Consumption

Ian Hudson is Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba.Mark Hudson is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Manitoba.

“This book invites readers on a lively tour across the terrain of consumption in a briskly paced guide to mainstream economic theory and critical political economy. It is a highly engaging book that will appeal to those wishing to secure a deeper understanding of what it means to consume.”Bruce Pietrykowski, University of Michigan"It is a sign of the consumer fetishism that pervades our society that good poiltical-economic works on consumption that do not simply fall prey to their subject matter and that retain a critical perspective are extremely hard to find. This book, though clearly written for classroom use, belongs in the same broad tradition as Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class, John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society, Michael Dawson’s The Consumer Trap, and Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Highly recommended."John Bellamy Foster, author of The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology

• Acknowledgements 1 The Meanings of ConsumptionWhat Are We Talking About? Consumption and Political EconomyCompeting Themes in the History of ConsumptionThe Rest of the Book2 An Aspiration for All the World: Championing Individual Freedom of ChoiceIntroductionFrom Classical to Neoclassical Economics: Consumers as Rational MaximizersFriendly Amendments: Alterations to the Theory with Similar ImplicationsConclusion3 The System: Capitalist ConsumerismIntroductionCapitalist Commodity Production: Naming the SystemCommodity FetishismConsumption and JobsThe Evolution of Capitalist Commodity Consumption in the US after World War IIConclusion4 Private Choices, Social ProblemsIntroductionWhat You Don’t Know Might Hurt You: Information AsymmetryYou’re Not as Clever as You Think: Behavioural EconomicsRelative ConsumptionCreated WantsThe Androcentric ConsumerConclusion5 The Shopocalypse?“Ten Ways to Reduce Your Impact”BlindfoldedBloated: The Problem of ScaleEmbedded Consumption and the Limits of Consumer EnvironmentalismConclusion: Consumption as Ecological PracticeNote6 Consumption, Power and LiberationClass and ConsumptionConsumers of the World, Express Yourselves!Consumption and Gender7 Shopping PoliceShopping as PowerEasy on the Surface, Hard UnderneathTerror of the CEO?Saviour of the Worker, Farmer or Forest?Too Much to Bear: The Trials and Tribulations of a LabelThe Commodification of Politics?ConclusionReferencesIndex