Consumer society : critical issues and environmental consequences / Barry Smart.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [226]-252) and index.

Consuming: historical and conceptual issues --- Consumer Choice: Rhetoric and Reality --- Cultivating Consumers: Advertising, Marketing and Branding --- Designing Obsolescence, Promoting Consumer Demand --- Globalization and Modern Consumer Culture --- Consequences of Consumerism --- An Unsustainable All-Consuming World --- Consuming Futures I: Business as Usual --- Consuming Futures II: 'Green' and Sustainable Alternatives.

Has consumer culture got out of hand? Are the costs of universal access and pollution too great to bear? This comprehensive, lively and informative book will quickly be recognized as a benchmark in the field. It brings together a huge set of resources for thinking about consumer culture and examining its origins and consequences within a global context. Adept in handling a complex range of theories, Consumer Society scrupulously uses examples throughout to inform and enhance understanding. Smart writes with verve and feeling and has produced a book that simultaneously covers and enlarges our understanding of consumer culture. Clear, engaging and original, this book will be important reading for all those interested in our global culture of consumption including students of sociology, social geography and cultural studies. This book will be essential reading for all those interested in, and concerned about, our global culture of consumption including researchers and students in sociology, politics, cultural studies, economics, and social geography.