Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity

A useful addition to the shelf of both the preacher and practitioner of marketing management...written by scholars are experientially familiar with, and hence, authentic in the subject.... The variety of themes on consumer culture as the common and central issue brings ample credit to the editor’s sourcing skills. 

Much has already been published about the limits of overconsumption in the Third World countries, but this new book edited by Nita Mathur goes beyond a simple judgment easily made by Western citizens who are commenting about poorer people living in emerging economies. On the contrary, here we have scholars from the inside and from the outside who nonetheless agree to see this complex problem as a global issue created and actually fueled by some normative views conceived and circulated from wealthy nations to global markets. As a direct consequence, there are now cases of excessive richness and luxury lifestyles in poor countries where such attitudes only underline the immense contrasts and unfairness of such situations. In sum, this Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity reaffirm the model of consumer society not only created to serve as an apparently enviable lifestyle but also as a subtle normative practice which is now going global.                           

A timely and much needed contribution to the literature by manifesting the increasing role of consumption in articulating modernity and identity in contemporary social life…. It is a must read for scholars and students interested in the critical exploration of contemporary consumer culture.