Consumer Culture in Latin America - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230340733 ISBN 13: 9780230340732

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Synopsis

How can we understand consumption in a region known for its cultural richness and vast inequalities? What do Latin Americans consume, and why? Examining topics from tango and samba to sex workers in Costa Rica, from eating tamales to selling ice in the Andes, and from building and moving houses to buying cell phones, this collection brings together original research on some of the many forms of consumption and consumers that contribute to Latin American cultures and histories. Contributors include sociologists, anthropologists, media and cultural studies scholars, geographers and historians, showcasing diverse approaches to understanding Latin American consumption practices and consumer culture.

About this title

About the Author:

ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Queensland, Australia

Review:

"This rich and diverse collection of studies of consumers and consumption in Latin America provides a wonderfully vivid window on class, politics, popular culture, international political economy, and the history of everyday life. This will be an enormously useful text for students of cultural and media studies and scholars throughout the social sciences. Its particularly good to see such a geographically diverse collection of authors engaged in this book." - Barry Carr, Visiting Professor, University of California and Fordham University, US, and Senior Fellow, Institute of Latin American Studies, La Trobe University, Australia

"Writings about consumption are so often anecdotal, superficial, and in essence judgemental, which is precisely why this volume, which is none of these things, is both welcome and necessary. The core is an empathetic engagement with consumers across Latin America. The extraordinary range of topics shows just how absurd it is to try and understand everyday life without dealing with consumption, because, in so many respects, this simply is the contemporary world of Latin America. The volume also succeeds in addressing advertising, banking, business and branding as the essential context, without reducing consumption to these forces." - Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, University College London

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0230340733
• ISBN 13: 9780230340732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Anna Cristina Pertierra, John Sinclair