Download or read book The Secret Life of Things written by Mark Blackwell and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection enriches and complicates the history of prose fiction between Richardson and Fielding at mid-century and Austen at the turn of the century by focusing on it-narratives, a once popular form largely forgotten by readers and critics alike. The volume also advances important work on eighteenth-century consumer culture and the theory of things. The essays that comprise The Secret Life of Things thus bring new texts, and new ways of thinking about familiar ones, to our notice. Those essays range from the role of it-narratives in period debates about copyright to their complex relationship with object-riddled sentimental fictions, from anti-semitism in Chrysal to jingoistic imperialism in The Adventures of a Rupee, from the it-narrative as a variety of whore's biography to a consideration of its contributions to an emergent middle-class ideology.
Download or read book The Secret Lives of Consumer Culture written by Jesse Isaac Berrett and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Secret Lives of Customers written by David S Duncan and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them? Customers can be a mystery. Despite the availability of more data than ever before, everyone, from the CEO to salespeople in the field, struggles to understand who their customers really are, what they want, why they lose them, and how to regain them. To crack the case, start thinking like a market detective. David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining story of Tazza, a fictional chain of cafes with declining sales and leaders urgently seeking to understand why. The vivid characters of Tazza’s market detective force come to their aha moment when they finally understand why their most loyal customers walked out the door—and how they can get them back. The core of the Tazza story is a simple, powerful idea that upends how most businesses view their customers. Customers have “jobs to be done.” They “hire” companies to solve a problem or fulfill a need and “fire” them when unhappy. Duncan’s fresh way of thinking about how to understand your customers’ secret lives provides an innovative path for solving whatever market mysteries you face.
Download or read book The Secret Life of Groceries written by Benjamin Lorr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A deeply curious and evenhanded report on our national appetites." --The New York Times In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store The miracle of the supermarket has never been more apparent. Like the doctors and nurses who care for the sick, suddenly the men and women who stock our shelves and operate our warehouses are understood as 'essential' workers, providing a quality of life we all too easily take for granted. But the sad truth is that the grocery industry has been failing these workers for decades. In this page-turning expose, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on the highly secretive grocery industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and sharp, often laugh-out-loud prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation, asking what does it take to run a supermarket? How does our food get on the shelves? And who suffers for our increasing demands for convenience and efficiency? In this journey: We learn the secrets of Trader Joe's success from Trader Joe himself Drive with truckers caught in a job they call "sharecropping on wheels" Break into industrial farms with activists to learn what it takes for a product to earn certification labels like "fair trade" and "free range" Follow entrepreneurs as they fight for shelf space, learning essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business Journey with migrants to examine shocking forced labor practices through their eyes The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the business, The Secret Life of Groceries is essential reading for those who want to understand our food system--delivering powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and compassionate insight into the lives that provide it.
Download or read book Consumer Culture written by Roberta Sassatelli and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2007-05-17 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Roberta Sassatelli has written a thorough and wide-ranging synthetic account of social scientific research on consumption which will set the standard for the second generation of textbooks on cultures of consumption. Consumer Culture is an appealing and lucid introduction to the major themes - historical and contemporary, theoretical and empirical - surrounding the growth, nature and consequences of consumer culture. It will be of professional interest as well as serving a student audience' - Alan Warde, University of Manchester Showing the cultural and institutional processes that have brought the notion of the 'consumer' to life, this book guides the reader on a comprehensive journey through the history of how we have come to understand ourselves as consumers in a consumer society and reveals the profound ambiguities and ambivalences inherent within. While rooted in sociology, Sassatelli draws on the traditions of history, anthropology, geography and economics to give: - A history of the rise of consumer culture around the world; - A richly illustrated analysis of theory from neo-classical economics, to critical theory, to theories of practice and ritual de-commoditization; and - A compelling discussion of the politics underlying our consumption practices. An exemplary introduction to the history and theory of consumer culture, this book provides nuanced answers to some of the most central questions of our time.
