New Forms of Consumption: Consumers, Culture, and Commodification

Front Cover
Mark Gottdiener
Rowman & Littlefield, 2000 - 300 pages
Consumption as a field of cultural studies overlaps with theories of postmodernism, the social construction of self, commodification in late capitalism, and the role of mass media in daily life. New forms of consumption such as those facilitated by cyberspace, themed environments, the commodification of sex, and the increasing role of leisure in society all play new and interesting roles in daily life that combine consumerism with the most contemporary social forms. This collection of essays examines the recent ways in which consumerism has been approached by cultural studies with special emphasis given to these and other newly emerging topics. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides a theoretical overview of consumption studies dealing with classical and more contemporary approaches in light of the debate between advocates and critics of postmodernism. In this section there are papers on McDonaldization, tourism and cultural studies, and the Theory of Shopping. The second part emphasizes empirical studies of the commodification process. Papers address the transformation of women's bodies and the mass commodification of milk, the creation of the toddler as a subject and the commodification of childhood, the commodification of sports, and the commodification of rock music. The third section of the book explores new forms of consumption on a more detailed and concentrated level. Papers in this section include the rise of sex tourism as a global industry, the commodification of the sacred, and the emergence of new consumer spaces in the city. An introduction by the editor delineates the advantages of his approach to new forms of consumption based squarely in the emerging issues of cultural studies, debates transcending postmodernism, and the society of the spectacle.

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Contents

Approaches to Consumption Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
3
The Process of McDonaldization Is Not Uniform nor Are Its Settings Consumers or the Consumption of Its Goods and Services
33
Mass Tourism or the ReEnchantment of the World? Issues and Contradictions in the Study of Travel
51
Shopping and Postmodernism Consumption Production Identity and the Internet
71
Case Studies
91
BrainSuck
93
The Rise of The Toddler as Subject and as Merchandising Category in the 1930s
111
The Body and the Country A Political Ecology of Consumption
131
The Commodification of Sports The Example of Personal Seat Licenses in Professional Football
177
The Commodification of Rebellion Rock Culture and Consumer Capitalism
203
Fantasy Tours Exploring the Global Consumption of Caribbean Sex Tourisms
227
Commodification and Theming of the Sacred Changing Patterns of Tourist Consumption in the Holy Land
251
The Consumption of Space and the Spaces of Consumption
265
Index
287
About the Contributors
297
Copyright

Packaging Violence Media Story Sequencing and the Perception of Right and Wrong
153

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About the author (2000)

Mark Gottdiener lives & works in Buffalo, New York. Gottdiener is the author of several books, including "Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All-American City" & "The Theming of America: Dreams, Visions, & Commercial Spaces" & professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

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