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
Clothing and Fashion
Clothing and Fashion
Richard Sennett (1978 [1976]) understands clothing as an important means of indicating social standing, but notes that what is expressed has changed over time. In eighteenth-century London and Paris it was easy to tell social status from street clothes because these were very highly codified and deliberately indicated the public status of an individual, for example their occupation. The individual as expressive personality was confined between the walls of the home, while only social masks stalked the city streets. But industrialization and the rise of bourgeois culture brought with them the new individual, and so instead of clothing indicating the public character of the wearer it began to be interpreted as indicating the personal characteristics of its carrier. As a ...
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