Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book offers analysis of articulation of consumer culture and modernity in everyday lives of people in a transnational framework. It pursues three broad themes: lifestyle choices and construction of modern identities; fashion and advertising; and subaltern concerns and moral subjectivities. It juxtaposes empirical studies with theoretical traditions in addressing questions such as: How do people imagine modernity and identity in consumer culture? What does modernity or ‘being modern’ mean to people in different societies? Are modernity and tradition antithetical to or develop an interface with each other? The chapters in the book trace manifestations and trajectories of consumer culture and modernity as they connect to develop a sense of renewed identity.
Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee's Promise of a Better World
Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee's Promise of a Better World
Introduction: ‘You're Not Just Buying Coffee’
In the winter of 2006, I stood in a Starbucks coffeehouse in Santa Barbara, California, and held in my hand a package of Guatemala Antigua coffee. At that time, I was a graduate student enrolled in a seminar titled ‘Sociology of Knowledge’, for which I had just read Edward Said's classic text, Orientalism (Said, 1978). Looking at the package, and taking in the images and text that adorned it, I realized that I held a contemporary travel narrative, quite similar to those Said had deconstructed in his book. With an artistic rendering of a Guatemalan woman ...
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