"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"
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