Download or read book Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-06-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, one of the leading social theorists and cultural commentators of modern times, turns his gaze on consumption. George Ritzer, author of the famous McDonaldization Thesis, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and commodify. He examines how McDonaldization might be resisted, and situates the reader in the new cultural spaces that are emerging in society: shopping malls, casino hotels, Disneyfied theme parks and Las Vegas -- the new `cathedrals of consumption' as he calls them. The book shows how new processes of consumption relate to globalization theory. In illuminating discussions of the work of Thorstein Veblen and the French situationists, Ritzer unearths the roots of problems of consumption in older sociological traditions. He indicates how transgression is bound up with consumption, through an investigation of the obscene in popular and postmodern culture.
Download or read book Consumer Culture and Society written by Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumer Culture and Society offers an introduction to the study of consumerism and consumption from a sociological perspective. Author Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy examines what we buy, how and where we consume, the meanings attached to the things we purchase, and the social forces that enable and constrain consumer behavior. Opening chapters provide a theoretical overview and history of consumer society and featured case studies look at mass consumption in familiar contexts, such as tourism, food, and higher education. The book explores ethical and political concerns, including consumer activism, indebtedness, alternative forms of consumption, and dilemmas surrounding the globalization of consumer culture.
Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Sociology written by George Ritzer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a collection of original chapters by leading and emerging scholars, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology presents a comprehensive and balanced overview of the major topics and emerging trends in the discipline of sociology today. Features original chapters contributed by an international cast of leading and emerging sociology scholars Represents the most innovative and 'state-of-the-art' thinking about the discipline Includes a general introduction and section introductions with chapters summaries by the editor
Download or read book Consumption and Class written by Roger Burrows and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An edited collection exploring divisions and changes within and between the spheres of consumption and production. Topics include: the relationship between consumption and production; the social construction of consumers; housing and social class mobility; health provision; the role of the 'service class'; and access to higher education. Peter Saunders' work provides the initial stimulus for many of the papers, but all go beyond his narrow conception of a sociology of consumption and his liberal analysis of patterns of social inequality.
Download or read book The Sociology of Consumption written by Joel Stillerman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sociology of Consumption: A Global Approach offers college students, scholars, and interested readers a state-of-the-art overview of consumption the desire for, purchase, use, display, exchange, and disposal of goods and services. The book’s global focus, emphasis on social inequality, and analysis of consumer citizenship offer a timely, exciting, and original approach to the topic. Looking beyond the U.S. and Europe, Stillerman engages examples from his and others’ research in Chile and other Latin American countries, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and East and South Asia to explore the interaction between global and local forces in consumption. The text explores the lived experience of being a consumer, demonstrating how social inequalities based on class, gender, sexuality, race, and age shape consumer practices and identities. Finally, the book uncovers the important role consumption has played in fueling local and international activism. This welcome new book will be ideal for classes on consumer culture across the social sciences, humanities, and marketing.
Download or read book Consuming Cultures written by Jeff Hearn and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 1999-04-14 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stressing the variety of ways in which consumption is structured and organised through cultures and showing how these cultural technologies construct the person, the senses and the self, this book stands at the interface of the sociologies of culture and consumption. Arranged in two sections: Homes and Households, Places and Spaces; and Technologies of Consumption and Waste, the book includes chapters on youth consumption, cultures of the household, pornography, and waste and rubbish. This will be of interest to all those concerned with the study of culture and consumption whether from sociological, cultural or psychological perspectives.
Download or read book Self Social Structure and Beliefs written by Jeffrey C. Alexander and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004-09-20 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an exploration of the creative work done by leading sociologists who were inspired by the scholarship of Neil Smelser.
Download or read book Culture and Consumption written by Grant David McCracken and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1990-11-22 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book compiles and integrates highly innovative work aimed at bridging the fields of anthropology and consumer behavior." —Journal of Consumer Affairs " . . . fascinating . . . ambitious and interesting . . . " —Canadian Advertising Foundation Newsletter " . . . an anthropological dig into consumerism brimming with original thought . . . " —The Globe and Mail "Grant McCracken has written a provocative book that puts consumerism in its place in Western society—at the centre." —Report on Business Magazine " . . . a stimulating addition to knowledge and theory about the interrelationship of culture and consumption." —Choice "[McCracken's] synthesis of anthropological and consumer studies material will give historians new ideas and methods to integrate into their thinking." —Maryland Historian "The book offers a fresh and much needed cultural interpretation of consumption." —Journal of Consumer Policy "The volume will help balance the prevailing cognitive and social psychological cast of consumer research and should stimulate more comprehensive investigation into consumer behavior." —Journal of Marketing Research " . . . broad scope, enthusiasm and imagination . . . a significant contribution to the literature on consumption history, consumer behavior, and American material culture." —Winterhur Portfolio "For this is a superb book, a definitive exploration of its subject that makes use of the full range of available literature." —American Journal of Sociology "McCracken's book is a fine synthesis of a new current of thought that strives to create an interdisciplinary social science of consumption behaviors, a current to which folklorists have much to contribute." —Journal of American Folklore This provocative book takes a refreshing new view of the culture of consumption. McCracken examines the interplay of culture and consumer behavior from the anthropologist's point of view and provides new insights into the way we view ourselves and our society.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Consumption written by Dr. Frederick F. Wherry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-09 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Consumption consolidates the most innovative recent work conducted by social scientists in the field of consumption studies and identifies some of the most fruitful lines of inquiry for future research. It begins by embedding marketing in its global history, enmeshed in various political, economic, and social sites. From this embedded perspective, the book branches out to examine the rise of consumer culture theory among consumer researchers and parallel innovative developments in sociology and anthropology, with scholarship analyzing the roles that identity, social networks, organizational dynamics, institutions, market devices, materiality, and cultural meanings play across a wide variety of applications, including, but not limited to, brands and branding, the sharing economy, tastes and preferences, credit and credit scoring, consumer surveillance, race and ethnicity, status, family life, well-being, environmental sustainability, social movements, and social inequality. The volume is unique in the attention it gives to consumer research on inequality and the focus it has on consumer credit scores and consumer behaviors that shape life chances. The volume includes essays by many of the key researchers in the field, some of whom have only recently, if at all, crossed the disciplinary lines that this volume has enabled. The contributors have tried to address several key questions: What motivates consumption and what does it mean to be a consumer? What social, technical, and cultural systems integrate and give character to contemporary consumption? What actors, institutions, and understandings organize and govern consumption? And what are the social uses and effects of consumption?
