New Perspectives on Consumer Culture Theory and Research

The collective monograph New Perspectives on Consumer Culture Theory and Research follows the international conference Consumer Culture: Between Aesthetics, Social Distinction and Ecological Activism held at Palacky University in Olomouc (7 – 9 October 2010) and comprises the most interesting and valuable conference contributions covering three thematic areas: (i) Consumer Culture in Post-socialist Countries, (ii) New Prospects on Consumer Culture Research, (iii) Consumer Culture Critique. The book was prepared by Pavel Zahrádka and Renáta Sedláková (editors) and Steven Schwartzhoff (translator and proofreader). Among the authors are not only leading or young European academic researchers from diverse disciplines, but also representatives from the commercial sector who deal with research, production and innovation in consumer culture. The book will be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in December 2012.

Contents

Introduction
Pavel Zahrádka and Renáta Sedláková / Palacký University

Part I: Consumer Culture in the Post-socialist Countries

Theory and Research on Consumer Culture in the Czech Republic before and after 1989
Pavel Zahrádka and Renáta Sedláková / Palacký University

Understanding the Meaning of Consumption in Everyday Lives of “Mainstream” Youth in the Czech Republic
Michaela Hráčková Pyšňáková / Omnicom Media Group

Sustainability and the “Urban Peasant”: Rethinking the Cultural Politics of Food Self-provisioning in the Czech Republic
Petr Jehlička and Joe Smith / Open University

Multiplexes as the Limes of “Global Hollywood”
Marcin Adamczak / Adam Mickiewicz’s University

Part II: New Prospects on Consumer Culture Research

A Strategic Approach to Customer Orientation
Franz Liebl / Berlin University of the Arts

Mass Intelligence and the Commoditized Reader
Ivana Uspenski / PHD Media Agency

Grey Is Gorgeous: On Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty Targeting Older Consumers
Karin Lövgren / Umeå University

Life Satisfaction: Impulsive Buying Behavior and Gender
Samuel Lincoln Bezerra Lins / University of Porto

Part III: Critique of Consumer Culture

Beyond Consumerism: the Critique of Consumption, Democracy, and the Politics of Prosperity
Kate Soper / London Metropolitan University

The Historicity of Brands: Inter-generational Production of Structural Sustainability
Rainer Gries / University of Vienna

Critical Marketing, Consumption Studies and Political Economic Analysis
Alan Bradshaw / University of London

Subversive Use of Things: Craftsman Creativity as a Criticism of Consumer Culture?
Agata Skórzyńska / Adam Mickiewicz University