Consumer Culture

Price: $24.95

Subtitle: Second Edition
Author: Celia Lury
Subject: American Studies, Film and Media Studies
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-5067-1
Pages: 244 pages
Publication Date: April 2011

Praise for Consurmer Culture

"In a now vast literature Celia Lury's new edition stands out for its clarity and critical intelligence. In addition to offering a guide through the thicket of new and old approaches, this book provides readers with a map to explore how consumption shapes personal and group identities."—Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck College

Description:

The second edition of Consumer Culture explores the nature and role of consumption in modern societies. Celia Lury's up-to-date revision of this successful classic establishes the importance of new object-based studies for consumer culture, and incorporates new chapters on branding and the rise of ethical consumption.

Drawing on a wide range of studies, and using contemporary illustrations from the media and popular culture, Lury examines the emergence of consumer culture and the changing relations between the production and consumption of cultural goods. She argues that consumer culture has become increasingly stylized and now provides an important context for everyday creativity.

This new edition of Consumer Culture explores the way in which the position of individuals within social groups and their position in social groups structured by class, gender, race, and age affects the nature of their participation in consumer culture. The powerful role consumption plays in our lives is revealed and consumer culture is seen to provide new ways of creating social and political identities.

CELIA LURY is a professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.