Consumption and Everyday Life

"Consumption and everyday life" examines the range of active, creative and critical practices involved in contemporary consumption, and reviews key contemporary issues and debates. Through cases from different parts of the world the contributors: illustrate the rich and idiosyncratic nature of local consumption practices; show the varying balance between constraint and creativity; link consumption and production; delineate the patterns which shape access to symbolic and material resources; consider questions of place and identity such as the privatization of the home; explore the linking of local everyday practices with broader, global, processes. Particular attention is given to the media and new communication technologies as points of overlap and exchange between the local and the global, between domestic consumption and the public sphere. Published as a course text for the Open University course Culture, Media and Identities (D318).