Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture [Paperback]

Grant David McCracken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2008

Self reinvention has become a preoccupation of contemporary culture. In the last decade, Hollywood made a 500-million-dollar bet on this idea with movies such as Multiplicity, Fight Club, eXistenZ, and Catch Me If You Can. Self reinvention marks the careers of Madonna, Ani DiFranco, Martha Stewart, and Robin Williams. The Nike ads of LeBron James, the experiments of New Age spirituality, the mores of contemporary teen culture, and the obsession with "extreme makeovers" are all examples of our culture's fixation with change. In a time marked by plenitude, transformation is one of the few things these parties have in common.

Although transformation is widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of our culture, we have almost no studies on what it is or how it works. Transformations offers the first comprehensive and systematic view. It is an ethnography of the contemporary world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A provocative, original, and thoughtful writer, someone who addresses topics that are central to our culture from a fresh vantage point, and someone who is willing to challenge orthodoxies—right, left, and center—which prevent theorists of other stripes from seeing what's in front of their eyes." —Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture

(Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture )

From the Publisher

"A provocative, original, and thoughtful writer, someone who addresses topics that are central to our culture from a fresh vantage point, and someone who is willing to challenge orthodoxies--right, left, and center--which prevent theorists of other stripes from seeing what's in front of their eyes." --Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (May 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253219574
• ISBN-13: 978-0253219572
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Grant McCracken holds a PhD from the University of Chicago in anthropology. Headgear to the contrary, he is not a Yankees fan. (Go Pirates.)

He has been Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, a senior lecturer, Harvard Business School, a visiting scholar, University of Cambridge and is now a research affiliate at C3 at MIT.

He has consulted for many companies, including the Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, IBM, IKEA, and Kimberly Clark. He has served on advisory boards for IBM and the Boston Beer Company.

This fall Grant will publish his latest book: Chief Culture Officer, with Basic Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking analysis of the cultural landscape, August 26, 2008

By 

Eric Nehrlich "generalist" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of Grant McCracken's blog, so I was eagerly anticipating his new book, which postulates that, as he titles his preface, "Entertainment is dead, long live Transformation". Instead of passively watching entertainment, people have become active consumers of the world around them, using ideas from all cultures to drive change within themselves. McCracken traces transformation possibilities throughout history, starting with tribal ritualistic transformations of rites of passage, passing through the industrial conception of working to improve one's social status by imitating the upper class, on to the 50s warring transformations of beatnik dropout culture vs. technophilic "brightwork" culture, and then to the postmodern transformations available to us today. We have moved from a world where one's birth determined one's destiny (sons of tailors became tailors) to one where we reinvent ourselves on an ongoing basis. McCracken takes the reader on a tour of several categories of postmodern transformations, including the capitalistic swift self and the Eastern-philosophy leaning radiant self. I highly recommend this book - it's so dense with new ideas and incisive observations that every few pages I would have to put it down and think for a while.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read, but lacking a persuasive thesis, November 17, 2009

By 

Andrew D. Oram (Arlington, Mass., USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)

I can't be as enthusiastic as the three earlier reviewers. While
McCracken has insightful analyses of trends in the arts, and I picked
up some interesting observations that he makes along the way to his
main thesis, I don't find his big picture--the justification for
writing the book--that compelling. For every current example of
transformation he gives, I could find an example of somebody doing it
centuries ago, and McCracken gives minimal attention to such
historical parallels. If more of that kind of transformation is going
on now, perhaps it's because there are more people alive, or more
wealth and leisure, or more freedom in all things. Finally, while I
was impressed with his breadth of scope, I sometimes thought he drew
his view too broadly and forced a lot of things into his thesis that
are described better with other frameworks.

4.0 out of 5 stars Be someone else--but who? Maybe more than one "self", January 18, 2009

By 

Test Maven (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)

The author studies transformation as a contemporary phenomenon. This book is intended for academic audiences, but it's also a fun read.

If you remember "Dress for Success" or watch "What Not to Wear," this book will grab you and keep you turning pages!