The Dialectics of ShoppingShopping is generally considered to be a pleasurable activity. But in reality it can often be complicated and frustrating. Daniel Miller explores the many contradictions faced by shoppers on a typical street in London, and in the process offers a sophisticated examination of the way we shop, and what it reveals about our relationships to our families and communities, as well as to the environment and the economy as a whole. Miller's companions are mostly women who confront these contradictions as they shop. They placate their children with items that combine nutrition with taste or usefulness with style. They decide between shopping at the local store or at the impersonal, but less expensive, mall. They tell of their sympathy for environmental concerns but somehow avoid much ethical shopping. They are faced with a selection of shops whose shifts and mergers often reveal extraordinary stories of their own. Filled with entertaining—and thoroughly familiar—stories of shoppers and shops, this book will interest scholars across a broad range of disciplines. |
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academic actual Alison Clarke ambivalence anthropology argued ASDA become Bourdieu British Cambridge capitalism chapter child choice civil society clothes concern consumer consumption context contradictions Coronation Street create culture David Simons desire dialectical discourse discussion dominated elderly ethical shopping ethnography evidence example experience expressed fieldwork focus forms gender Green grocery Hegel households Ibis Pond ideal ideology implications important individual institutions issues Jardine Matheson Jay Road kinship Kwik-Save Lewis Henry Morgan live middle-class Miller models moral mother National Childbirth Trust neighborhood normative North London noted objectified one’s particular partners perspective Pintupi political economy potential practice Press problem purchase reason relations relationship retail Retail Geography role seems sense shopkeepers shoppers shopping expedition simply soap operas social Somerfield street suggest sumer supermarkets tend Tesco things tion topic University working-class Wrigley