The Unmanageable Consumer

The Unmanageable Consumer PDF Author: Yiannis Gabriel
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1847878326
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
`This book was radically challenging when it was first published, and is only more so today as the concept of consumer collapses under the weight of its many meanings' - Madeleine Bunting, Columnist, The Guardian Western-style consumerism appears unstoppable. Yet it is has failed to deliver greater happiness and is now facing major environmental, population and political challenges. This book examines the key Western traditions of thinking about and being a consumer. Each chapter posits a consumer model with examples from the international community. Readers are invited to enter an exciting and radical analysis of contemporary consumerism which suggests that consumerism is fragile and consumers unpredictable. Updated with new material, this Second Edition looks at the impact of new technologies on consumerism and the consolidation of consumerism and 'consumer' language in spheres like education and health. The authors discuss the spread of consumerism to developing countries like India and the effect of demographic change and migration. The fallout from 9/11 and United States military hegemony is examined, as is the influence on consumerism of Islamic fundamentalism, the anti-globalization movement, environmental concerns and depleting natural resources. This book is of interest to advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students taking courses on behaviour, buyer behaviour, customer behaviour, consumers and society and retailing. Any one interested in better understanding consumerism will also find this book a fascinating read.

The Unmanageable Consumer

The Unmanageable Consumer PDF Author: Yiannis Gabriel
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1847878326
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
`This book was radically challenging when it was first published, and is only more so today as the concept of consumer collapses under the weight of its many meanings' - Madeleine Bunting, Columnist, The Guardian Western-style consumerism appears unstoppable. Yet it is has failed to deliver greater happiness and is now facing major environmental, population and political challenges. This book examines the key Western traditions of thinking about and being a consumer. Each chapter posits a consumer model with examples from the international community. Readers are invited to enter an exciting and radical analysis of contemporary consumerism which suggests that consumerism is fragile and consumers unpredictable. Updated with new material, this Second Edition looks at the impact of new technologies on consumerism and the consolidation of consumerism and 'consumer' language in spheres like education and health. The authors discuss the spread of consumerism to developing countries like India and the effect of demographic change and migration. The fallout from 9/11 and United States military hegemony is examined, as is the influence on consumerism of Islamic fundamentalism, the anti-globalization movement, environmental concerns and depleting natural resources. This book is of interest to advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students taking courses on behaviour, buyer behaviour, customer behaviour, consumers and society and retailing. Any one interested in better understanding consumerism will also find this book a fascinating read.

Anti-Consumption

Anti-Consumption PDF Author: Hélène Cherrier
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100064832X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In this edited volume, the leading scholars in the field engage with consumers, marketers, corporations and policymakers as well as space dynamics and network formation to provide an in-depth examination of anti-consumption: a voluntary behavioural inclination to minimise rather than grow, to decelerate and simplify and to reduce the unnecessary exploitation of resources fuelled by consumer culture. This book does not place anti-consumption on the high moral ground but rather demonstrates its complexity to spur innovative and critical thinking on how people, organisations, businesses and governments can treat consumption more as a necessity for survival than as a tool for self-expression, pleasure and economic growth. The first part of this book looks at anti-consumption from a diversity of perspectives. It analyses voluntary simplicity, a self-motivated engagement in consumption reduction, and boycotting, a politically-motivated reaction against unacceptable corporate practices, as distinct manifestations of anti-consumption that nonetheless remain rooted in the logic of the market. Paving the way to critical perspectives on the interface between anti-consumption, people and the environment, the second part of the book projects anti-consumption to issues of waste production and provides possible answers to global challenges of resources depletion, social inequalities and global warming. In this section, anti-consumption is critically assessed as an actor of change, both in terms of social change and paradigm change. To move the field forward, the third part of this book presents several theoretical frameworks that help set a roadmap for future research. Anti-Consumption will be of direct interest to scholars and researchers within the fields of marketing, consumer research, business studies, environmental studies and sustainability. It will also be of value to those researching the economics and/or sociology of markets.

Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research

Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research PDF Author: Kenneth C. Land
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400724217
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as-a-whole and with specific domains or aspects of life. This book provides a review of the historical development of the field including the history of QOL in medicine and mental health as well as the research related to quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs. It discusses several of QOL main concepts: happiness, positive psychology, and subjective wellbeing. Relations between spirituality and religiousness and QOL are examined as are the effects of educational attainment on QOL and marketing, and the associations with economic growth. The book goes on to investigate methodological approaches and issues that should be considered in measuring and analysing quality of life from a quantitative perspective. The final chapters are dedicated to research on elements of QOL in a broad range of countries and populations.

