Consumption and Class Divisions and Change

An edited collection exploring divisions and changes within and between the spheres of consumption and production. Topics include: the relationship between consumption and production; the social construction of consumers; housing and social class mobility; health provision; the role of the 'service class'; and access to higher education. Peter Saunders' work provides the initial stimulus for many of the papers, but all go beyond his narrow conception of a sociology of consumption and his liberal analysis of patterns of social inequality.

List of Tables and Figures - Preface - Notes on the Contributors - Consumption, Class and Contemporary Sociology; R.Burrows & C.Marsh - Notes on the Relationship Between Production and Consumption; A.Warde - Constructing Consumers and Consumer Protection: The Case of the Life Insurance Industry in the United Kingdom; G.Morgan & D.Knights - Social Class, Consumption Divisions and Housing Mobility; M.Savage, P.Watt & S.Arber - Medicine and Markets: Power, Choice and the Consumption of Private Medical Care; J.Busfield - Principles and Practice: the Case of Private Health Insurance; M.Calnan & S.Cant - Managed Markets: Consumers and Producers in the National Health Service; R.Flynn - Patterns of Social Consciousness amongst the Middle Classes; R.Crompton - Thirtysomething and Contemporary Consumer Culture: Distinctiveness and Distinction; F.Bonner & P.Du Gay - Class Differences in Access to Higher Education; C.Marsh & R.M.Blackburn - Competing Views of Contemporary Social Mobility and Social Divisions; G.Payne - Index