Ordinary Consumption

The sociology of consumption has concentrated unduly on the more spectacular and visual aspects of contemporary consumer behaviour, thereby constructing an unbalanced and misleading view. This collection emphasises ordinary rather than extraordinary items, routine and repetitive behaviour rather than conscious decision-making. It studies practical contexts of use rather than decisions to purchase and analyses collective identification rather than personal identity. Each essay argues one or more of these points, for the most part using new empirical material from several different national contexts. The topics analysed include shopping in Taiwan, second-home ownership in France, environmental considerations concerning food choice in Denmark, the take up of new domestic technologies in Finland and kitchen design in England. Key concepts like tradition, routine and habit are clarified and new conceptual distinctions are made, with the book defending theoretical approaches deriving from Simmel, Weber, Durkheim and Bourdieu. Ordinary Consumption promotes a distinctive approach to the understanding of the central practices of consumer society, it is a book with a controversia message, one which will be a source of debate about the appropriate agenda for future research.

ISBN 0415270375   Pages 272 ISBN13 9780415270373 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 513 Imprint Routledge   Published in London Format Hardback   Series title Complexity and Emergence in Organizations Publication date 02 Aug 2001   Height (mm) 242 Library of Congress HC79.C6 O7   Width (mm) 162 DEWEY 339.47   Spine width (mm) 21 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

		Introduction by Jukka Gronow and Alan Warde		1
1		Sociology, Consumption and Routine by Kaj Ilmonen		9
2		Routinisation or Reflexivity? Consumers and Normative Claims for Environmental Consideration by Bente Halkier		25
3		Ordinary Consumption and Extraordinary Relationships: Utilities and their Users by Elizabeth Shove and Heather Chappells		45
4		Working at Consumption: The Second Home and Daily Life by Davina Chaplin		59
5		Extra-ordinary and Ordinary Consumption: Making Sense of Acquisition in Modern Taiwan by Shou-Cheng Lai		75
6		Tamed Hedonism: Choice, Desires and Deviant Pleasures by Roberta Sassatelli		93
7		Mobile Communication as a Way of Urban Life by Pasi Maenpaa		107
8		Ordinary Consumption and Personal Identity: Radio and the Middle Classes in the North West of England by Brian Longhurst and Gaynor Bagnall and Mike Savage		125
9		By Car: Carrying Modern Society by Tim Dant and Peter J. Martin		143
10		Ordinary and Distinctive Consumption; or a Kitchen is a Kitchen is a Kitchen by Dale Southerton		159
11		The Role of States in the Creation of Consumption Norms by Terhi-Anna Wilksa		179
12		Smart Life, Version 3.0: Representations of Everyday Life an Future Studies by Katja Oksanen-Sarela and Mika Pantzar		199
13		Epilogue: Conventional Consumption by Jukka Gronow and Alan Warde		219
		References		233
		Notes on Contributors		247
		Index		251

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