Recent work has focused on the politics of consumption and its manifestation in a number of situations. This volume extends these debates, providing a tighter focus and contributing to a noticeable gap in the field that numerous scholars are beginning to turn towards: that is, organizations of consumers themselves who have chosen to speak for all consumers and similar such bodies of experts which act on behalf of consumers. The volume is fortunate in drawing upon a number of scholars who are about to publish major works on the subject, but who are happy to provide summary versions of their work for the volume. The book pays particular attention to specific moments in consumer mobilization and expertise, capturing the range of types of expert consumers across the twentieth century, from ethical consumer groups at the beginning, to intellectuals, housewives, economists and public officials. It addresses questions on the nature of consumer organizing, which bodies can speak for consumers, whether one consumer voice can ever be identified and the relationship between consumption and citizenship. Overview pieces demonstrate the larger narratives involved in the study of the expert consumer, whilst more comparative essays set out the nature of transatlantic exchanges. Other contributions point to the similarities across seemingly different consumption regimes, while case studies of specific organisations and key historical moments draw out the particularities of consumer expertise.

The central question in Work, Consumption and Culture is whether consumption has now displaced production as the defining factor in the lives of those in the industrialized West. This book offers a comprehensive review of the key issues in the production/consumption debate, and where it might lead in the future.

Key to Paul Ransome s argument is the hypothesis that affluence is the crucial factor in the shift away from work and towards consumption. Uniquely emphasizing the links between work, consumption and culture, rather than keeping each element separate, the author looks at:

- the changing significance of work in society

- the meaning, growth and significance of affluence

- the growing importance of consumption as a source of identity and its implications

the impact of the shift to consumption on work/life balance

Work, Consumption and Culture engages the reader with its lively debating style. It is an essential introduction for sociology and cultural studies students on courses relating to consumption and the role of work in contemporary society.

This book offers a balanced account of the changing importance of work and consumption in contemporary industrial society. Clearly written, the author identifies the central role that affluence plays in the relationship between work and consumption, and in the development of social life and individual identity' - "Professor Paul Blyton, Cardiff Business School""

This book is not simply the best book on the remarkable phenomenon of today's ethical consumer. It is a gift of advice and insight, from the people that know best, to the cause of tomorrow. Many of the writers deserve the plaudits of being pioneers of a new consumer movement. These are the issues of our time' - "Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the UK's National Consumer Council (NCe

"

Who are ethical consumers and why are they on the rise? Leading the way towards answering this question, The Ethical Consumer is an indispensable introduction to the subject. Exploring areas like boycotts and fair trade projects, it gathers together the diverse experiences of scholars, campaigners and business practitioners from the international community.

The chapters in this book explore:

- ethical consumer behaviours, motivation and narratives

- the social, political and theoretical contexts in which ethical consumers operate

- the responsibilities of businesses and the effectiveness of ethical consumer actions

Contributions are informed by a broad range of research methods, from case studies, focus groups to surveys and interviews.

The text is of interest to business related graduates, undergraduates and their tutors on courses relating to consumption. It will also be relevant to academics in other disciplines, as well as to politicians, producers, practitioners, campaigners and not least consumers.

This work investigates the current state of selling, whether groceries, politicians, information or motorcars. Like no other phenomenon, "retailization" reflects the complexity and ubiquity of information flows, processes and convergence of media in the wired world. The authors explore the all-pervasive nature of the retail experience in the physical world, the virtual world - and in the peripheral spaces between the two. Companies interviewed include Asda, MOMA, The Tate Modern, Walmart, Sony, Habitat, Manchester United and Volkswagen; individuals include Naomi Klein, Tom Dixon, Benjamin Barber, Professor Bill Mitchell (Dean of Architecture at MIT), architects Jon Jerde, Rem Koolhas and Ben Van Berkel, and David Peek, psychologist behind the Bluewater shopping mall.

