Summary
Contents
Subject index
The question of consumption emerged as a major focus of research and scholarship in the 1990s but the breadth and diversity of consumer culture has not been fully enough explored. The meanings of consumption, particularly in relation to lifestyle and identity, are of great importance to academic areas including business studies, sociology, cultural and media studies, psychology, geography and politics. The SAGE Handbook of Consumer Culture is a one-stop resource for scholars and students of consumption, where the key dimensions of consumer culture are critically discussed and articulated. The editors have organised contributions from a global and interdisciplinary team of scholars into six key sections: Part 1: Sociology of Consumption Part 2: Geographies of Consumer Culture Part 3: Consumer Culture Studies in Marketing Part 4: Consumer Culture in Media and Cultural Studies Part 5: Material Cultures of Consumption Part 6: The Politics of Consumer Culture
Consumer-Citizens: Markets, Marketing and the Making of ‘Choice'
Consumer-Citizens: Markets, Marketing and the Making of ‘Choice'
Introduction: The Fetishism of Choice and the Secret Thereof
Arguably, large parts of Western social and political systems, and increasingly their counterparts in emerging economies, too, are being restructured around people's ‘right to choose’ and their choice-making capabilities. This observation makes it all the more surprising to note that there is relatively little philosophical and historical reflection on the concept of choice as such. Although the notion of choice is at the heart of empirical research in marketing, micro-economics and consumer psychology today, this literature often merely researches the content and structure of actual choices made by consumers. Normative investigations are then limited to questions of whether these choices ...
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