Description
Book SynopsisProvides a comprehensive overview and analysis of what has come to be called the 'new politics of consumption'. This book offers an examination of anti-consumerism and explores what this means for the future of political debate. It explores anti-consumerism as cultural interpretation, lifestyle change, and collective action.
Trade Review"Highly recommended. Graduate students/faculty."
Choice "A fascinating exploration of what anti-consumerism (as cultural interpretation, lifestyle change, and collective action) means for the future of political debate, especially in the context of the recent economic crisis."
Long Range Planning
"Written in accessible if academic prose, Humphery's book explores this question in more complex and nuanced ways than is often the case in existing theoretical and populist reactions, which naively reject consumerism outright."
Green World
"[A] sophisticated analysis of consumerism."
The Australian
"There could hardly be a more timely issue - nor a more compelling study of the historical and political implications of the excess that may well be crushing the world as we knew it."
Charles Lemert, Wesleyan University
"Excess offers an insightful view of the many dimensions of consumption reformers must address—from the waste economy to environmental degradation, and from unhappiness at too much choice to the stress of too little money. Humphery dares us to hope that we can create a better vision of the good life without giving up our pleasures."
Sharon Zukin, Brooklyn College, and author of Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture
Table of ContentsPreface vii
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: Trouble in Consumer Paradise 1
1 The New Politics of Consumption 15
2 Anti-Consumerism in Action 49
3 Encountering Anti-Consumerism 81
4 Interpreting Material Life 110
5 Consuming Differently 153
Postscript: After the Boom, Beyond the West 178
Notes 184
Bibliography 230
Index 254