Reviewing key contemporary issues and debates about consumption, this volume portrays and assesses the varied and complex intersections of consumption and everyday life. Throughout, the contributors show how cultural consumption involves a range of active, creative, and critical practices. The rich and idiosyncratic nature of local consumption practices is illustrated through cases from different parts of the world. Through such cases, the contributors show the varying balance between constraint and creativity, links between consumption and production, and the patterns that shape access to symbolic and material resources. Consumption takes place in the context of everyday lives, which take place in space: questions of place and identity, the privatization of the home, and the linking of local everyday practices with broader, global processes are explored. Particular attention is given to the media and new communication technologies as points of overlap and exchange between the local and the global, between domestic consumption and the public sphere. The book is written in an accessible style, and each chapter includes questions and activities for students, and selected readings. The book will be of interest to students and lecturers across a range of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, communication, cultural and media studies, and geography.

This book provides an incisive evaluation of current theories of consumption. It uses food as a case study of consumption and the expression of taste, and provides a structural analysis of changes and continuities in the representation and purchase of food. Alan Warde outlines various theories of change in the late 20th Century and considers the parallels between their diagnoses of consumer behavior and actual trends in food practices. He argues that various dilemmas of the modern predicament and certain imperatives of the culture of consumption make sense of food selection. He suggests that contemporary consumption is best viewed as a process of continual selection among an unprecedented range of generally accessible items that are made available both commercially and informally. Consumption, Food, and Taste will be essential reading for students and academics in the sociology of consumption and the sociology of food and eating. It will also be of interest to academics and students in sociology, cultural studies, home economics, and consumer behavior.

A multi-disciplinary overview providing new theories, critical analyses and the latest reasearch on this very fashionable topic. Includes chapters on consumption studies in anthropology, economics, history, sociology and many more areas.

This is a comparative study of how drinks and drinking, as embodied semiotic and material forms, mediate modern social life. Drink, as an embodied semiotic and material form, mediates social life. This book examines the fundamental nature of drink through a series of modular but connected ethnographic discussions. It looks at the way the materiality of a specific drink (coffee, wine, water, beer) serves as the semiotic medium for a genre of sociability in a specific time and place. As an explicitly comparative semiotic study, the book uses familiar and unfamiliar case studies to show how drinks with similar material properties are semiotically organized into very different drinking practices, including ethnographic examples as diverse as the relation of coffee to talk (in ordering at Starbucks). Further chapters look at the dryness of gin in relation to the modern cocktail party and the embedding of beer brands in the ethnographic imagination of the nation. Rather than treat drinks as mere propos in the exclusively human drama of the social, the book promotes them to actors on the stage. "Semiotics" has complemented linguistics by expanding its scope beyond the phoneme and the sentence to include texts and discourse, and their rhetorical, performative, and ideological functions. It has brought into focus the multimodality of human communication. "Continuum Advances in Semiotics" publishes original works in the field demonstrating robust scholarship, intellectual creativity, and clarity of exposition. These works apply semiotic approaches to linguistics and non-verbal productions, social institutions and discourses, embodied cognition and communication, and the new virtual realities that have been ushered in by the Internet. It also is inclusive of publications in relevant domains such as socio-semiotics, evolutionary semiotics, game theory, cultural and literary studies, human-computer interactions, and the challenging new dimensions of human networking afforded by social websites.

