Consumers and Citizens

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Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816629879
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis Consumers and Citizens by : Néstor García Canclini

Download or read book Consumers and Citizens written by Néstor García Canclini and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nestor Garcia Canclini, the best-known and most innovative cultural studies scholar in Latin America, maps the critical effects of urban sprawl, global media, and commodity markets on citizens. The complex results mean not only a shrinkage of certain traditional rights (particularly those of the welfare or client state) but also indicate new openings for expanding citizenship.

The Consumer Citizen

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0197526780
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis The Consumer Citizen by : Ethan Porter

Download or read book The Consumer Citizen written by Ethan Porter and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Citizens are asked to buy, and asked to consider to buy, goods of all sizes and all prices, nearly all of the time. Appeals to political decision-making are less common. In The Consumer Citizen, Ethan Porter investigates how the techniques of everyday consumer experiences can shape political behavior. Drawing on more than a dozen original studies, he shows that the casual conflation of consumer and political decisions has profound implications for how Americans think about politics. Indeed, Porter explains that consumer habits can affect citizens' attitudes about their government, their taxes, their politicians, and even whether they purchase government-sponsored health insurance. The consumer citizen approaches government as if it were just an ordinary firm. Of course, government is not an ordinary firm---far from it---and the disjunction between what government is, and the consumer apparatus that citizens bring to bear on their evaluations of it, offers insight into several long-unanswered questions in political behavior and public opinion. How do many Americans make sense of the political world? The Consumer Citizen offers a novel answer: By relying on the habits and tools that they learn as consumers.

Creating Citizen-Consumers

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Publisher : Pine Forge Press
ISBN 13 : 144622547X
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (462 download)

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Book Synopsis Creating Citizen-Consumers by : John Clarke

Download or read book Creating Citizen-Consumers written by John Clarke and published by Pine Forge Press. This book was released on 2007-01-24 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: `This is an illuminating and topical study, which skilfully blends together theoretical and empirical analysis in search of the "citizen-consumer". It should become a key text for all with an interest in public service reform and the "choice" agenda, as well as consumerism and citizenship′ - Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy, University of Loughborough Political, popular and academic debates have swirled around the notion of the citizen as a consumer of public services, with public service reform increasingly geared towards a consumer society. This innovative book draws on original research with those people in the front-line of the reforms - staff, managers and users of public services - to explore their responses to this turn to consumerism. Creating Citizen-Consumers explores a range of theoretical, political, policy and practice issues that arise in the shift towards consumerism. It draws on recent controversies about choice to examine the tensions of modernising public services to meet the demands of a consumer society. The book offers a fresh and challenging understanding of the relationships between people and services, and argues for a model based on interdependence, respect and partnership rather than choice. This original book makes a distinctive contribution to debates about the future of public services. It will be of interest to those studying social policy, cultural studies, public administration and management across the social sciences, as well as for those working in public services. John Clarke is a Professor of Social Policy at the Open University. Janet Newman is a Professor of Social Policy at the Open University. Nick Smith is a Research Officer in the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent. Elizabeth Vidler is a Project Officer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. Louise Westmarland is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University.

Governance, Consumers and Citizens

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Author :
Publisher : Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Governance, Consumers and Citizens by : Mark Bevir

Download or read book Governance, Consumers and Citizens written by Mark Bevir and published by Palgrave MacMillan. This book was released on 2007-09-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to bring together a focus on governance with that on cultures of consumption. It asks about the changing place of the consumer as citizen in recent trends in governance, about the tensions between competing ideas and practices of consumerism, and about the active role of consumers in the construction of governance. The book seeks to expand the debate about consumers and governance and to raise the possibility of new conceptions and policy agendas.

