Constructing the New Consumer Society

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction: The New Consumer Society—Rethinking the Social Bond

   1. Introduction: The New Consumer Society—Rethinking the Social Bond

      • Pekka Sulkunen

      Pages 1-18

3. The Vision

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. The Return of Dionysus

      • Michel Maffesoli

      Pages 21-37

   3. From Situations to Subjects: Moral Discourse in Transition

      • Gerhard Schulze

      Pages 38-57

   4. Citizenship and Inequality in Postmodern Social Theory

      • John Holmwood

      Pages 58-78

4. New Codes of Happiness

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. The Genealogy of Advertising

      • Pasi Falk

      Pages 81-107

   3. Producing the Body: Jane Fonda and the New Public Feminine

      • Hilary Radner

      Pages 108-133

   4. The Politics of Representation: Marketing Alcohol through Rap Music

      • Denise A. Herd

      Pages 134-151

   5. From the Margins to the Centre: Post-Industrial City Cultures

      • Justin O’Connor, Derek Wynne

      Pages 152-172

   6. ‘Gaming is Play, It Should Remain Fun!’: The Gaming Complex, Pleasure and Addiction

      • Sytze Kingma

      Pages 173-193

5. Regulating Needs and Pleasures

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195

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   2. The ‘Consumer’ in Political Discourse: Consumer Policy in the Nordic Welfare States

      • Kaj Ilmonen, Eivind Stø

      Pages 197-217

   3. Designing the Good Life: Nutrition and Social Democracy in Norway

      • Thor Øivind Jensen, Unni Kjærnes

      Pages 218-233

   4. The Construction of Environmental Risks: Eco-Labelling in the European Union

      • Peter Simmons

      Pages 234-255

   5. Logics of Prevention: Mundane Speech and Expert Discourse on Alcohol Policy

      • Pekka Sulkunen

      Pages 256-276

   6. Governance of Consumption

      • Gary Wickham

      Pages 277-291

6. Back Matter

   Pages 293-302

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This book argues that the coming of the 'a new consumerism' in the affluent societies marks a distinct phase of modernity. Limits of production no longer confine consumption to what is necessary or instrumental. Demands for increasing production no longer shape ideology and culture as they did previously. Important contemporary themes of morality, the body, citizenship and inequality are here placed in a new theoretical light. The book provides examples of new codes of happiness in consuming products, culture and entertainment. Issues of nutrition, consumer policy, environmental risk and health are discussed in the light of these new codes.

• alcohol
• culture
• democracy
• Design
• environment
• nutrition
• politics
• social theory
• society

• Social Research Unit of Alcohol Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

  Pekka Sulkunen

• Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, UK

  John Holmwood

• Department of Communication and Theater, University of Notre Dame, USA

  Hilary Radner

• Fakultät Sozial-und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany

  Gerhard Schulze

John Holmwood is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is President of the British Sociological Association and is co-editor (with Stephen Turner) of the Palgrave Pivot series Sociology Transformed, which explores national histories of sociology.

John Scott is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Plymouth University, UK. He is a former President of the British Sociological Association and Honorary Professor in Sociology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is author of Envisioning Sociology: Victor Branford, Patrick Geddes, and the Quest for Social Reconstruction.

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