Consumption

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Consumption used to be a disease. Now it is the dominant manner in which most people meet their most basic needs and--if they can afford the price--their wildest desires. In this new book, Ian and Mark Hudson critically examine how consumption has been understood in economic theory before analysing its centrality to our social lives and its crucial function in contemporary capitalism. They also outline the consequences it has for people and nature, consequences routinely made invisible in the shopping mall or online catalogue. In an accessible style, the book shows how patterns of consumption are influenced by cultures, individual preferences, expressions of group membership, and identity formation. However, hovering behind and powering these determinants is the unavoidable need within capitalism to realize profit, without which our globalizing economic system grinds to a halt. This accessible and comprehensive book will be essential reading for students and scholars of political economy, economics, and economic sociology, as well as any reader who wants to meaningfully confront their own practices of consumption.