Consumer-Driven Innovation in Food and Personal Care Products

Consumer-Driven Innovation in Food and Personal Care Products PDF Author: S R Jaeger
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1845699971
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 697

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Book Description
Experts from around the world present changes in the global marketplace and developments in research methodologies underpinning new product development (NPD) in this essential collection. The business and marketing aspects of NPD, sometimes neglected in books of this type, are addressed alongside methods for product testing.Trends, processes and perspectives in consumer-driven NPD in the food and personal care product industries are addressed in the opening chapters of the book. Specific topics include evolution in food retailing and advances in concept research. Hedonic testing is the focus of the next section. Different viewpoints on consumer research methods and statistics for NPD are reviewed in later chapters. The final part of the book looks towards the future of innovation, covering the implications for NPD of topics such as human genetic variation in taste perception and neuroimaging.Several chapters are not standard scientific articles. Rather they are written records of conversations between two people on a particular topic related to consumer-driven innovation in foods and personal care products. In them the interviewees speak freely about their views and experiences in NPD, providing unique insights.Consumer-driven innovation in food and personal care products will broaden readers' understanding of the many approaches available to NPD personnel and ways in which they can be used to support innovation activities. - Provides expert insight into the changes in the global market place and developments in research methodologies underpinning NPD - Examines the business and marketing aspects of NPD, sometimes neglected in books of this type, are addressed alongside methods for product testing - Chapters review the different viewpoints on consumer research methods and statistics for NPD

Excess

Excess PDF Author: Kim Humphery
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745659039
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Over-consumption is one of the key issues of our time, especially in the Western world. Over the past decade, in the face of historically unprecedented levels of consumer spending in the West - and the more recent impact of recession - a vigorous politics of anti-consumerism has emerged in a range of wealthy nations. This timely and original new book provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of what has come to be called the 'new politics of consumption'; a politics embodied in movements such as culture jamming, simple living, slow food and fair trade. The book offers an examination of anti-consumerism at a time when the idea of 'consumer excess' is being re-framed by a global economic downturn, and crucially explores what this means for the future of political debate. Drawing on interviews with activists across three continents, and offering a refreshingly accessible discussion of contemporary commentary and theory, Kim Humphery sympathetically explores anti-consumerism as cultural interpretation, lifestyle change, and collective action. Whilst analysing the positive advances of the anti-consumerist movement, Excess also challenges contemporary critical thinking on consumption, taking issue with the return to theories of mass culture in contemporary anti-consumerist polemic. Alternatively, Humphery begins to forge a politics of anti-consumerism that addresses the complexity of material acquisition and which avoids treating consumers as mere dupes in the logic of capitalism, viewing them instead as active participants in a culture which is capable of transformation.

The Future of Consumption

The Future of Consumption PDF Author: Kristina Bäckström
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031332466
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
This open access book presents three future consumption trends—technology, sustainability, and wellbeing—and discusses what impact those trends will have on the ways we shop. What will be important to the consumers of the future? And how will their retail experiences look and feel? Will technology, sustainability, and wellbeing trends fundamentally change how we consume? And how should retail managers respond to these trends in order to provide the customer experiences of the future? Blending academic perspectives with reflections from innovative retailers, this book explores all these questions and more. Essential reading for retail managers who want to know how future consumption trends will affect the industry, this book also benefits students and researchers of retail and consumption who want to better understand how these interdependent fields are linked.

The Pursuit of Food Well-Being

The Pursuit of Food Well-Being PDF Author: Florentine Frentz
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3658303662
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Due to industrialization, globalization, and digitalization food-related life is becoming increasingly complex. The abundance of (unhealthy) food, in particular, is causing an unprecedented over-consumption that endangers people’s health, quality of life, productivity, and life expectancy. Against this backdrop, Florentine Frentz deals with the food well-being of modern consumers and how it can be strengthened. To this end, she refines the concept of food well-being and creates an overarching model, which she applies to various studies and various phenomena. Based on her results, she expounds implications for researchers, retailers, manufacturers, marketers, public policy makers, and consumers. Overall, the results show that the paradigm shift that has already begun must be vigorously pursued, and that every stakeholder can and should contribute. About the Author:​Florentine Frentz did her dissertation at the Chair of Marketing and Retailing at the University of Siegen, Germany.

Understanding Consumer Behavior and Consumption Experience

Understanding Consumer Behavior and Consumption Experience PDF Author: Rajagopal
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1466675195
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Abstract: "This book discusses the indispensable value of understanding consumer activities and the crucial role they play in developing successful marketing strategies by focusing on concepts such as consumer perceptions, consumption culture, and the influence of information technology"--Provided by publisher

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030968076X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this wasteâ€"consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.

Environmentally Significant Consumption

Environmentally Significant Consumption PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309055989
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
There has been much polemic about affluence, consumption, and the global environment. For some observers, "consumption" is at the root of global environmental threats: wealthy individuals and societies use far too much of the earth's resource base and should scale back their appetites to preserve the environment for future generations and allow a decent life for the rest of the world. Other observers see affluence as the way to escape environmental threats: economic development increases public pressure for environmental protection and makes capital available for environmentally benign technologies. The arguments are fed by conflicting beliefs, values, hopes, and fearsâ€"but surprisingly little scientific analysis. This book demonstrates that the relationship of consumption to the environment needs careful analysis by environmental and social scientists and conveys some of the excitement of treating the issue scientifically. It poses the key empirical questions: Which kinds of consumption are environmentally significant? Which actors are responsible for that consumption? What forces cause or explain environmentally significant consumption? How can it be changed? The book presents studies that open up important issues for empirical study: Are there any signs of saturation in the demand for travel in wealthy countries? What is the relationship between environmental consumption and human well-being? To what extent do people in developing countries emulate American consumption styles? The book also suggests broad strategies that scientists and research sponsors can use to better inform future debates about the environment, development, and consumption.