Consumer Culture and PostmodernismImplicit within claims that society itself is in some sense postmodern is an argument about the priority of consumption as a determinant of everyday life. In this view, mass media advertising and market dynamics lead to a constant search for new fashions, new styles, new sensations and experiences. Material goods are consumed as `communicators'; they are valued as signifiers of taste and of lifestyle. This volume examines the viability of this portrait of contemporary society. Mike Featherstone explores the roots of consumer culture, how it is defined and differentiated and the extent to which it represents the arrival of a `postmodern' world. He examines the theories of consumption and postmodernism among contemporary social theorists such |
Contents
Definitions and Interpretations | 1 |
Theories of Consumer Culture | 13 |
Towards a Sociology of Postmodern Culture | 28 |
Copyright | |
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academic aesthetic aestheticization of everyday argued artistic and intellectual audiences avant-garde Baudelaire Baudrillard Baudrillard 1983a become Bourdieu carnivalesque centres century changes cities common culture consumer culture consumption contemporary countercultures critics cultural capital cultural intermediaries cultural specialists cultural sphere Culture & Society de-control discussion disorder distinction economic effect Elias emergence emotional emphasis entails example experiences fashion field flâneur gentrification global groups Hence high culture images interdependencies interest Jameson knowledge late capitalism leisure lifestyle Lyotard Marxism mass culture meta-narratives Metrocentre middle class Mike Featherstone modern museums notion particular perspective petite bourgeoisie pleasures popular culture postmoder postmodern architecture postmodern culture practices question R.H. Williams range refer regarded relation religion rock music role sacred Scott Lash sense shift signs Simmel simulations social sociology specialists in symbolic structure style stylization symbol specialists symbolic hierarchies symbolic production taste television tendencies theory tion tradition urban wider