The Unmanageable Consumer
- Yiannis Gabriel - University of Bath, UK
- Tim Lang - City University, UK
‘The Unmanageable Consumer has long been one of my favorite books in the sociology of consumption. This long overdue third edition has updated and revised the basic argument in many ways. Most importantly, it now offers a new chapter on the consumer as worker or, more generally, the prosumer. Assign it to your classes (I have…and will again) and read it for your edification.’ - George Ritzer, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, USA
Western-style consumerism is often presented as unstoppable, yet its costs mount and its grip on consumer reality weakens. In this 20th Anniversary edition, Gabriel and Lang restate their thesis that consumerism is more fragile and unmanageable than is assumed by its proponents.
Consumerism has been both stretched and undermined by globalization, the internet, social media and other cultural changes. Major environmental threats, debt, squeezed incomes and social inequalities now temper Western consumers' appetite for spending. The 20th century Deal, first championed by Henry Ford, of more consumption from higher waged work looks tattered.
This edition of The Unmanageable Consumer continues to explore 10 different consumer models, and encourages analysis of contemporary consumerism. It looks at the spread of consumerism to developing countries like India and China and considers the effects of demographic changes and migration, and points to new features such as consumers taking on unwaged work.
New to this edition:
- Coverage of new phenomenon such as social media and emerging markets
- Explores contemporary topics including the occupy movement and horsemeat scandal
- A new chapter on the consumer as worker.
'This is a remarkable and important book. The new edition updates consumer cultural studies to take into account austerity politics and the economic crisis, and the impact these have had on how we think about and experience everyday practices of shopping and consuming. The authors also build on and maintain the lively and challenging argument from the previous volumes which sees the consumer as an unstable space for a multiplicity of often contradictory responses which can unsettle the various strategies on the part of contemporary capitalism to have us buy more.' - Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths, University of London
‘The book exemplifies how social science should be: engaged, insightful, imaginative, scholarly and highly socially and politically relevant. Strongly recommended to students, academics as well as all people interested in understanding our time and themselves in an age of consumerism and false promises.’ - Mats Alvesson, Professor of Business Administration, Lund University, Sweden
The Unmanageable Consumer has long been one of my favorite books in the sociology of consumption. This long overdue third edition has updated and revised the basic argument in many ways. Most importantly, it now offers a new chapter on the consumer as worker or, more generally, the prosumer. It also takes into account the fact that consumption, better hyper-consumption, is not only still with us, but if anything it is accelerating. The continued increase in hyper-consumption and the rapidly changing nature of consumption/prosumption, as well as their relationship to one another, make this edition more relevant than ever. Assign it to your classes (I have… and will again) and read it for your edification.
This is a remarkable and important book. The new edition updates consumer cultural studies to take into account austerity politics and the economic crisis, and the impact these have had on how we think about and experience everyday practices of shopping and consuming. The authors also build on and maintain the lively and challenging argument from the previous volumes which sees the consumer as an unstable space for a multiplicity of often contradictory responses which can unsettle the various strategies on the part of contemporary capitalism to have us buy more. The volume by Gabriel and Lang will be of great value to Masters students and undergraduates as well faculty across a range of humanities and social science courses.
The book exemplifies how social science should be: engaged, insightful, imaginative, scholarly and highly socially and politically relevant. Strongly recommended to students, academics as well as all people interested in understanding our time and themselves in an age of consumerism and false promises. This is a book that almost everyone would benefit from reading.
This book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding one of the most complex and multifaceted concepts of our time: the idea of the consumer. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Through ten diverse and intriguing “portraits” of the consumer, the authors have somehow combined academic rigour with topical insights and appropriately provocative challenges. In all sorts of ways, The Unmanageable Consumer is a surprising delight!
Engagement with this book should certainly be encouraged across the disciplines. This is because despite the books’ social-scientific tone and academic relevance, the authors continue to balance their account of the tightly coiled interrelations of the [discussed] themes and phenomena with a pertinent yet accessible unpacking of how their complex formation is central to consumerism’s ongoing and intensified centrality to the narratives in and of our everyday lives.
It's a book that gives students the language to develop a critical understanding of the consumer. Former students of mine tell me they still use it in the professional lives nearly 20 years later!
Sage College Publishing
