Second edition of a popular and lively introduction to the nature and role of consumption in modern societies. Includes new chapters on branding and the rise of ethical consumption. Reveals the central role consumer culture plays in providing new ways of creating social and political identities.
In this innovative book, Celia Lury argues that the time has come for us to explore the world not only with new methods, but with a new approach to methodology itself. Fundamental changes are taking place in how we produce knowledge, how we communicate it and, indeed, what we consider to be knowledge. These changes demand innovative and creative responses to research questions. Lury's rethinking of the nature of social inquiry starts by reconceptualizing the 'problem space'. Problems are not static or a 'given'; rather, they are created and continually recomposed as part of the methodological process itself. Following the line of thought that methods are practices that articulate as much as capture a social problem, Lury further develops the notion of compositional methodology to think through its implications. With remarkable fluency, the book draws into conversation a range of hot-button issues, both longstanding and novel, from observation, reflexivity, recursive measurement and feminist methodologies, to participation, context, datafication and platformization. Always with an eye to the methodological potential of new trends, the book provides a strong challenge to much received wisdom and argues that a combination of techniques can contribute to better understanding of the problem spaces we all inhabit.
The authors skillfully blend popular culture with theoretical insights, offering a unique and well-researched perspective. Their ability to integrate case studies enhances the depth of analysis, making it an excellent resource for understanding contemporary cultural dynamics.
"Social and cultural research has changed dramatically in the last few years in response to changing conceptions of the empirical, an intensification of interest in interdisciplinary work, and the growing need to communicate with diverse users and audiences. Methods texts, however, have not kept pace with these changes. This volume provides a set of new approaches for the investigation of the contemporary world. Building on the increasing importance of methodologies that cut across disciplines, more than twenty expert authors explain the utility of 'devices' for social and cultural research - their essays cover such diverse devices as the list, the pattern, the event, the photograph, the tape recorder and the anecdote. This fascinating collection stresses the open-endedness of the social world, and explores the ways in which each device requires the user to reflect critically on the value and status of contemporary ways of making knowledge. With a range of genres and styles of writing, each chapter presents the device as a hinge between theory and practice, ontology and epistemology, and explores whether and how methods can be inventive. The book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of sociology and cultural studies"--Page [i]
In the first half of the twentieth century, Theodor Adorno wrote about the 'culture industry'. For Adorno, culture too along with the products of factory labour was increasingly becoming a commodity. Now, in what they call the 'global culture industry', Scott Lash and Celia Lury argue that Adorno's worst nightmares have come true.
Exploring the pervasive nature of brands, this book delves into their various forms and impacts on everyday life. It examines how brands infiltrate different environments, from urban settings to personal spaces, and encourages readers to consider the deeper meanings and implications of branding in society. Through insightful analysis, it invites a critical reflection on the role brands play in shaping perceptions and experiences.
This book is a radical plea for the centrality of experience in the social and human sciences. Lash argues that a large part of the output of the social sciences today is still shaped by assumptions stemming from positivism, in contrast to the tradition of interpretative social enquiry pioneered by Max Weber. These assumptions are particularly central to economics, with its emphasis on homo economicus, the utility-maximizing actor, but they have infiltrated the other social sciences too. Lash argues for a social sciences based not in positivism’s utilitarian a priori but instead in the a posteriori of grounded and embedded subjective experience. His wide-ranging account starts from considerations of ancient experience via Aristotle’s technics, continues through a politics of Hannah Arendt’s ‘a posteriori’ public sphere and concludes with the contemporary – with technological experience, on the one hand, and with Chinese post-ontological thought, in which the ‘ten thousand things’ themselves are doing the experiencing, on the other. This original book by a leading social and cultural theorist will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, cultural studies and throughout the social sciences.
Ta książka to fascynująca historia o tym, w jaki sposób przedmioty materialne, takie jak zegarki czy odzież sportowa, stały się wymownymi symbolami kulturowymi i jak produkcja symboli, w postaci rozpoznawalnych globalnie marek, stała się nadrzędnym celem kapitalizmu. Globalny przemysł kulturowy to bogaty zasób źródeł empirycznych i teoretycznych, pokazujących, w jaki sposób przedmioty te – od butów Nike do filmu Toy Story, od globalnej piłki nożnej do sztuki konceptualnej – ulegają metamorfozom i przemieszczają się ponad granicami państw. Globalny przemysł kulturowy ma ambicję stania się dialektyką oświecenia ery globalizacji. To podstawowa lektura dla studentów i wykładowców różnych nauk społecznych. Autorzy rzucają wyzwanie doktrynom liberalizmu i marksizmu gospodarczego, a także teorii kultury. W samym środku produkcji i konsumpcji dostrzegają mechanizmy tworzenia znaczeń. Rynkiem towarów rządzą obecnie totemy, a kultura popularna wytwarza, przesuwa i dynamizuje ikony rynkowych marek. Krążenie wartości ekonomicznej ma dziś postać rozmowy między rzeczami-symbolami. Globalny przemysł kulturowy to świetnie udokumentowana, wyrafinowana intelektualnie, ważna książka. Jeffrey Alexander, Yale University