Download or read book Consumption and Everyday Life written by Mark Paterson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging book introduces key ideas and theorists of consumption in an accessible way. Case studies that describe familiar acts of consumption from areas of everyday life are used to ground relevant debates and ideas.
Download or read book The Sociology of Consumption written by Peter Corrigan and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1997-09-28 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lucid introduction to the sociology of consumerism examines the relationship between production and consumption in late capitalist societies. The historical and theoretical discussion provides the student with the tools to examine key themes in the sociology of consumption. After a detailed historical overview of the advent of consumer society, Peter Corrigan examines theoretical accounts of consumption and consumer practice, including: Veblen and conspicuous consumption; Mary Douglas on the world of goods; Jean Baudrillard on the system of objects; and Pierre Bourdieu on cultural capital. This historical and theoretical discussion provides the student with the tools to examine key themes in the socio
Download or read book Consumer Culture and Modernity written by Don Slater and published by Polity. This book was released on 1999-02-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the issues, concepts and theories through which people have tried to understand consumer culture throughout the modern period, and puts the current state of thinking into a broader context. Thematically organized, the book shows how the central aspects of consumer culture - such as needs, choice, identity, status, alienation, objects, culture - have been debated within modern theories, from those of earlier thinkers such as Marx and Simmel to contemporary forms of post-structuralism and postmodernism. This approach introduces consumer culture as a subject which - far from being of narrow or recent interest - is intimately tied to the central issues of modern times and modern social thought. With its reviews of major theorists set within a full account of the development of the subject, this book should be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the many disciplines which now study consumer culture, including communications and cultural studies, anthropology and history.
Download or read book Expressing America written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 1995-02-09 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The explosive growth of consumer credit, as well as the shift from cash to "plastic" in societies throughout the world signals a transformation in social relations, which is the focus of this book. For student readers who know the world of credit cards all too well, this is a great way to interest and educate them on the power of thinking sociologically.
Download or read book Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory written by Kenneth Allan and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised for its conversational tone, personal examples, and helpful pedagogical tools, the Fourth Edition of Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World is organized around the modern ideas of progress, knowledge, and democracy. With this historical thread woven throughout the chapters, the book examines the works and intellectual contributions of major classical theorists, including Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Martineau, Gilman, Douglass, Du Bois, Parsons, and the Frankfurt School. Kenneth Allan and new co-author Sarah Daynes focus on the specific views of each theorist, rather than schools of thought, and highlight modernity and postmodernity to help contemporary readers understand how classical sociological theory applies to their lives.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste written by Carl A. Zimring and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2012-02-27 with total page 1225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeologists and anthropologists have long studied artifacts of refuse from the distant past as a portal into ancient civilizations, but examining what we throw away today tells a story in real time and becomes an important and useful tool for academic study. Trash is studied by behavioral scientists who use data compiled from the exploration of dumpsters to better understand our modern society and culture. Why does the average American household send 470 pounds of uneaten food to the garbage can on an annual basis? How do different societies around the world cope with their garbage in these troubled environmental times? How does our trash give insight into our attitudes about gender, class, religion, and art? The Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste explores the topic across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and ranges further to include business, consumerism, environmentalism, and marketing to comprise an outstanding reference for academic and public libraries.
Download or read book The McDonaldization Thesis written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1998-02-17 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this major new book, the author of the bestselling McDonaldization of Society provides an exploration of one of the most innovative and imaginative sociological theses of the last decade of the twentieth century - `McDonaldization'. Part One centres on a discussion of Karl Mannheim's theory of rationalization. The author also assesses the degree to which sociology in general and sociological theory in particular have been `McDonaldized'. The second part demonstrates the empirical reach of the `McDonaldization' process with discussions on work, credit and globalization. Part Three moves beyond `McDonaldization' to the worlds of `new means of consumption' and the postmodern perspectives that best illuminate them. The author
Download or read book The Consumer Society written by Jean Baudrillard and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jean Baudrillard′s classic text was one of the first to focus on the process and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture. Originally published in 1970, the book makes a vital contribution to current debates on consumption. The book includes Baudrillard′s most organized discussion of mass media culture, the meaning of leisure, and anomie in affluent society. A chapter on the body demonstrates Baudrillard′s extraordinary prescience for flagging vital subjects in contemporary culture long before others. This English translation begins with a new introductory essay.