Contents:
1. Introduction: The Why of Consumption S. Ratneshwar, David G. Mick and Cynthia Huffman 2. Consumer Goal Structures and Goal Determination Processes: An Integrative Framework Cynthia Huffman, S. Ratneshwar and David G. Mick 3. The Role of Emotions in Goal-Directed Behaviour Richard P. Bagozzi, Hans Bumgartner, Rik Pieters and Marcel Zeelenberg 4. Minimizing Negative Emotions as a Decision Goal: Investigating Emotional Trade-Off Difficulty Mary Frances Luce, James R. Bettman and John W. Payne 5. The Role of Approach/Avoidance Asymmetries in Motivated Belief Formation and Change Frank R. Kardes and Maria L. Cronley 6. The Missing Streetcare Named Desire Russell W. Belk, Guliz Ger and Soren Askegaard 7. Postmodern Consumer Goals Made Easy! Craig J. Thompson 8. Authenticating Acts and Authoritative Performances: Questing for Self and Community Eric J. Arnould and Linda L. Price 9. Representations of Women's Identities and Goals: The Past Fifty Years in Film and Television Elizabeth C. Hirschman and Barbara C. Stern 10. The Urge to Buy: A Uses and Gratifications Perspective on Compulsive Buying Ronald J. Faber 11. On Selling Brotherhood Like Soap: Influencing Everyday Disposal Decisions Luk Warlop, Dirk Smeesters and Piet anden Abeele 12. Timestyle and Consuming Time: Why We Do What We Do With Our Time June Cotte and S. Ratneshwar 13. Using Narratives to Discern Self-Identity Related Consumer Goals and Motivations Jennifer Edson Escalas and James R. Bettman 14. The Power of Metaphor Robin Coulter and Gerald Zaltman

Ian Gordon explores how comic strips contributed to the expansion of a mass consumer culture that was increasingly driven by visual images. He details how Gasoline Alley advocated the pleasures of the automobile and how 1920's working girl Winnie Winkle became determined to achieve a middle-class lifestyle. The invention of the comic book in the 1940s also produced a super-licensed Superman, whose girlfriend Lois Lane even went on a shopping spree during a period of wartime rationing.

This lively and insightful account reveals the profound ways in which everyday acts and artifacts of consumer civilization shape our sense of self.

ElemA(c)r Hankiss shows how human beings act simultaneously in two plays. On the "trivial" surface of their everyday lives they work, make money, raise children, build houses, and do a lot of other things. At the same time, they also act in the "existential" drama of their lives -- even if they are not aware of doing so. They construct and reconstruct their selves each day by striving for authenticity, the intense experience of being, dignity, meaning, and the hope of immortality.

Hankiss explores this interaction between the trivial and existential, in the process unfolding its context in "consumer civilization." This concept is brilliantly illustrated in a section entitled "the toothpaste of immortality":

"If we watch enough commercials, we believe that this or that special brand of toothpaste preserves our teeth, and -- per metonymiam -- ourselves, young and beautiful indefinitely. And then, for a fleeting moment, there, in our bathrooms, we experience the sweet and melancholy illusion that we may stay young and beautiful forever; that we may defeat mortality; we may defeat decay and death."

First published to great success in Hungarian, this entertaining and compelling book reveals surprising insights into the challenges and possibilities of self-fulfillment.

Find out what consumers are buying in Asia Pacific and Australasia Consumer Asia Pacific and Australasia 2012 will help you understand consumer markets in Asia Pacific and Australasia. It has market sizes for hundreds of consumer products in 14 countries in the region, including China. The data covers six years (2005-2010) with forecasts to 2016. The research ranges from clothing and footwear to pet food and tobacco. Discover the fastest growing markets, those that are static and those in decline. Consumer Asia Pacific and Australasia includes: > Market size statistics for consumer products in 14 countries > 6 years of historic data (2005-2010) and forecasts to 2016 > Volume and value data*, percentage (%) change and per capita figures *Value data presented in local currency and US$ > Key socio-economic indicators to help put market trends into context Consumer products researched: Alcoholic drinks; Clothing and footwear; Consumer electronics; Cosmetics and toiletries; Disposable paper products; DIY; Domestic electrical appliances; Eyewear; Fresh food; Gardening; Home furnishings; Hot drinks; Household care products; House wares; OTC healthcare; Packaged food; Personal and leisure goods; Pet food and pet care products; Soft drinks; Tobacco; Toys and games Socio-economic indicators researched: Economic indicators; Foreign trade; Population; Health; Household characteristics; Possession of household durables; Labour; Income; Consumer Expenditure; Retailing; Travel and tourism; IT and telecommunications Countries researched: Australia; China; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; New Zealand; Philippines; Singapore; South Korea; Taiwan; Thailand; Vietnam Discover > How the market for spirits has grown in the last 5 years > How much the market for contact lenses are set to grow in the next 5 years > Which country spends the most on consumer electronics > How many noodles are sold per capita in Japan Why buy this book > Excellent starting point for understanding consumer market trends in the Asia Pacific region > Hard to research market sizes and forecasts available in one volume > It saves time - thousands of sources consulted to research these statistics > Ideal for company or academic libraries

