A Taste for Gardening

'A Taste for Gardening offers a detailed and rich analysis of how struggles over classed and gendered tastes are played out in our gardens. An important intervention in current debates about consumption and everyday cultures, this book also challenges many assumptions about the relationship between lifestyle media and everyday practices. A key book for anyone interested in the relationships between taste, class and gender.' Joanne Hollows, Nottingham Trent University, UK 'A Taste for Gardening provides a brilliant analysis of forms of symbolic violence in both the media and everyday settings. It shows not only how the media position working-class tastes in lifestyle TV, but - much more difficult and the profound strength of the ethnography presented here - in the mundane practices and interactions of daily life. A tour de force! ' Paul Willis, Keele University 'Lisa Taylor's academic investigation...focuses on how media constructions of class and gender define gardens and gardening. Her theoretical approach utilizes the cultural studies of Raymond Williams, post-modern feminism and the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, to analyze ethnographic research of a group of gardeners in a post-industrial northern town...she recognizes distinct working and middle-class differences, in the layout and maintanence of gardens, reflecting social aspirations and civic status.' Garden Design Journal