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Why I Buy
Contributor(s): Gabriel, Rami (Author)
ISBN: 1841506451     ISBN-13: 9781841506456
Publisher: Intellect (UK)
OUR PRICE:   $28.22  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: April 2013
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Popular Culture
Physical Information: 0.36" H x 6.71" W x 9.13" (0.64 lbs) 166 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Why do we buy? How do our acts of--and ideas about--consumption impact our selves, our institutions, and our societies? An incisive response to these questions, Why I Buy explains how consumption came to give meaning and value to social and personal life. Balancing psychological, conceptual, and historical analyses with examples drawn from popular culture and mass media, Rami Gabriel traces the ways in which beliefs about the self--including dualism, individualism, and expressivism--influence consumer behavior. These understandings of the self, Gabriel argues, structure the values that Americans seek and find in consumer society; they therefore have structural consequences for our cultural, political, and economic lives. For example, Gabriel describes how imbalances in the institutions of participatory politics have directly resulted from a consumer society centered on powerful nongovernmental institutions and a scattered body of disengaged citizens whose social and individual needs are not primarily satisfied through civic involvement. By exploring the relationship between our individual needs and our institutions, Gabriel ultimately points the way toward transformations that could lead to a more sustaining and sustainable society.


Contributor Bio(s): Gabriel, Rami: -

Rami Gabriel is assistant professor of psychology and fellow of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Research group in Mind, Science and Culture at Columbia College Chicago.