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The Future of Consumer Society by Maurie J. Cohen Pdf
Maurie J. Cohen shows how consumer society is changing due to demographic ageing, rising income inequality, political paralysis, resource scarcity, and steady jobs being replaced by freelancing. He examines how people are striving to find new ways to ensure livelihoods and the role that worker-consumer cooperatives could play.
It discusses the use of resources, pollution, and the distortions created in the economies of both wealthy industrialized nations and Third World countries.
The Consumer Society Reader by Juliet Schor,Douglas B. Holt Pdf
The Consumer Society Reader features a range of key works on the nature and evolution of consumer society. Included here is much-discussed work by leading critics such as Jean Baudrillard, Susan Bordo, Dick Hebdige, bell hooks, and Janice Radway. Also included is a full range of classics, such as Frankfurt School writers Adorno and Horkheimer on the Culture Industry; Thorstein Veblen's oft-cited writings on "conspicuous consumption"; Betty Friedan on the housewife's central role in consumer society; John Kenneth Galbraith's influential analysis of the "affluent society"; and Pierre Bourdieu on the notion of "taste." "Consumer society--the 'air we breathe,' as George Orwell has described it--disappears during economic downtruns and political crises. It becomes visible again when prosperity seems secure, cultural transformation is too rapid, or enviornmental disasters occur. Such is the time in which we now find ourselves. As the roads clog with gas-guzzling SUVs and McMansions proliferate in the suburbs, the nation is once again asking fundamental questions about lifestyle. Has 'luxury fever,' to use Robert Frank's phrase, gotten out of hand? Are we really comfortable with the 'Brand Is Me' mentality? Have we gone too far in pursuit of the almighty dollar, to the detriment of our families, communities, and natural enviornment? Even politicians, ordinarily impermeable to questions about consumerism, are voicing doubts... [and] polls suggest majorities of Americans feel the country has become too materialistic, too focused on getting and spending, and increasingly removed from long-standing non-materialist values." —From the introduction by Douglas B. Holt and Juliet B. Schor
"Early in the age of affluence that began after World War II, retailing analyst Victor Lebow declared: "Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption...We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate." Americans have risen to Mr. Lebow's call, and much of the world has followed." "The wildfire advance of the consumer lifestyle around the globe marks the most rapid and fundamental change in day-to-day existence the human species has ever experienced. Over a few short generations, we in the affluent fifth of humanity have become car drivers, television watchers, mall shoppers, and throwaway buyers." "The tragic irony is that while the consumer society has been stunningly effective in harming the environment, it has failed to provide us with a sense of fulfillment. Consumerism has hoodwinked us into gorging on material things because we suffer from social, psychological, and spiritual hungers." "Yet the opposite extreme--poverty--may be even worse for the human spirit and devastates the environment too, as hungry peasants put forests to the torch and steep slopes to the plow." "If the Earth suffers when people have either too little or too much, the questions arise: How much is enough? What level of consumption can the planet support? When do more things cease to add appreciably to human life?" "These are the issues that Alan Thein Durning tackles in his eloquent and thought-provoking How Much Is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth. How Much Is Enough? is the second book in the Worldwatch Institute's new Environmental Alert Series." "Ultimately, Durning argues, the linked fates of humanity and the natural realm depend on us, the consumers. We can curtail our use of ecologically destructive things and cultivate the deeper, nonmaterial sources of fulfillment that bring happiness: family and social relationships, meaningful work, and leisure." "Or we can abrogate our responsibilities and allow our lifestyle to destroy the Earth."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Constructing the New Consumer Society by John Holmwood,Hilary Radner,Gerhard Schulze,Pekka Sulkunen Pdf
This book argues that the coming of the 'a new consumerism' in the affluent societies marks a distinct phase of modernity. Limits of production no longer confine consumption to what is necessary or instrumental. Demands for increasing production no longer shape ideology and culture as they did previously. Important contemporary themes of morality, the body, citizenship and inequality are here placed in a new theoretical light. The book provides examples of new codes of happiness in consuming products, culture and entertainment. Issues of nutrition, consumer policy, environmental risk and health are discussed in the light of these new codes.
Consumer Society by Lorne Tepperman,Nicole Meredith Pdf
This ground-breaking book provides the clearest, most comprehensive examination of consumerism and consumer behaviour currently available. Taking an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach and drawing on insights from a wide range of fields, including sociology, psychology, market research, economics, history, and philosophy, the authors consider the origins, current state, and possible future of today's consumer society. Lucid, extensively researched, and carefully crafted, Consumer Society is an indispensable introduction to the fundamental concepts and issues that shape the world we live in. Key topics covered in Consumer Society include: The agents of socialization that introduce individuals to their roles in such a society-parents and other family members, the education system, and the media (including the art, science, and business of advertising) The growing power of brands in today's consumer society Social categories and the consumer behaviours associated with them, including wealthy people and low-income people; men and women; young people and seniors; immigrants and inhabitants of the Global South. Emerging issues in consumer behaviour and the sociology of consumerism, including bending and breaking the rules of the consumer society; buying as a means of social protest; and the future of the consumer society in the face of such challenges as growing inequality, climate change, and resource depletion. A variety of learning resources add value and perspective, including self-tests, lists of key terms, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.
