable to us? Two well-known arguments are that freedom contributes to our desire satisfaction and to our personal responsibility. Here, Boudewijn de Bruin argues that freedom is valuable when it is accompanied by knowledge. He offers an original and systematic account of the relationship between freedom and knowledge and defends two original normative ideals of known freedom and acknowledged freedom. By combining psychological perspectives on choice and philosophical views on the value of knowledge, he shows how known freedom is crucial to satisfy our desires and assume responsibility. Known freedom is compromised when salespeople deploy consumer-obfuscation, or when news outlets use contextual framing techniques to steer the way their audiences process information. Conversely, carefully developed consumer protection and information disclosure regulation can foster known freedom. Acknowledged freedom, from ethical and economic perspectives, offers protection and makes our freedoms more stable. It embodies an ideal of mutual recognition that underlies informed consent and the ethics of communication, and can also contribute to a flourishing corporate culture. This book integrates and extends cutting-edge research from philosophy, economics, psychology, and law to reorient debates on privacy, neuromarketing, sustainable finance, corporate culture, consumer protection, media violence, and freedom of speech.

Destination Z The History of the Future "Success in business today demands a deeper and more flexible mindset to try and understand the changes taking place in global and local economies, often as a result of technology. Rob Baldocka s meteoric career as a consultant to many different companies has placed him in a unique position. His book gives valuable insights into the causes and effects of change and stimulates the reader to construct better plans to prosper in an uncertain but exciting world." Keith Oates, formerly Deputy Chairman of Marks & Spencer "Baldock paints a deliberately uncomfortable picture of what could happen under each of the scenarios. These visions do set the synapses sparking, and he succeeds in making each environment seem very plausible. But where he really scores through his musings about the future is bringing the present into sharper relief. So whata s the best way to plan for these future scenarios? Destination Z is a book designed to make you think, not give you answers." Information Week, January 1999 "The world of business is being transformed before our eyes as giants fall and new ventures skyrocket, driven by explosive technological change, an integrated volatile global economy and new ways of competing. Rob Baldock provides an illuminating and insightful guide to this confusing landscape of the future of business." Peter Schwartz, Chairman, Global Business Network "Rob Baldock paints a daunting picture for business in the future . but dona t despair, he does provide a robust recipe for making the most of the challenges that lie ahead . recomended reading!" George Trumbull, Chief Executive Officer, AMP Ltd

Translated by DANIEL ROSS

Bernard Stiegler is one of the most original philosophers writing today about new technologies and their implications for social, political and personal life. Drawing on sources ranging from Plato and Marx to Freud, Heidegger and Derrida, he develops a highly original account of technology as grammatology, as a technics of writing that constitutes our experience of time, memory and desire, even of life itself. Society and our place within it are shaped by technical reproduction which can both expand and restrict the horizons and possibilities of human agency and experience.

In the three volumes of "Disbelief and Discredit" Stiegler argues that this process of technical reproduction has become dangerously divorced from its role in the constitution of human experience. Radically challenging the optimistic view of new technologies as facilitators of learning and progress, he argues new marketing techniques shortcircuit thought and disenfranchise consumers, programming them to seek short-term gratification. These practices of 'libidinal economics' have profound consequences for nature of human desire and they underpin the social and psychological malaise of contemporaty industrial society.

In this opening volume Stiegler argues that the industrial model implemented since the beginning of the twentieth century has become obsolete, leading capitalist democracies to an impasse. A sign of this impasse and of the decadence to which it leads is the banalization of consumers who become ensnared in a perpetual cycle of consumption. This is the new proletarianization of the technologically infused, hyper-industrial capitalism of today. It produces a society cut off from its past and its future, stultifying human development and turning democracy into a farce in which disbelief and discredit inevitably arise.

"Luxury Fashion and Culture" focuses on the study of how humans use high quality, highly pleasurable, and frequently rare products, services, and experiences to distinguish to themselves and others who they are as well as whom they are not - both within and across cultures. Luxury fashion enables the individual to transform herself - to play a part in scenes exuding refinement, acceptance, high status, and good taste and risk ridicule by playing the part badly. The chapters provide new theory, recipes of methods, and findings on how culture helps humans manage and respond to luxury fashion enactments. Rather than focusing on traditional cultural transformations, it focuses on personal expressions of self and archetypal role-playing and fulfilment through the power of luxury fashion. This volume: applies the perspectives of Veblen, Goffman, McCracken, Thompson, and Belk to provide a theoretical foundation to explain why and how humans buy and enact luxury fashion products, services, and experiences; includes confirmatory personal introspections of explanations of luxury fashion enactments with self-photographs and self-interpretations of the enactments to explain how individuals enact luxury fashion and respond to alternative fashion-marketing designs; and is unique in conjoining sociology, psychology, marketing, and economics to advance fashion marketing theory and research.

