Summary
Contents
Subject index
This lucid introduction to the sociology of consumerism examines the relationship between production and consumption in late capitalist societies. The historical and theoretical discussion provides the student with the tools to examine key themes in the sociology of consumption. After a detailed historical overview of the advent of consumer society, Peter Corrigan examines theoretical accounts of consumption and consumer practice, including: Veblen and conspicuous consumption; Mary Douglas on the world of goods; Jean Baudrillard on the system of objects; and Pierre Bourdieu on cultural capital. This historical and theoretical discussion provides the student with the tools to examine key themes in the socio
The Body
The Body
It is only relatively recently that the body has become a topic for sociology. Before the mid-1980s, most sociologists seemed to look right through the fleshly substantiality of the body and fix their interrogative gazes upon the shimmeringimmaterialities of the knowing, reflective, philosophical human subject. The latter phenomenon appeared to transcend such mundanities as birthing, mutilation, imprisonment, illness, the experiences of adolescents as their bodies seem to run out of control, bleeding, wearing 13-centimetre spiked heels, or having a facelift – the ‘real subject’ was somehow behind or beyond all these. Certainly, the sociology of vomiting practices still awaits its Marx, Weber and Durkheim. But why did sociology fail to face the flesh for so long? Writers such as Turner (1992) see ...
- Loading...