The Unmanageable Consumer: Contemporary Consumption and its Fragmentation

By Tim Lang and Yiannis Gabriel

Book Overview

"This book tries to understand the rise and fall of consumerism. For marketers and service providers alike, a consuming read." --Business Today "The Unmanageable Consumer is an excellent volume that guides the reader through some of the most impenetrable thickets of consumer theory, safely negotiating the weird as well as the familiar. It is often engrossing, never lifeless, and always illuminating." --Colin Brown in Consumer Policy Review Consumption and concepts of "the consumer" sit at the center of current academic, political, and environmental debates. The premise of this provocative book, a tour-de-force in its breadth of coverage and analysis, focuses on the fact that different traditions have constructed different representations of the consumer, each having its own specificity. Beginning with a historical overview of the evolution of contemporary Western consumerism, The Unmanageable Consumer successfully analyzes the different meanings of consumerism over time. Succeeding chapters then present distinctive portraits of "the consumer," including the consumer as chooser, communicator, identity-seeker, and rebel. In an informative discussion of the fragmentation, volatility, and confusions of Western consumerism, the authors achieve their goal of defining "the unmanageable consumer." This book is essential reading for courses in marketing, organization theory, management studies, and cultural studies. The Unmanageable Consumer is a timely and accessible volume covering a wide range of perspectives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080397745X
• ISBN13: 9780803977457
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.5"