The Overspent American explores why so many of us feel materially dissatisfied, why we work staggeringly long hours and yet walk around with ever-present mental "wish lists" of things to buy or get, and why Americans save less than virtually anyone in the world. Unlike many experts, Harvard economist Juliet B. Schor does not blame consumers' lack of self-discipline. Nor does she blame advertisers. Instead she analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social art.

Treating the symptoms of global ecological stress isn't enough; we need to think about sustainability in an entirely different light The developed world, increasingly aware of "inconvenient truths" about global warming and sustainability, is turning its attention to possible remedies-eco-efficiency, sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility, among others. But such measures are mere Band-Aids, and they may actually do more harm than good, says John Ehrenfeld, a pioneer in the field of industrial ecology. In this deeply considered book, Ehrenfeld challenges conventional understandings of "solving" environmental problems and offers a radically new set of strategies to attain sustainability. The book is founded upon this new definition: sustainability is the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth forever. There are obstacles to this hopeful vision, however, and overcoming them will require us to transform our behavior, both individually and collectively. Ehrenfeld identifies problematic cultural attributes-such as the unending consumption that characterizes modern life-and outlines practical steps toward developing sustainability as a mindset. By focusing on the "being" mode of human existence rather than on the unsustainable "having" mode we cling to now, he asserts, a sustainable world is within our reach.

An in-depth analysis of the impact of public utility privatization on ordinary consumers. This text traces the history of energy and water privatization and documents the community and consumer sectors' various attempts to influence the structure of privatization and regulation. It provides data on the energy and water utilities over the first period of privatization and shows that the benefits and costs of privatization have not been shared equally. Low income consumers have been particularly adversly affected and the regressive outcomes of privatization have undercut the gains that domestic comsumers have made in some areas of service provision. Concluding with an overview of the British experiment of energy and water privatization, the author argues that the privatization settlements reached by successive Conservative governments with the privatized utility companies are seriously flawed, and that the British model of privatization is inappropriate to the domain of essential public utility service.

In the decades after World War II, evangelical Christianity nourished America's devotion to free markets, free trade, and free enterprise. The history of Wal-Mart uncovers a complex network that united Sun Belt entrepreneurs, evangelical employees, Christian business students, overseas missionaries, and free-market activists. Through the stories of people linked by the world's largest corporation, Bethany Moreton shows how a Christian service ethos powered capitalism at home and abroad. While industrial America was built by and for the urban North, rural Southerners comprised much of the labor, management, and consumers in the postwar service sector that raised the Sun Belt to national influence. These newcomers to the economic stage put down the plough to take up the bar-code scanner without ever passing through the assembly line. Industrial culture had been urban, modernist, sometimes radical, often Catholic and Jewish, and self-consciously international. Post-industrial culture, in contrast, spoke of Jesus with a drawl and of unions with a sneer, sang about Momma and the flag, and preached salvation in this world and the next. This extraordinary biography of Wal-Mart's world shows how a Christian pro-business movement grew from the bottom up as well as the top down, bolstering an economic vision that sanctifies corporate globalization. The author has assigned her royalties and subsidiary earnings to Interfaith Worker Justice (www.iwj.org) and its local affiliate in Athens, GA, the Economic Justice Coalition (www.econjustice.org).

We can't stop shopping but we must stop shopping - the consumer dilemma that defines our lives and our future. What would happen if we did? We are using up the planet at almost double the rate it can regenerate. To support our economies, we're told we must shop now like we've never shopped before, yet the scale of our consumption remains the biggest factor in the ruination of the world. But what would life look like if we stopped? Visiting places where economies have experienced temporary shut-downs, artisan producers, zero-consumption societies and bringing together a host of expert views, this is both a history of our relationship with consumption and a story about the future. 'Lays out a wealth of knowledge and wisdom' Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress

