3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking, January 12, 2001
This review is from: The Sociology of Consumption: An Introduction (Paperback)
This book provides an insightful introduction into the sociology of consumption. The introduction and the first 2 chapters examine consumption from a historical and theoretical standpoint. The remaining chapters could be stand-alone papers on the individual topics of department stores, advertising, women's magazines, the home, food and drink, tourism, the body, and clothing and fashion. For me, the most interesting chapters were the theoretical chapters, departments stores, and tourism because they really got me thinking about why people make the purchasing decisions that they do. The chapter on the body is rather philosophical and hard to relate to daily consumer decisions.
Corrigan's background is Australian and Irish. For this reason, his descriptions often read as if the world centered on England, France, and Australia, with small out-posts in the US and Austria. A more international perspective might have been more appropriate given our global economy. For instance, in chapter one, he relies heavily on the work of Grant McCracken to place the start of consumerism at the court of Elizabeth I because she required nobles to reside in London. I'm no expert on Japanese history, but didn't something similar happen in Japan? If McCracken's theory is correct, it would have been good to at least address why such a requirement didn't result in consumerism in Japan. Or did it?
The blurb on the back cover suggests that this might be used as a text for undergraduate sociology students. There is a good list of sources and an index, however, as a textbook, it would also be useful to include some discussion questions at the end of each chapter, as well as a glossary.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, May 14, 2010
This review is from: The Sociology of Consumption: An Introduction (Paperback)
I wish the description of the book had mentioned that it was heavily highlighted but there are no bent or torn pages and the overall quality of the book is good.
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