The Consumer Society by Neva R. Goodwin,Frank Ackerman,David Kiron Pdf
The developed countries, particularly the United States, consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources, yet high and rising levels of consumption do not necessarily lead to greater satisfaction, security, or well-being, even for affluent consumers.The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental, moral, and social implications of a consumer society and consumer lifestyles. Each section consists of ten to twelve summaries of critical writings in a specific area, with an introductory essay that outlines the state of knowledge in that area and indicates where further research is needed. Sections cover: Scope and Definition Consumption in the Affluent Society Family, Gender, and Socialization The History of Consumerism Foundations of Economic Theories of Consumption Critiques and Alternatives in Economic Theory Perpetuating Consumer Culture: Media, Advertising, and Wants Creation Consumption and the Environment Globalization and Consumer Culture Visions of an Alternative This book is the second volume in the Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series, which provides surveys of the most significant writings in emergent areas of economics -- an invaluable aid in fast-growing fields where genuine new ground is being broken. The series brings together economists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers to develop analyses that challenge and enrich the dominant neoclassical paradigm.The Consumer Society is an essential guide to and summary of the literature of consumption and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the deeper economic, social, and ethical implications of consumerism.
New Perspectives on Critical Marketing and Consumer Society by Elaine L Ritch,Julie McColl Pdf
Digital communication has altered the flow of global information,evolved consumer values and changed consumption practices worldwide.New Perspectives on Critical Marketing and Consumer Society provides an illuminating, challenging and thought-provoking guide for all upper-level students of marketing,branding and consumer behaviour.
Innovation in an Advanced Consumer Society by Peder Inge Furseth,Richard Cuthbertson Pdf
This book aims to develop innovation theory by focusing on innovation in a consumer society. In an advanced consumer society, services dominate and are provided through digital as well as physical channels by local, national and global firms. This book aims to identify the ways in which value can be increased for all stakeholders through both incremental and disruptive innovation. When interacting with leading businesses, there is a common acceptance that we need a better understanding of how to innovate in a service economy. Today, most advanced economies are service and knowledge based, accounting for about 70 percent of GDP. OECD reports document a considerable knowledge gap related to service innovation. It is a challenge for both business and society that future economic growth will increasingly be based on services rather than manufacturing and products. Failing to understand innovation issues in this context as an engine for growth is somewhat alarming. This raises the question: do we know how to innovate successfully in a consumer driven society? In this book, the authors develop the concept of Value Driven Service Innovation, alongside a methodology for applying this approach in practice: the Service Innovation Triangle. They develop a better understanding of innovation, based on the uniqueness of services in order to develop the theory of service innovation suitable for a consumer society.
Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society by Ted Trainer Pdf
It is widely assumed that our consumer society can move from using fossil fuels to using renewable energy sources while maintaining the high levels of energy use to which we have become accustomed. This book details the reasons why this almost unquestioned assumption is seriously mistaken. It challenges fundamental assumptions and stimulates the discussion about our common future in a way that will be of interest to professionals and lay-readers alike.
Decoding Modern Consumer Societies by H. Berghoff,U. Spiekermann Pdf
Drawing on a wide range of studies of Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa, the contributions gathered here consider how political history, business history, the history of science, cultural history, gender history, intellectual history, anthropology, and even environmental history can help us decode modern consumer societies.
Consumer Society in American History by Lawrence B. Glickman Pdf
This volume offers the most comprehensive and incisive exploration of American consumer history to date, spanning the four centuries from the colonial era to the present.
Social Change and the Coming of Post-consumer Society by Maurie J Cohen,Halina Szejnwald Brown,Philip J Vergragt Pdf
Consumer society is an unquestionably complex social construct. However, after decades of unremitting dominance there are signs emerging that it is starting to falter, both as a coherent and durable system of social organization and as a strategy for societal advancement. Debates concerning how we can transition beyond present energy- and materials-intensive consumer society are beginning to gain greater salience. Social Change and the Coming of Post-Consumer Society aims to develop more complete appreciation of the relevant processes of social change and to identify effective interventions that could enable a transition to supersede consumer society. Bringing together leading interdisciplinary experts on social change, the book identifies and analyzes several ongoing small- and modest-scale social experiments. Possibilities for macro-scale change from the interlinked perspectives of culture, economics, finance, and governance are then explored. These contributions expose the systemic problems that are emblematic of the current condition of consumer society, specifically the unsustainability of prevailing consumption practices and lifestyles and the persistence of inequalities. These observations are summarized and extended in the final chapter of the book. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainable consumption, sustainability transitions, environmental sociology, and sustainable development.
The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society by Arjen Y. Hoekstra Pdf
Water is not only used in the domestic context, but also in agriculture and industry in the production of commercial goods, from food to paper. The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater use that looks at both direct and indirect use of water by a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book shows how the water footprint concept can be used to quantify and map the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. With a number of case studies, it illustrates water use along supply chains and that water consumption at one place is often linked to water use at another. For example, it is calculated that it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef, or 8,000 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans. The book shows that imports of water-intensive products can highly benefit water-scarce countries, but also that this creates a dependency on foreign water resources. The book demonstrates how water-scarce regions sometimes, nevertheless, use lots of water for making export products. It raises the issue of sustainable consumption: how can consumers, businesses and governments get involved in reducing the water footprints of final consumer goods?
The Production of Consumer Society by Ernst Mohr Pdf
With a novel quality theory of consumption which treats opulence and self-restraint in consumption styles symmetrically, Ernst Mohr shows how social distance and proximity are communicated by consumption and produced by communication. He positions fringe styles with those of the mainstream in an overall stylistic system of society and analyses their encounters. Rigorously derived, the approach casts fresh light on the cultural and social evolution as well as the business models of the consumer industry. It provides a coherent interdisciplinary access to the aesthetic turn of society that has so far been treated with contradictory paradigms.
