Consumption A Sociological Analysis

This book critically reviews recent social scientific investigations of consumption, a controversial topic with moral overtones, and of popular public interest and political and economic significance. The author explores how consumption affects personal identity and social position, developing a sociological analysis using theories of practice to account for everyday consumption, its role in the social order, and its consequences for environmental sustainability. The book offers a controversial analysis which explains consumption not in terms of the purchasing of commodities but of the organization and coordination of daily practices.

Consumption will be of interest to scholars and students of sociology, anthropology, geography, cultural studies, consumer research, business studies and social theory.

1. Introduction.- Part I: The Development of the Sociology of Consumption.- 2. Sociology and Consumption.- 3. The Development of the Sociology of Consumption.- Part II: Consumption and Practice.- 4. Consumption as Appropriation: On the use of ‘Consumption’ and Consumption as Use.- 5. Consumption and Theories of Practice.- Part III: Consumption, Taste and Power.- 6. Practice and Field: Revising Bourdieu’s Concepts.- 7. Re-assessing Cultural Capital.- Part IV: Consumption, Critique and Politics.- 8. Consumption and the critique of Society.- 9. Sustainable Consumption: Practices, Habits and Politics.- 10. Illusions of Sovereignty and Choice

Alan Warde is Professor of Sociology and Professorial Research Fellow in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include consumption, culture and food.