Description
Book SynopsisTraces the growth of a middle class in Kathmandu as urban Nepalis harness the modern cultural resources of mass media and consumer goods to build modern identities and pioneer a new socio-cultural space in one of the world's 'least developed countries'.
Trade Review"This important and clearly written book should be read by anyone interested in understanding how people in the periphery of the capitalist world economy are experiencing the processes of globalization."--Susan Hangen, Journal of Asian Business "Liechty offers an inspiring cultural analysis of modern life in Nepal that is deeply rooted in history. He thereby connects this seemingly out-of-the-way place to the rest of the world. More generally, Suitably Modern provides a theoretically subtle depiction of middle-class cultural practice that promises to be read by a wide range of scholars interested in class and global capitalism for some time in the future."--Laura Kunreuther, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii PART I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1. Middle-Class Construction 3 Chapter 2. Modern Nepali History and the Rise of the Middle Class 39 PART II: CLASS AND CONSUMERISM Chapter 3. Middle-Class Consciousness:"Hanging between the High and the Low" 61 Chapter 4. Consumer Culture in Kathmandu:"Playing with Your Brain" 87 Chapter 5. "Doing Fashion" in Kathmandu: Class and the Consumer Public 117 PART III: MEDIA CONSUMPTION IN KATHMANDU Chapter 6. The Social Practice of Cinema and Video Viewing in Kathmandu 151 Chapter 7. Media Cultures: The Global in the Local 183 PART IV: YOUTH AND THE EXPERIENCE OF MODERNITY Chapter 8. Constructing the Modern Youth 209 Chapter 9. Modernity, Time, and Place: Youth Culture in Kathmandu 232 PART V: CONCLUSION Chapter 10. The Space of Class: Toward an Anthropology of Middle-Class Cultural Practice 249 Bibliography 267 Index 291
