Consumer Culture Theory
- Eric J. Arnould - EMLYON Business School, France, Aalto University, Finland
- Craig J Thompson - Univesity of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Consumer Behaviour
Outlining the key themes, concepts and theoretical areas in the field, this book draws on contributions from prominent researchers to unravel the complexities of consumer culture by looking at how it affects personal identity, social interactions and the consuming human being.
A field which is characterised as being theoretically challenging is made accessible through learning features that include case study material, critical reflection, research directions, further reading and a broad mix of the types of consumers and consumption contexts including emerging markets and economies.
The structure of the book is designed to help students map the field in the way it is interpreted by researchers and follows the conceptual mapping in the classic Arnould & Thompson 2005 journal article. The book is organised into three parts - the Consumption Identity, Marketplace Cultures and the Socio-Historic Patterning of Consumption. Insight is offered into both the historical roots of consumer culture and the everyday experiences of navigating the contemporary marketplace.
The book is supported by a collection of international case studies and real world scenarios, including: How Fashion Bloggers Rule the Fashion World; the Kendal Jenner Pepsi Commercial; Professional Beer Pong, Military Recruiting Campaigns, The World Health Organisation and the Corporatization of Education.
The go-to text for anyone new to CCT or postgraduate students writing a CCT-related thesis.
A sociologically informed view of the theoretics of consumer culture, this engaging collection of essays by a distinguished group of international scholars orients readers to the interplay of ideology and materiality in the contemporary world. Replete with compelling examples and provocative pedagogy, the text is classroom friendly and sure to promote discussion.
Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) made easy – a solid overview of the most important sources and insights forming the research community of Consumer Culture theorists. Interested marketing practitioners and scholars – also from consumer research and marketing outside CCT, consumer sociologists/anthropologists,… Indeed, everybody grabbling to understand consumer culture… you can all start here!
Right from the opening pages it is clear that this is no run-of-the-mill textbook. It is a collection of lively and engaging works that illuminate the kind of innovative and challenging research, as well as the diverse positions and contexts that have helped shape this dynamic discipline. It is bound to become a major resource for CCT scholars and students at all levels of their career.
In this well-curated volume, editors Arnould and Thompson bring coherence to the eclectic CCT field and make it approachable for a broad audience. The different chapters represent a wide variety of theoretical traditions, methodological orientations, and empirical settings and manages to give room for necessary stylistic idiosyncrasies, without ever compromising the consistency of the book as a whole.