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The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting Consumption (Routledge Advances in Social Economics) - Hardcover

Pietrykowski, Bruce

 
9780415773126: The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting Consumption (Routledge Advances in Social Economics)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0415773121 ISBN 13: 9780415773126
Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

Consumption forms a major part of people’s lives. As such, geographers, historians of technology and sociologists have devoted much attention to trying to figure out what makes consumption meaningful. By contrast, economists have been content to hold onto theories of consumption that depend on a self-interested representative agent making utility maximizing decisions.

Pietrykowski develops this alternative account through the recovery of past attempts to forge a different analytical approach to the study of consumption. In particular, theories of consumption espoused by home economists, psychological economists and Regulation school theorists are critically reviewed. These research projects, marginalized by the mainstream, are the precursors of contemporary scholarship in feminist, behavioural and radical political economics. Reclaiming this work greatly enlarges the scope for contemporary research in consumer behavior. Pietrykowski then provides a richly textured set of case studies of green automobility, slow food and alternative/local currency in order to explore the diversity of user cultures and to highlight resistant forms of consumer practice. By carefully interweaving historical and interdisciplinary research Pietrykowski creates a lively and incisive critique of mainstream economics

This monograph will be of interest to academic economists, sociologists, historians and graduate students. In addition, the economics of consumption would also be of interest to readers in management, marketing and schools of business administration.

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About the Author

Bruce Pietrykowski is currently Professor of Economics and Director of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn where he teaches courses in urban and regional studies, labour relations, and economic geography

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Publisher
Routledge
Publication date
2009
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0415773121
ISBN 13 
9780415773126
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
198