Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) [Paperback]

Mike Featherstone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0803984154 | ISBN-13: 978-0803984158 | Publication Date: January 1, 1991 | Edition: 1st

Implicit within claims that society itself is in some sense postmodern is an argument about the priority of consumption as a determinant of everyday life. In this view, mass media advertising and market dynamics lead to a constant search for new fashions, new styles, new sensations and experiences. Material goods are consumed as `communicators'; they are valued as signifiers of taste and of lifestyle. This volume examines the viability of this portrait of contemporary society. Mike Featherstone explores the roots of consumer culture, how it is defined and differentiated and the extent to which it represents the arrival of a `postmodern' world. He examines the theories of consumption and postmodernism among contemporary social theorists such

Editorial Reviews

Review

`No contemporary sociological theorist works the critical theory, consumer culture, postmodern terrain better than Mike Featherstone. This work gathers together Featherstone's seminal and widely regarded statements on consumer and popular culture, postmodern lifestyles, global diversity and the politics of contemporary experience. This work gives us the first sociology of the postmodern period. Others have talked of the postmodern, Featherstone shows how it works' - Norman K Denzin

'One must congratulate the publishers for their decision to bring together under one cover the seminal studies of one of the central and most influential participants of the on-going postmodernist debate. All readers will benefit from this decision: the 'absolute beginners' - as yet uninitiated in the intricacies of the debate who step gingerly into this minefield of subversive and iconoclastic ideas - will be grateful for the unmatched comprehensiveness and lucidity of Featherstone's survey of the history and current state of the discourse; those who have already fought their way through the essential literature who will still gain enormously from the wealth of profound and original insights and the elegance of theoretical synthesis; and the numberless 'ordinary' readers, simply wanting to know more about the world they live in will find in this book a rich and precise portrait of their daily lives and a sympathetic account of the joys and sorrows of the contemporary consumer. This book is a significant step towards popularization of intrinsically difficult yet culturally central subject matter and toward raising the debate from its intuitive and confusing stage to the level of systematic theory.' - Zygmunt Bauman

'The unmatched comprehensiveness and lucidity of Featherstone's survey.... the wealth of profound and original insights and the elegance of theoretical synthesis.... This book is a significant step towards popularization of intrinsically difficult yet culturally central subject matter and toward raising the debate from its intuitive and confusing stage to the level of systematic theory' - Zygmunt Bauman

`The author reveals a striong grounding in sociological theory and research, leading to some penetrating insights about contemporary consumer life. Uncovering the sociocultural significance of these particular cultural developments is Featherstone's chief concern and he does an admirable job...a worthy addition to the growing body of scholarship focused on consumer culture in the postmodern world - Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd; 1st edition (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803984154
• ISBN-13: 978-0803984158
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,214,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revised edition is helpful, May 31, 2008

By 

Erkan Saka "sakaerka" (istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) (Paperback)

For the last edition, Prof. Featherstone added a new preface and a new last chapter. These new additions are quite strong and make the book updated for current debates. One will not find fancy theoretical concepts to focus on but the author emphatically points out a sociological understanding of postmodernism. In that sense, it works. The reader is urged to think about the sociological validity of postmodern theories. Since most of the chapters were written at least 15 years ago, the literature seems to be old but the discussion is still up to date and as i said in the beginning the author informs us about the recent literature on the field in his additions for the last edition...

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just because you're not an academic doesn't mean your dumb!, November 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) (Paperback)

Well written. Written by an academic but not necessarily only for academics. Worth the effort.

2 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Aimed at academics, not ordinary readers, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) (Paperback)

If you are looking for an moderately easy read to explain the changing behaviour of consumers in our post-modern society, you need to look elsewhere. This book is obviously aimed at academics and dedicates endless pages to highly theoretical babbling. I found it extremely difficult to extract anything that has practical application.