A Consumers' Republic

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307555364
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis A Consumers' Republic by : Lizabeth Cohen

Download or read book A Consumers' Republic written by Lizabeth Cohen and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-24 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this signal work of history, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled our pervasive consumer mentality and transformed American life. Trumpeted as a means to promote the general welfare, mass consumption quickly outgrew its economic objectives and became synonymous with patriotism, social equality, and the American Dream. Material goods came to embody the promise of America, and the power of consumers to purchase everything from vacuum cleaners to convertibles gave rise to the power of citizens to purchase political influence and effect social change. Yet despite undeniable successes and unprecedented affluence, mass consumption also fostered economic inequality and the fracturing of society along gender, class, and racial lines. In charting the complex legacy of our “Consumers’ Republic” Lizabeth Cohen has written a bold, encompassing, and profoundly influential book.

Luxurious Citizens

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Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812293770
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis Luxurious Citizens by : Joanna Cohen

Download or read book Luxurious Citizens written by Joanna Cohen and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2017-01-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the Revolution, Americans abandoned the political economy of self-denial and sacrifice that had secured their independence. In its place, they created one that empowered the modern citizen-consumer. This profound transformation was the uncoordinated and self-serving work of merchants, manufacturers, advertisers, auctioneers, politicians, and consumers themselves, who collectively created the nation's modern consumer economy: one that encouraged individuals to indulge their desires for the sake of the public good and cast the freedom to consume as a triumph of democracy. In Luxurious Citizens, Joanna Cohen traces the remarkable ways in which Americans tied consumer desire to the national interest between the end of the Revolution and the Civil War. Illuminating the links between political culture, private wants, and imagined economies, Cohen offers a new understanding of the relationship between citizens and the nation-state in nineteenth-century America. By charting the contest over economic rights and obligations in the United States, Luxurious Citizens argues that while many less powerful Americans helped to create the citizen-consumer it was during the Civil War that the Union government made use of this figure, by placing the responsibility for the nation's economic strength and stability on the shoulders of the people. Union victory thus enshrined a new civic duty in American life, one founded on the freedom to buy as you pleased. Reinterpreting the history of the tariff, slavery, and the coming of the Civil War through an examination of everyday acts of consumption and commerce, Cohen reveals the important ways in which nineteenth-century Americans transformed their individual desires for goods into an index of civic worth and fixed unbridled consumption at the heart of modern America's political economy.

Communication, Consumers, and Citizens: Revisiting the Politics of Consumption

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Author :
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1452275688
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (522 download)

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Book Synopsis Communication, Consumers, and Citizens: Revisiting the Politics of Consumption by : Dhavan V. Shah

Download or read book Communication, Consumers, and Citizens: Revisiting the Politics of Consumption written by Dhavan V. Shah and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revisiting the Politics of Consumption (The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series

Consumer-Citizens of China

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136889353
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (368 download)

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Book Synopsis Consumer-Citizens of China by : Kelly Tian

Download or read book Consumer-Citizens of China written by Kelly Tian and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. This book presents a comprehensive examination of Chinese consumer behaviour and challenges the previously dichotomous interpretation of the consumption of Western and non-Western brands in China. The dominant position is that Chinese consumers are driven by a desire to imitate the lifestyles of Westerners and thereby advance their social standing locally. The alternative is that consumers reject Western brands as a symbolic gesture of loyalty to their nation-state. Drawing from survey responses and in depth interviews with Chinese consumers in both rural and urban areas, Kelly Tian and Lily Dong find that consumers situate Western brands within select historical moments. This embellishment attaches historical meanings to Western brands in ways that render them useful in asserting preferred visions of the future China. By highlighting how Western brands are used in contests for national identity, Consumer-Citizens of China challenges the notion of the "patriot’s paradox" and answers scholars’ questions as to whether Chinese nationalists today allow for a Sino-Western space where the Chinese can love China without hating the West. Consumer-Citizens of China will be of interest to students and scholars of business studies, Chinese and Asian Studies and Political Science. Kelly Tian is Professor of Marketing and holds the Anderson Chair of Business at New Mexico State University. Lily Dong is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Clients, Consumers or Citizens?

