ABSTRACT

Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory contains original research essays written by the premier thought leaders of the discipline from around the world that reflect the maturation of the field Customer Culture Theory over the last decade. The volume seeks to help break down the silos that have arisen in disciplines seeking to understand consumer culture, and speed both the diffusion of ideas and possibility of collaboration across frontiers.

Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory begins with a re-evaluation of some of the fundamental notions of consumer behaviour, such as self and other, branding and pricing, and individual vs. communal agency then continuing with a reconsideration of role configurations as they affect consumption, examining in particular the ramifications of familial, gender, ethnic and national aspects of consumers’ lived experiences. The book move on to a reappraisal of the state of the field, examining the rhetoric of inquiry, the reflexive history and critique of the discipline, the prospect of redirecting the effort of inquiry to practical and humanitarian ends, the neglected wellsprings of our intellectual heritage, and the ideological underpinnings of the evolving construction of the concept of the brand.

Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory is a reflective assessment, in theoretical, empirical and evocative keys, of the state of the field of consumer culture theory and an indication of the scholarly directions in which the discipline is evolving providing reflection upon a rapidly expanding discipline and altered consumption-scapes by some of its prime movers.

part I|81 pages

Rethinking Fundamental Notions

chapter 3|17 pages

Market Value of Diversity and Ethnicity

A Cultural Analysis of African American Media Consumption and Representation

chapter 4|9 pages

Consuming the Idea of the Brand

chapter 5|25 pages

Is the Price Right?

Moral and Cultural Frames for Understanding Pricing Systems

part II|88 pages

Revisiting Role Configurations

chapter 6|20 pages

The Conceit of the Gift

Exploring the Gift Circuits of Registry 1

chapter 7|23 pages

Consumption on the Feminist Agenda

chapter 9|21 pages

Reinvigorating the Sherlock Myth

Elementary Gender Bending

part III|110 pages

Reassessing the Field

chapter 10|20 pages

Begin as You Mean to Go On

Reflections on the Rhetoric of Research

chapter 11|20 pages

The Consumer Culture Theory Movement

Critique and Renewal

chapter 12|10 pages

Consumer Culture Strategy

chapter 13|26 pages

Redressing an Alleged Lacuna

Scholarly Models for an Engaged Ethnology of Consumer Culture

chapter 14|32 pages

Brand Doings in a Performative Perspective

An Analysis of Conceptual Brand Discourses

part IV|13 pages

Poetry

chapter 15|1 pages

Leakage

chapter 16|2 pages

Digital Self

chapter 17|1 pages

Guesswork

chapter 18|1 pages

Schooling

chapter 19|1 pages

4play

chapter 21|1 pages

Self(IE) Analysis

part V|10 pages

Conclusion

chapter 23|8 pages

Distilling Insights to Mobilize Responses

Anticipating Trajectories of Research and Intervention