did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780745650234

Beyond Consumer Capitalism Media and the Limits to Imagination

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780745650234

  • ISBN10:

    0745650236

  • Edition: 1st
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2013-11-25
  • Publisher: Polity

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

Purchase Benefits

  • Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
    Your order must be $35 or more to qualify for free economy shipping. Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace items, eBooks and apparel do not qualify for this offer.
  • eCampus.com Logo Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
List Price: $77.60 Save up to $26.00
  • Rent Book $51.60
    Add to Cart Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping

    TERM
    PRICE
    DUE
    USUALLY SHIPS IN 3-4 BUSINESS DAYS
    *This item is part of an exclusive publisher rental program and requires an additional convenience fee. This fee will be reflected in the shopping cart.

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

Summary

Consumer capitalism dominates our economy, our politics and our culture. Yet there is a growing body of research from a range of disciplines that suggests that consumer capitalism may be past its sell-by date.

Beyond Consumer Capitalism begins by showing how, for people in the developed world, consumer capitalism has become economically and environmentally unsustainable and is no longer able to deliver its abiding promise of enhancing quality of life . This cutting-edge book then asks why we devote so little time and effort to imagining other forms of human progress. The answer, Lewis suggests, is that our cultural and information industries limit rather than stimulate critical thinking, keeping us on the treadmill of consumption and narrowing our vision of what constitutes progress. If we are to find a way out of this cul de sac, Lewis argues, we must begin by analysing the role of media in consumer capitalism and changing the way we organize media and communications. We need a cultural environment that encourages rather than stifles new ideas about what guides our economy and our society.

Timely and compelling, Beyond Consumer Capitalism will have strong appeal to students and scholars of media studies, cultural studies and consumer culture.

Author Biography

Justin Lewis is Professor of Communication and Head of the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements page vii

1 Introduction: The problems of consumer capitalism in the twenty-first century – and why we find it so
difficult to appreciate them 1

Part I Stretching beyond its limits: The tired machinery of consumer capitalism

2 Consumer capitalism as a cul-de-sac 15

3 The environmental, economic and social constraints of consumer capitalism 26

Part II Selling stories

4 The insatiable age 53

5 Tales of sales: The politics of advertising 70

Part III Reporting consumer capitalism

6 Disposable news and democracy: Rethinking the way we report the world 93

7 Disposable news, consumerism and growth 111

Part IV Waste and retrieval

8 Obsessed with obsolescence: Confusing hyperconsumption with progress 133

9 Imagining a different world 154

Notes 177

References 205

Index 223

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program