"Tying shoelaces, jumping rope, listening to circle-time stories, Allison Pugh immersed herself in the busy--and commercial-studded--worlds of schoolchildren. In this brilliantly argued, lyrically written and riveting book, Pugh asks how kids cope with the incessant ads for the must-have toy, the latest shoe, the coolest game. Children don't cave into or resist capitalism, Pugh tells us. They build worlds of their own from it. 'Corporate marketing acts as a powerful mint, ' she writes, 'always churning out shinier coinage, but not always dictating whether or how those tokens are used.' They set up their own Lilliputian 'economies of dignity' which poignantly determine who does and doesn't feel worthy of belonging to the group. A complement to Juliet Schor's "Born to Buy," Pugh's book is a must-read."--Arlie Hochschild, author of "The Time Bind" and "The Commercialization of Intimate Life"
"Pugh is curious about what parents buy for their kids, what they refuse to buy, and why they make the decisions they do. But this isn't a marketing book. Far from it: Pugh is very critical of corporations that cynically target young children. But she is attempting to understand the social and emotional consequences of this commercial culture for children and for family life. She argues--quite convincingly--that consumerism has negatively impacted the quality of relationships in families and in society in general. By focusing on consumption instead of production, she also develops a fresh new approach to analyzing social inequality."--Christine Williams, author of "Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality"
"In her richly documented ethnographic study, Allison Pugh firstidentifies, then resolves, an important contrast in American working-class and middle-class approaches to their children's acquisition of consumer goods: symbolic indulgence on the working-class side, symbolic deprivation on the middle-class side. Her work offers deep insights into children's experience in contemporary America."--Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University
"Written with extraordinary grace and insight, Allison Pugh has given us a truly original and fresh way of understanding the material desires of children. With vivid interviews, she shows with both subtlety and force how the emotional needs of children and their parents has shaped overconsumption today. This should be read well beyond the academy and for a long time."--Gary Cross, author of "An All-Consuming Century"
"This imaginative and beautifully written book makes a significant contribution to the study of parents, children, consumption, and lived experiences of social inequality."--Barrie Thorne, author of "Gender Play"
"Going well beyond the standard story of manipulative advertising that turns our kids into greedy little consumption addicts, "Longing and Belonging" provides a fascinating portrait of how children themselves come to translate Gameboys and Nikes into personal dignity and social membership. This smart and highly readable book offers multiple insights into the cultures of class, race, parenting, and childhood in an increasingly materialistic America."--Sharon Hays, author of "Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform"
"With "Longing and Belonging," Allison Pugh brings the study of children's consumer lives to a level of insight and clarity rarely encountered in theoften panic-stricken and sanctimonious discussions surrounding kids and commercial life. Skillfully navigating the social landscape where children, inequality and consumer culture intersect, Pugh combines ethnographic empathy with deft sociological analysis in a manner that invites the reader to enter children's lives and see the world from their perspectives. This work represents a break from the received wisdom about children and commercialism and surely will mark a transition to new and thoughtful approaches to thinking about how consumption matters in everyday life."--Daniel Thomas Cook, author of "The Commodification of Childhood"

With the advent of liquid modernity, the society of producers is transformed into a society of consumers. In this new consumer society, individuals become simultaneously the promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote. They are, at one and the same time, the merchandise and the marketer, the goods and the travelling salespeople. They all inhabit the same social space that is customarily described by the term the market.

The test they need to pass in order to acquire the social prizes they covet requires them to recast themselves as products capable of drawing attention to themselves. This subtle and pervasive transformation of consumers into commodities is the most important feature of the society of consumers. It is the hidden truth, the deepest and most closely guarded secret, of the consumer society in which we now live.

In this new book Zygmunt Bauman examines the impact of consumerist attitudes and patterns of conduct on various apparently unconnected aspects of social life politics and democracy, social divisions and stratification, communities and partnerships, identity building, the production and use of knowledge, and value preferences.

The invasion and colonization of the web of human relations by the worldviews and behavioural patterns inspired and shaped by commodity markets, and the sources of resentment, dissent and occasional resistance to the occupying forces, are the central themes of this brilliant new book by one of the worlds most original and insightful social thinkers.

'Fascinating and eye-opening' OWEN JONES DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SHOES COME FROM? DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY GO WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THEM? In 2019, 66.6 million pairs of shoes were manufactured across the world every single day. They have never been cheaper to buy, and we have never been more convinced that we need to buy them. Yet their cost to the planet has never been greater. In this urgent, passionately argued book, Tansy E. Hoskins opens our eyes to the dark origins of the shoes on our feet. Taking us deep into the heart of an industry that is exploiting workers and deceiving consumers, we begin to understand that if we don't act fast, this humble household object will take us to the point of no return.