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Publisher : Policy Press
ISBN 13 : 1447355725
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (473 download)

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Book Synopsis Clients, Consumers or Citizens? by : Bob Hudson

Download or read book Clients, Consumers or Citizens? written by Bob Hudson and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adult social care was the first major social policy domain in England to be transferred from the state to the market. There is now a forty-year period to look back at to consider the thinking behind the strategy, the impacts on commissioners and providers of care, on the care workforce and on those who use care and support services. In this book, Bob Hudson meticulously charts these shifts. He challenges the dominant market paradigm, explores alternative models for a post-Covid-19 future and locates the debate within the wider literature on political thinking and policy change.

Citizens

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Publisher : Canbury Press
ISBN 13 : 1912454882
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (124 download)

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Book Synopsis Citizens by : Jon Alexander

Download or read book Citizens written by Jon Alexander and published by Canbury Press. This book was released on 2023-03-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MCKINSEY TOP 5 RECOMMENDED READ 'An underground hit' – Best Politics Books, Financial Times 'Jon has one of the few big ideas that's easily applied' – Sam Conniff, Be More Pirate 'A wonderful guide to how to be human in the 21st Century' – Ece Temelkuran, How to Lose a Country: the Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship Description Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive as individuals, organisations, and nations. Over the past decade, Jon Alexander’s consultancy, the New Citizenship Project, has helped revitalise some of Britain’s biggest organisations including the Co-op, the Guardian and the National Trust. Here, with the New York Times bestselling writer Ariane Conrad, he shows how history is about to enter age of the Citizen. Because when our institutions treat people as creative, empowered creatures rather than consumers, everything changes. Unleashing the power of everyone equips us to face the challenges of economic insecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and polarisation. Citizens is an upbeat handbook, full of insights, clear examples to follow, and inspiring case studies, from the slums of Kenya to the backstreets of Birmingham – and a foreword by Brian Eno. It is the perfect pick-me-up for leaders, founders, elected officials – and citizens everywhere. Organise and seize the future! Reviews 'Society is like an out of control house party – eating, drinking and consuming everything. Jon is the organiser of the campfire gathering behind the party. It’s calm and welcoming and you won’t want to leave. In Citizens, Jon and Ariane show how to leave the burning house of the Consumer Story and join the campfire that is the Citizen Story.' – Stephen Greene, CEO of RockCorps and founding Chair of National Citizen Service UK 'The belief that every single one of us has both the potential and the desire to make the world better drives me every day, in everything I do. In Citizens, Jon shows how taking that belief as a starting point really could transform our world. This is a truly powerful book, in every sense of the word.' - Josh Babarinde, Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur 'Every great transformation requires a new story. A story that reveals new possibilities and points toward an optimistic alternative to the current situation. Citizens presents just such a story.' – Tim Brown, Chair of IDEO and author of Change By Design 'The shift from consumer to citizen is a truly big idea. If you’re in a position of strategic influence, I strongly recommend you engage with this and consciously explore what it might mean for your organisation.' – Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Former Director General, National Trust, and Trustee, BBC 'There is such a thing as an idea whose time has come. This is that idea.' – James Perry, Board Member, B Lab Global, and Founding Partner, Snowball Investment Management About the Authors JON ALEXANDER began his career with success in advertising, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring consumerism and its alternatives from every angle. In 2014, he co-founded the New Citizenship Project to bring the resulting ideas into contact with reality. In Citizens, he is ready to share them with the world. ARIANE CONRAD has built a career turning big ideas into books that change the world. Known as the Book Doula, she has co-written several New York Times bestsellers. BRIAN ENO is an artist, philosopher and Citizen who has played a critical part in British culture since the early 1970s. He is a deep believer in the power of ideas and the possibility of a better world, beliefs which manifest both in his audio and visual art, and in his deep engagement with social, political and environmental issues. Buy the book to carry on reading

Media Regulation

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Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1446292002
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (462 download)

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Book Synopsis Media Regulation by : Peter Lunt