Download or read book The Secret Life of Money written by Tad Crawford and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Secret Life of Money leads readers on a fascinating journey to uncover the sources of our monetary desires and, by understanding why money has the power to obsess us, free ourselves from destructive patterns and discover riches of the soul. This wide-ranging treatment of how money secretly influences our lives includes chapters on the many forms of money, why money is so easily worshipped, why money sometimes feels more important than life, hoarding money, the source of riches, inheritance, and the stock market. Crawford, a teller of entertaining tales, gathers stories and myths from around the world that help us understand why money is so much more than the useful tool that we may think it to be. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.
Download or read book Consumer Culture written by Douglas Goodman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-11-17 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engrossing review of the development of global consumerism and its impact on sociological issues. The phrase "shop till you drop" has become as American as apple pie and the trend does not appear to be slowing. Consumer Culture begins with the history of the consumer culture, which reveals that our fascination with consuming shows not only the hidden significance of everyday items, such as sugar and fashionable clothing, but also reveals the uniqueness of our way of life. Consumer Culture also presents the views of economists and sociologists who see consumption as an expression of freedom. The book covers the social impact of consumption, examining such dubious milestones as physical attacks upon McDonald's and Starbucks, and best sellers that are critical of consumption. There is coverage of important research, such as whether consumers are making rational or impulsive choices and the effect of advertising on children.
Download or read book Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America written by Elizabeth Fraterrigo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Playboy was more than a magazine filled with pictures of nude women and advice on how to mix the perfect martini. Indeed, the magazine's vision of sexual liberation, high living, and "the good life" came to define mainstream images of postwar life. In exploring the history of America's most widely read and influential men's magazine, Elizabeth Fraterrigo hones in on the values, style, and gender formulations put forth in its pages and how they gained widespread currency in American culture. She shows that for Hugh Hefner, the "good life" meant the freedom to choose a lifestyle, and the one he promoted was the "playboy life," in which expensive goods and sexually available women were plentiful, obligations were few, and if one worked hard enough, one could enjoy abundant leisure and consumption. In support of this view, Playboy attacked early marriage, traditional gender arrangements, and sanctions against premarital sex, challenging the conservatism of family-centered postwar society. And despite the magazine's ups and downs, significant features of this "playboy life" have become engrained in American society.
Download or read book Consumer Culture Theory written by Eric J. Arnould and published by SAGE Publications Limited. This book was released on 2023-08-19 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *NOW FULLY UPDATED AND EXPANDED WITH SIX NEW CHAPTERS* Over the past forty years, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) has emerged as a distinctive field of study that synthesizes diverse subjects such as anthropology, cultural studies, marketing, political theory and sociology to provide new insights into consumers’ relationships to the marketplace and the influence of commercial action on culture. This book, edited by leading scholars in CCT, contains contributions by many of its leading researchers, and distills this interdisciplinary field into a concise accessible overview for students and early career researchers. It describes the key themes, concepts and theoretical areas of CCT; explains why they are useful in understanding consumption and marketplace phenomena; and shows how they can be applied to a wide range of research contexts. Drawing on real-world scenarios, reflective tasks and international case studies to help aid theoretical understanding and critical thinking, the text is designed to support a course in CCT, supplement related study, and guide undergraduate and postgraduate students in writing a CCT-related dissertation/thesis. It is the go-to text for anyone who is curious about, new to CCT, or looking for an integrative compendium of CCT research and its implications. Eric J. Arnould is Emeritus Professor of Marketing at the Aalto University Business School, Finland. Craig J. Thompson is the Churchill-Bascom Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. David Crockett is Professor of Marketing at the University of Illinois Chicago, USA. Michelle F. Weinberger is Associate Professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.
