| On the Commodity Trail: The Journey of a Bargain Store Product from East to West Contributor(s): Hulme, Alison (Author) |
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ISBN: 1472572858 ISBN-13: 9781472572851 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $37.99 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - General - Business & Economics | Industries - Retailing - Business & Economics | Economics - Macroeconomics |
| Dewey: 381.14 |
| LCCN: 2014037438 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6.3" W x 9.2" (0.60 lbs) 172 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Following the journey of eight bargain store objects, Alison Hulme reveals the complex story behind society's simplest and cheapest commodities. Inspired by Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, On the Commodity Trail explores the colourful and fascinating histories of everyday objects.Along the way, we observe raw materials on municipal rubbish dumps in China, newly re-made products in the world's largest wholesale market, and take a journey across the seas, to bargain stores in Europe and North America, arriving finally in the homes of consumers. Weaving together narratives from the people we meet at different parts of the commodity chain - waste peddlers, wholesalers, store owners, and shoppers - the book examines the places and people at the heart of these localized yet immense global networks.Unlike other investigations of commodity chains, this study does not chart a straightforward trajectory from production to consumption. Instead, it demonstrates that the low-end commodity chain is one of constant rupture in which products are made and re-made, blurring the dividing line between producing and consuming.An ethnography of material culture as well as an examination of commodity culture at a time of economic downturn, this deeply-engrossing book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of commodity chains and consumer culture. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hulme, Alison: - Alison Hulme is a Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, and guest lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and University College Dublin, Ireland, as well as the 2014 Ron Lister Visiting Fellow at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has previously worked as an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Iceland, Iceland, and Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. She gained her PhD in 2011 from the Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies and also holds an MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics (also from Goldsmiths), and a BA in Media Studies from Sussex University, UK. Other publications include the edited volume China's Changing Landscape of Consumerism and various journal articles. Prior to academia, Alison worked as a radio and TV presenter for many years. |