Download or read book Media Regulation written by Peter Lunt and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2011-11-28 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An exemplary study of how media regulation works (and, by implication, how it could work better) set within a wider discussion of democratic theory and political values. It will be of interest not only to students and scholars but to people around the world grappling with the same problem: the need to regulate markets, and the difficulty of doing this well." - James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London In Media Regulation, two leading scholars of the media examine the challenges of regulation in the global mediated sphere. This book explores the way that regulation affects the relations between government, the media and communications market, civil society, citizens and consumers. Drawing on theories of governance and the public sphere, the book critically analyzes issues at the heart of today′s media, from the saturation of advertising to burdens on individuals to control their own media literacy. Peter Lunt and Sonia Livingstone incisively lay bare shifts in governance and the new role of the public sphere which implicate self-regulation, the public interest, the role of civil society and the changing risks and opportunities for citizens and consumers. It is essential reading to understand the forces that are reshaping the media landscape.

Responsible Citizens and Sustainable Consumer Behavior

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135140007X
Total Pages : 113 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (514 download)

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Book Synopsis Responsible Citizens and Sustainable Consumer Behavior by : Pietro Lanzini

Download or read book Responsible Citizens and Sustainable Consumer Behavior written by Pietro Lanzini and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is broad consensus on the need to shift to a new paradigm of lifestyles and economic development, given the un-sustainability of current patterns. Given this, research on consumer behavior is to play a crucial role in shedding light on the motives underpinning the adoption of responsible behaviors. Stemming from a thorough discussion of existing approaches, this book argues that the perspective of analysis has to be modified. First, acknowledging that a profile of the responsible consumer does not exist since all of us can be more or less sustainable and environment-friendly: the sustainability of an individual should not be considered as given, being something dynamic that changes according to both subjective and contextual factors. Moreover, the book hypothesises that integrating dimensions and perspectives that have been so far overlooked by mainstream research will help deconstruct responsible behaviors adopting a flexible and holistic approach. Relevant policy implications are discussed, and empirical research on responsible behaviors is illustrated. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of consumer behavior, sustainable consumption, environmental psychology and environmental studies in general.

Housing Management, Consumers, and Citizens

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Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780415070669
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (76 download)

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Book Synopsis Housing Management, Consumers, and Citizens by : Liz Cairncross

Download or read book Housing Management, Consumers, and Citizens written by Liz Cairncross and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tenant participation has grown substantially over the last decade, following government legislation, advice from professional bodies and development agencies, and promotion by all major political parties. On few housing issues is there such concensus. Yet, in practice, it is obvious that participation can mean very different things in different contexts. This book explains why this is the case, and examines the growth of participation in the context of changes in the role of local authorities and their relationship with their electorates. These issues are examined in the first part of the book, which sets the context for exploring the roles of housing managers, councillors, tenants and tenant's associations in the second part. The book argues that the rise in arrangements for tenant participation masks considerable differences in the role played by tenants in different areas. These differences raise questions about the nature of power in the tenant-landlord relationship and more generally in the relationship between local government, citizens and consumers. These issues are examined in the final, third, part of the book.

EBOOK: Citizens or Consumers: What the Media Tell us about Political Participation

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Author :
Publisher : McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN 13 : 0335226248
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis EBOOK: Citizens or Consumers: What the Media Tell us about Political Participation by : Justin Lewis

