Consumer Society
Critical Issues & Environmental Consequences
- Barry Smart - University of Portsmouth, UK
Has consumer culture got out of hand? Are the costs of universal access and pollution too great to bear?
This comprehensive, lively and informative book will quickly be recognized as a benchmark in the field. It brings together a huge set of resources for thinking about consumer culture and examining its origins and consequences within a global context.
Adept in handling a complex range of theories, Consumer Society scrupulously uses examples throughout to inform and enhance understanding. Smart writes with verve and feeling and has produced a book that simultaneously covers and enlarges our understanding of consumer culture.
Clear, engaging and original, this book will be important reading for all those interested in our global culture of consumption including students of sociology, social geography and cultural studies.
The cultural contradictions of modern capitalism have never been deeper or more dramatic. These contradictions are also confusing. While governments tell citizens to spend in order to save capitalism, economists tell us that western consumers spend too much and Chinese workers, too little. Barry Smart's engaging contribution offers clear insights into the economic mysteries of modern consumption and production, providing in tandem an historical sociology of the rise of America as a consumer society - this is a timely sociological guide to the perplexed
Bryan S. Turner
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Barry Smart's Consumer society is the best study I have seen of contemporary features of the current stage of capitalism organized around consumption and commodities. The book's range is broad and synoptic and its research is highly impressive. The text is engaging and accessible and should be of interest to a wide range of readers
Douglas Kellner
UCLA, author of Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy
It is a bit too enumerative in its approach, which makes it good for use in excerpts but less so as a whole book. The branding approaches are lacking in insight perspectives or acknowledgement of newer (critical and theoretical) discussions.
Very good resource for beginners and advanced students alike. Definitely an essential resource for my future courses in this field of studies.
Great text to compliment diverse reading list. Unique perspective with good theoretical underpinning. Accessible for students and pitched at the right level. Good text.
Broad ranging and insightful. Clearly presented with a wide range of comparative material.
Stimulating and informative.
An excellent and interesting book but not directly relevant to the programme that we run. However, I would recommend it to those students who choose to focus on the environmental/sustainability issues within outdoor education.
Excellent resource for understanding consumer society. However has little in terms of focus to the health and social care discipline. I have recommended this for dissertation students that wish to discuss elements of consumer society.
Insightful and well argued text, suitable for level.
An excellent and timely addition to the literature on contemporary culture from an author who always hits the mark.
