Synopses & Reviews
This volume casts a critical eye on representations and practices of consumption in the Western world. It offers a unique contemporary perspective on the themes of counter-consumerism, ecological crisis and sustainability that are rising fast on the political and cultural agenda.
About the Author
KATE SOPER is Professor of Philosophy at London Metropolitan University, UK. She is well known for her work on the philosophy of nature and as a theorist of need and consumption, and has recently been a lead researcher in the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption Programme. She is co-editor (with Frank Trentmann) of
Citizenship and Consumption.
MARTIN RYLE is Reader in the Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex, UK, where he teaches literature and cultural studies. He has published and edited books and articles on a wide range of nineteenth and twentieth-century writing.
LYN THOMAS is Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of European Transformations, London Metropolitan University, UK. She is the author of Annie Ernaux: An Introduction to the Writer and her Audience, Fans, Feminisms and Quality Media and Annie Ernaux, la premire personne.
Table of Contents
Introduction Kate Soper
PART I: Texts and representations
Representing Consumers--R. Sassatelli
The Past, the Future and the Golden Age--M. Ryle
Ecochic: Contemporary Lifestyle Magazines--L. Thomas
Mediated Culture and Exemptionalism--S. Blanchard
PART II: Value, hedonism, critique
The BohemianHabitus--S. Binkley
Sustainable Hedonism--M. de Geus
Green Pleasures-- R. Kerridge
PART III: Everyday consumption
Happiness and the Consumption of Mobility--J. Solomon
Gendering Anti-Consumerism--J. Littler
Growing Sustainable Consumption Communities--G.Seyfang
PART IV: Conclusion
Conclusion--M. Ryle, K. Soper and L. Thomas