anthropology consequences understanding international

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9 reviews
Kevin Patterson

Anchor, 2008

Careful What You Wish For
In almost whiplash fashion, Canada's Inuit people were yanked from the traditional lifestyle they had lived for centuries into what should have been for them an easier life in the small Artic communities they had only visited in the past. In a scant three generations (Patterson's book covers the 1950s to the 1990s), these people went from living "on the land" to watching their young people leave ...

Theory of the Consumption Function (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Milton Friedman

Princeton University Press, 2008

What is the exact nature of the consumption function? Can this term be defined so that it will be consistent with empirical evidence and a valid instrument in the hands of future economic researchers and policy makers? In this volume a distinguished American economist presents a new theory of the consumption function, tests it against extensive statistical J material and suggests some of its significant implications. Central to the new theory ...

Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities (Midland ...

5 reviews
Grant McCracken

Indiana University Press, 1991

You Bought the Rolex But Forgot the BMW?
"Man is a rebel against nature. He is prone to accept few things as they come. In all matters it is his irrepressible belief that by his tinkering he can improve upon them. His instrument is culture." Mary Ellen Roach, Dress, Adornment, and The Social Order Recall the last time you presented a gift to someone. Was it really a gift for them, or did you only give the gift so that the ...

The Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption (Earthscan Readers Series)

Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2006

* A highly accessible yet comprehensive collection of writings from the world?s foremost thinkers on the subject * Sustainable Consumption is a topical, multidisciplinary field and a vital component of current debates about sustainable development * A topic with rapidly growing institutional and academic interest Politically, intellectually, and socially, sustainable consumption is a controversial concept. Consumption drives our economies ...

The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption

3 reviews
Mary Douglas, Baron Isherwood

Routledge, 1996

Accounting for tastes
In this book, a renowned structural anthropologist collaborates with an economist to propose an explanation for one of the great mysteries of economics: where do "preferences" come from? Much of neoclassical economics rests on the assumption that, once we know the basic desires and tastes for a given population, we can then understand how people make rational decisions about how to acquire ...

The Shadows of Consumption: Consequences for the Global Environment
Peter Dauvergne

The MIT Press, 2008

The Shadows of Consumption gives a hard-hitting diagnosis: many of the earth's ecosystems and billions of its people are at risk from the consequences of rising consumption. Products ranging from cars to hamburgers offer conveniences and pleasures; but, as Peter Dauvergne makes clear, global political and economic processes displace the real costs of consumer goods into distant ecosystems, communities, and timelines, tipping into crisis people ...

Confronting Consumption

2 reviews

The MIT Press, 2002

Best Book in Global Environmental Affairs
This award-winning book ("The Best Book in Global Environmental Affairs" according to the International Studies Association) offers an accessible and engaging analysis of the 800 pound gorilla in the living room that environmentalists find difficult to talk about with force: overconsumption. The early portion of the book documents the problem; the middle chunk offers a set of mental lenses for ...

Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and the Culture of Consumption

5 reviews
Murray Milner Jr.

Routledge, 2006

Big ideas with big implications
Professor Murray Milner, Jr. asks "Why do American teenagers behave the way they do?" His new book, Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids, examines a list of negative behaviors: "Why are many teenagers obsessed with who sits with them at lunch, the brand of clothes they wear, what parties they are invited to, the privacy of their bedrooms, the intrigues of school cliques, who is dating or breaking up ...

Understanding Consumption (Clarendon Lectures in Economics)

1 review
Angus Deaton

Oxford University Press, USA, 1993

Elegant and clear
I found this book very interesting for 2 reasons. First, it is very clear and the technicalities are kept to a minimum (although a reasonable level of calculus and basic economic theory is advisable). Second, its originality lies in the fact that it relates microeconomic analysis of consumption and saving behavior with macroeconomic aggregates. It is a very good starting point for anybody ...

A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

8 reviews
Lizabeth Cohen

Vintage, 2003

A remarkable piece of research
Lizabeth Cohen's "A Consumers' Republic" does much to explain how citizenship has been significantly redefined by consumerism in postwar America. The thoroughly readable book is full of insights and should interest all readers of 20th century American history. It will also prompt many to ponder how America might try to heal its frayed society while there is time available to do so. In the ...

Ethics of Consumption
David A. Crocker

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997

In this comprehensive collection of essays, most of which appear for the first time, eminent scholars from many disciplines--philosophy, economics, sociology, political science, demography, theology, history, and social psychology--examine the causes, nature, and consequences of present-day consumption patterns in the United States and throughout the world.

Fit for Consumption: Sociology and the Business of Fitness
J Smith Maguire

Routledge, 2007

This is the first text to offer a comprehensive socio-cultural and historical analysis of the current fitness culture. Fitness today is not simply about health clubs and exercise classes, or measures of body mass index and cardiovascular endurance. Fit for Consumption conceptualizes fitness as a field within which individuals and institutions may negotiate - if not altogether reconcile - the competing and often conflicting social demands ...

Popular Culture: Production and Consumption (Blackwell Readers in Sociology)

Wiley-Blackwell, 2000

This is a rich collection of contemporary perspectives on how culture is produced and commodified using current examples from music, television, magazines, sports, and advertising. Incorporating a variety of theoretical frameworks, the book addresses, in addition, issues of social and cultural diversity in readings by key scholars that are accessible and provocative for both students and academics.

Citizenship and Consumption (Consumption and Public Life)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

The book provides a timely forum for current thinking on consumption and citizenship, exploring overlaps, interactions and tensions between them.

Conspicuous Consumption (Penguin Great Ideas)

1 review
Thorsten Veblen

Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006

Brilliance but...
... you should just read all of Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. I like this book cover though, so buy it for the attractive cover, not merely the content, i.e. consume.

One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future

24 reviews
Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich

Island Press, 2005

We're In Deep Doo Doo
Wow. What a ride. This book had me on the edge of my seat. I can see why other reviewers might find fault in this grand overview of ecological,socio-economic and political problems as not offering enough new information or covering too much ground. However, I personaly am thankful for such a comprehesive collection of troubles. "High Noon: Twenty Global Problems and Twenty Years to Solve Them" by ...

Elusive Consumption

Berg Publishers, 2004

In the context of rising consumerism and globalization, books on consumption are numerous. These tend to be firmly rooted in particular disciplines, however--sociology, anthropology, business or cultural studies--and as a result often present a limited view. Charged with the mission of unraveling what consumption means and how it operates, the world's leading experts were flown to a private location in Sweden to "battle it out." This pioneering ...

Children, Media & Consumption: On the Front Edge (International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth & Media)

Goteborgs Universitet Acta Univ, 2007

Children's and adolescents' importance as actors on the market has grown successively the past four to five decades. Nowadays, young people are exposed to a steady stream of commercial messages directed specifically to them. Television still has a unique position as an advertising medium, but advertising directed to youthful viewers is more and more prevalent on the Internet and mobile phones, as well. Many computer games, cartoons and ...

Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness

3 reviews

Island Press, 1999

Judge the book, not the opinions
I read this book two years ago and, like with any compilation, found some writers interesting and others bland. That being said, I find it fascinating that some use these "reviews" to shoot a book like this down; you may not agree with Juliet Schor's theory of what drives us to consume, or with Alex Kotlowitz's comparison of classes in downtown Chicago, and that's okay. This book is not about ...

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