Now in its second edition, "Who Buys What" presents a wealth of unique statistical information on household spending patterns across 52 countries worldwide. The book provides insight into the household spending patterns in each nation and includes detailed data on demographics, household characteristics, labour trends, consumer expenditure, disposable income, and household expenditure by number of household members, by household type, by age of household head, by economic status of household head, by tenure, by income decile, and by region.

Written by a leading rural sociologist in the United States, Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities shows how human behavior impacts agroecosystems both positively and negatively and provides the reader with an understanding of alternative ways of working with human communities to increase agroecosystem sustainability. Through a general overview and a series of case studies, it demonstrates how changes in the economy influence what local people can do to sustain agroecosystems. It also deals with specific community-based actions that have resulted in more sustainable agroecosystems.

"Consumer Eastern Europe 2009/2010" gives you a complete understanding of modern market trends in this emerging region. It provides hard to find volume and value market size data for 330 consumer products (2003-2008) along with an overview of key socio-economic parameters. All data is standardised to allow quick country comparisons. This title: examines total market sizes, trends in retail sales and consumer expenditure; places consumer trends in context with important country specific data; compares product performance by year or country.

This book analyses how consumer food choices have undergone profound changes in the context of the economic crisis, including the rediscovery of local products and the diffusion of multi-ethnic food. Corvo argues that a new ecological relationship between food and the environment is needed to reduce food problems such as food waste and obesity.

The Enlightenment theorists involved in the public/private debate exposed the logical fallacies of theology and the philosophical weaknesses of metaphysics but left little room for understanding contemporary modes of consumption. What does it mean to be a consumer in the early 21st century? Do modern markets provide real choices for consumers in neoliberal capitalist democracies? Or are consumers ironically slaves to their own patterns of consumption? Rejecting Habermas' conceptualizations in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1991), Rappa offers an examination of modernity and consumption with a non-Marxist, modernity-Resistance-theoretical frame (mRf). He argues that late modernity - the ethos, experience, and consciousness of global and technological transformation today - is not about the fusion of "public and private" spaces. Rather, modernity and consumption involves the deep penetration of private space by public space to the extent that private space becomes dependent, conditional, and decrepit. The "Private" has become contingent on the "Public". Decisions about what to consume no longer reflect the mindful choices of private, interest-seeking, and wealth-maximizing individuals but reveal a new kind of public control through foundational images of success, failure, horror, violence, and hope.

In the course of the 20th century, hardly a region in the world has escaped the triumph of global consumerism. Muslim societies are no exception. Globalized brands are pervasive, and the landscapes of consumption are changing at a breathtaking pace. Yet Muslim consumers are not passive victims of the homogenizing forces of globalization. They actively appropriate and adapt the new commodities and spaces of consumption to their own needs and integrate them into their culture. Simultaneously, this culture is reshaped and reinvented to comply with the mechanisms of conspicuous consumption. It is these processes that this volume seeks to address from an interdisciplinary perspective. The papers in this anthology present innovative approaches to a wide range of issues that have, so far, barely received scholarly attention. The topics range from the changing spaces of consumption to Islamic branding, from the marketing of religious music to the consumption patterns of Muslim minority groups. This anthology uses consumption as a prism through which to view, and better understand, the enormous transformations that Muslim societies-Middle Eastern, South-East Asian, as well as diasporic ones-have undergone in the past few decades.