Consuming Places

John Urry has been discussing and writing on these and similar questions for the past fifteen years. In Consuming Places, he gathers together his most significant contributions. Urry begins with an extensive review of the connections between society, time and space. The concept of 'society', the nature of 'locality', the significance of 'economic restructuring', and the concept of the 'rural', are examined in relationship to place. The book then considers how places have been transformed by the development of service occupations and industries. Concepts of the service class and post-industrialism are theoretically and empirically discussed. Attention is then devoted to the ways in which places are consumed. Particular attention is devoted to the visual character of such consumption and its implications for place and people. The implications for nature and the environment are also explored in depth. The changing nature of consumption, and the tensions between commodification and collective enthusiasms, are explored in the context of the changing ways in which the countryside is consumed.

John Urry is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK, where he is Director of the Centre for Mobilities Research. His recent books include Sociology Beyond Societies (Routledge, 2000), Global Complexity (Polity, 2003), Mobile Technologies of the City (with Mimi Sheller, Routledge, 2006) and Mobilities (Polity, 2007).