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 analyzing its centrality
to our social lives and 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.
Hudson and Hudson show, in an approachable manner, how patterns of
consumption are influenced by cultures, individual preferences and
identity formation before arguing that underlying these determinants is
the unavoidable need within capitalism to realize profit.
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 confront their own
practices of consumption in a meaningful way.