ABSTRACT

Theories of Consumption explores the concept of consumption from the post-disciplinary perspective of cultural studies.

John Storey brings together work that up until now has been located in distinct disciplinary spaces including work on reception theory in literary studies and philosophy; work on consumer culture in sociology, anthropology and history; and work on media audiences (both ethnographic and theoretical) in media studies and sociology.

Moving beyond the usual analysis of consumer culture, Storey presents a critical assessment of a range of theoretical approaches to the study of consumption. In doing so, he provides an authoritative overview of a significant selection of research and analysis that has explored consumption as an object of study.

This book provides an ideal introduction to consumption for students of media and cultural studies and will also be useful for students within a number of other disciplines such as sociology, history, anthropology, cultural geography and both literary and visual studies.

chapter 1|18 pages

Why we consume

chapter 2|16 pages

Consumption as manipulation

chapter 3|12 pages

Consumption as social communication

chapter 4|16 pages

Consumption as production

chapter 5|14 pages

Media consumption

chapter 6|10 pages

Non-media-centric media consumption

chapter 7|16 pages

Consumption and identities

chapter 8|14 pages

Consumerism and consumer society

chapter 9|16 pages

Consumption and cultural studies