Dr Roberta Sassatelli - Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics

Leisure, commercial institutions and public places 164 The home, the commercialization of feelings and cultural consumption 170 Localized consumption in McDonaldized settings 174 Alternative consumption and social movements 182 Summary 190

Epilogue : Consumers, Consumer Culture(s) and the Practices of Consumption

Further Reading and Resources 199

References 204

Index

Because I have learned so much from the friends and colleagues with whom I have exchanged views and experiences about consumption, history, politics and cul tural theory in the last decade or so, I cannot imagine a better way to start this book than by thanking them for consuming their time and eyes on various texts of mine, and above all for their enthusiasm, friendship, and intelligence: thanks to Jeffrey Alexander, Adam Arvidsson, Massimo Baldini, Marina Bianchi, John Brewer, Paolo Capuzzo, Tim Dant, Cristina De Maria, Rossella Ghigi, Monica Greco, Yukka Gronow, Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Antoine Hennion, Sandro Mezzadra, Massimo Montanari, Jonathan Morris, Kate Nash, Alessandro Pizzorno, Marco Santoro, Alan Scott, Don Slater, Davide Sparti, Frank Trentmann, Alan Warde, Rick Wilk and to the late Paolo Donati. Most of these friends and colleagues have read early drafts, chapters or parts of this book and offered precious suggestions and comments. To present ones own work in progress is often an exciting and inspiring experience and I am grateful to the fol lowing institutions for inviting me to give papers on consumer culture: the History and European Civilization Department at the European University Institute, Florence, the Department of History at Warwick University, the Centre for Nordic Alcohol Studies at Helsinki, the Philosophy and Social Theory Workshop at the University of Exeter, the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, the Department of Sociology at the University of Cork, the Istituto Gramsci of Rome, the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, the Social Studies Department at the University of Helsinki. As I have been teaching consumption for a decade, my thoughts have partly taken shape as I attempted to get sharper for my students, both in Italy and the UK: both their enthusiasm and doubts have been constant sources of inspiration, for which I thank them all. Last but not least, I am grate ful to Jasper Chalcraft for his graceful help with the intricacies of my second lan guage, Mila Steele and Katherine Haw at Sage for their supportive editorial and production assistance and Chris Rojek for his inspiring appreciation of my work. The book is dedicated to Marco and Riccardo, with deep love.