Download or read book EBOOK: Citizens or Consumers: What the Media Tell us about Political Participation written by Justin Lewis and published by McGraw-Hill Education (UK). This book was released on 2005-09-16 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this superb account of how the British and American news mediarepresent everyday citizens and public opinion, the authors show howcoverage of politics and policy debates subtly - even inadvertently - urgepeople to see themselves as and thus to be politically passive,disengaged and cynical. The book's analysis of how journalistsmisrepresent, even invent, public opinion is alone worth the price ofadmission. Written with great verve, passion and unswerving clarity,Citizens or Consumers? promises to become an instant classic in the studyof the failings--and the still untapped promise--of the news media tofurther democracy." Susan J. Douglas, Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor and Chair,Department of Communication Studies, The University of Michigan "Based on an exhaustive cross-Atlantic empirical study, Citizens or Consumers? is an engaging and incisive contribution to a subject usually restricted to clichés and vague generalizations. Looking not only at how media impact upon their audiences, but the manner in which that influence is mediated by the way in which citizenship itself is represented in news stories, Lewis et. al. offer us unusual and keen insight into a familiar world. Written in an engaging and lively style, first year students and experienced faculty members (as well as general readers) will benefit from its many perceptive insights. Especially useful are the last few pages which suggest how journalists might alter their representation practices to invoke citizenship rather than passive consumerism." Sut JhallyProfessor of Communication, University of Massachusetts at AmherstFounder & Executive Director, Media Education Foundation "The two great duelists for our attention - citizens and consumers - are locked in a struggle for the future of democracy. Citizens or Consumers? offers its readers a sharp lesson in how the media highlight and distort that struggle. It's the kind of lesson we all need." Toby Miller, author of Cultural Citizenship. In recent years there has been much concern about the general decline in civic participation in both Britain and the United States - especially among young people. At the same time we have seen declining budgets for serious domestic and international news and current affairs amidst widespread accusations of a “dumbing down” in the coverage of public affairs. This book enters the debate by asking whether the news media have played a role in producing a passive citizenry. And, if so, what might be done about it? Based on the largest study of the media coverage of public opinion and citizenship in Britain and the United States, this book argues that while most of us learn about politics and public affairs from the news media, we rarely see or read about examples of an active, engaged citizenry. Key reading for students in media and cultural studies, politics and journalism studies.

Citizens Or Consumers?

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Author :
Publisher : Fernwood Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Citizens Or Consumers? by : Wayne Andrew Antony

Download or read book Citizens Or Consumers? written by Wayne Andrew Antony and published by Fernwood Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social policy is about citizens choosing the kind of society they want to live in. The mid-20th century Keynesian welfare state can be seen as a citizenship package which included acceptance of intervention by the state to maintain economic growth and social stability. This meant the inclusion of many previously excluded groups in the social policy process and the institutionalization of a collective responsibility for individual welfare. But, with the ascendancy of neo-liberalism, the politics of citizenship is being replaced by a notion of citizens as consumers, whose medium of social interaction and source of economic and social security is the capitalist market. This book is concerned with social welfare problems and the need for citizen participation in addressing those problems. While all of the authors are critical of the current neo-liberal orthodoxy, none advocates a return to the status quo ante of the post-Second World War welfare state.

Buying Power

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226298663
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Buying Power by : Lawrence B. Glickman

Download or read book Buying Power written by Lawrence B. Glickman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-06-10 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive history of consumer activism, Buying Power traces the lineage of this political tradition back to our nation’s founding, revealing that Americans used purchasing power to support causes and punish enemies long before the word boycott even entered our lexicon. Taking the Boston Tea Party as his starting point, Lawrence Glickman argues that the rejection of British imports by revolutionary patriots inaugurated a continuous series of consumer boycotts, campaigns for safe and ethical consumption, and efforts to make goods more broadly accessible. He explores abolitionist-led efforts to eschew slave-made goods, African American consumer campaigns against Jim Crow, a 1930s refusal of silk from fascist Japan, and emerging contemporary movements like slow food. Uncovering previously unknown episodes and analyzing famous events from a fresh perspective, Glickman illuminates moments when consumer activism intersected with political and civil rights movements. He also sheds new light on activists’ relationship with the consumer movement, which gave rise to lobbies like the National Consumers League and Consumers Union as well as ill-fated legislation to create a federal Consumer Protection Agency.

The Consumer Society Reader

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Author :
Publisher : The New Press
ISBN 13 : 1595587586
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (955 download)

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Book Synopsis The Consumer Society Reader by : Juliet Schor

Download or read book The Consumer Society Reader written by Juliet Schor and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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