Summary
Contents
Subject index
Exploring the expression of taste through the processes of consumption this book provides an incisive and accessible evaluation of the current theories of consumption, and trends in the representation and purchase of food. Alan Warde outlines various theories of change in the twentieth century, and considers the parallels between their diagnoses of consumer behaviour and actual trends in food practices. He argues that dilemmas of modern practical life and certain imperatives of the culture of consumption make sense of food selection. He suggests that contemporary consumption is best viewed as a process of continual selection among an unprecedented range of generally accessible items which are made available both commerciall
Introduction
Introduction
This book arose from dismay about shifting fashions in sociology. A decade or more of analysis, founded in political economy and developing a materialist perspective on social life, seemed suddenly to be abandoned for a mode of studying culture which operated with wholly antithetical assumptions, according signs, discourses and mental constructs an exclusive role in understanding social activity. This shift entailed a radical change of substantive focus from the shop floor to the theme park, from labouring to shopping, from class to lifestyle, from resources to images, from practice to interpretation, from production to consumption. From this has emerged a large corpus of often interesting and suggestive work on consumption and consumer behaviour, a field previously dominated almost exclusively by practical concerns with marketing ...
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