Download or read book Consumerism written by Steven Miles and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1998-08-31 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to the historical and theoretical foundations of consumerism. It then moves on to examine the experience of consumption in the areas of space and place, technology, fashion, `popular' music and sport. Throughout, the author brings a critical perspective to bear upon the subject, thus providing a reliable and stimulating guide to a complex and many-sided field.
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 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. Consumer Culture and Society offers an introduction to the study of consumerism and mass consumption from a sociological perspective. It 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 Shop til You Drop written by Arthur Asa Berger and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2004-11-26 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are Americans obsessed with shopping? Shop 'til You Drop is a lively look at our consumer culture and its role in our everyday lives and society. Is the United States different from other first-world nations in the amount of time we spend shopping or in our attitudes toward consumption? Are we one unified consumer culture or are several cultures operating and battling against one another? Arthur Asa Berger uncovers the answers to these and other questions, considering the sacred roots of consumer culture, the demographics of consumption, theories about competing cultures, and the semiotics of shopping. Accessibly written and entertaining, Shop 'til You Drop is ideal for courses in cultural studies, advertising, and American studies, as well as for anyone curious about our nation's drive to consume.
Download or read book Consumer Culture written by The New York Times Editorial Staff and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shopping is a pastime ingrained in American life, from the annual Black Friday sales to the rise in prominence of big-box stores such as Target and Walmart. But as customers have shifted to using online merchants such as Amazon, businesses have had to fight to reach consumers. This collection features articles that address trends in consumer culture, explaining the psychology behind what we buy and the significance of consumer habits to the larger economy. It also tells the story of individuals who are beginning to fight back, seeking to disrupt the powerful cycle of consumer capitalism. Media literacy questions and terms are included to further engage readers with reporting styles and techniques.
Download or read book How Consumer Culture Controls Our Kids written by Jennifer Hill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gripping book considers the history, techniques, and goals of child-targeted consumer campaigns and examines children's changing perceptions of what commodities they "need" to be valued and value themselves. In this critique of America's consumption-based society, author Jennifer Hill chronicles the impact of consumer culture on children—from the evolution of childhood play to a child's self-perception as a consumer to the consequences of this generation's repeated media exposure to violence. Hill proposes that corporations, eager to tap into a multibillion-dollar market, use the power of advertising and the media to mold children's thoughts and behaviors. The book features vignettes with teenagers explaining, in their own words, how advertising determines their needs, wants, and self-esteem. An in-depth analysis of this research reveals the influence of media on a young person's desire to conform, shows how broadcasted depictions of beauty distort the identities of children and teens, and uncovers corporate agendas for manipulating behavior in the younger generation. The work concludes with the position that corporations are shaping children to be efficient consumers but, in return, are harming their developing young minds and physical well-being.
Download or read book Consuming Life written by Zygmunt Bauman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-08 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Culture Secret written by David Vik and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is a great company culture so rare? How can you make sure your organization has one? The good news is that creating an inspiring and sustainable culture is not as hard as you might think. Dr. David “Doc” Vik reveals the keys to success in The Culture Secret. A remarkable culture begins with visionary leaders who help their teams take a holistic approach to creating engagement inside their companies and sharing it with customers. Discover how to take culture beyond casual Friday and into more meaningful conversations like: • Driving Vision • Defining Purpose • Clear business model • Unique/WOW factors • Meaningful Values • Inspired Leadership • Great customers and customer service • Brand enhancement • Experience and the emotional connection If you don’t think you have to focus on attracting—and retaining—the best employees in today’s hypercompetitive war for talent, you are living in the past. The employees and customers of today have a choice and a voice. The secret to culture is simple: take care of your people, never stop innovating, and leave customers wowed. Build a better culture to secure the future for any organization.
Download or read book The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters written by Nadiya Hussain and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2017-01-12 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Breezy, funny and winning’ Daily Mail ‘Packed with humour and warmth’ Heat 5* ‘A lovely story about family, faith and self-acceptance’Red magazine * * * * *
