Consumption - Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences (Hardcover)

Ranging from the classic discussions of a century and more ago, to evidence for the diversity of consumption at the beginning of the 21st century, this set is a foundation for a rapidly growing area of contemporary academic study. The volumes reflect a major transformation in consumption studies. Gone are the simple debates as to whether consumption is in general a good or bad thing, and equally simple technical definitions. Instead these volumes demonstrate the maturity of its subject: that consumption is a foundation to most people's lives in most parts of the world. The contents are inter-disciplinary with approaches ranging from anthropology and media studies, to geography and business studies. Each discipline provides its own theories, perspectives and methodologies for studying this topic. These volumes are also concerned to make use of the rapid increase in studies of actual consumption across the globe so that many of the examples come from areas such as China, Japan, India and South America and break free of what had previously been debates almost exclusively concerned with Europe and the United States.