Explorations in Consumer Culture Theory

The role of culture in consumption has been long acknowledged, but related research has been fragmented and under-appreciated. This volume, with its impressive line-up of topics and authors, will play a vital role in the development of Consumer Culture Theory as the well-spring from which new and deep understandings of the consumer world are emerging.

David Glen Mick, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia (Former Editor JCR, Past President, ACR)

Consumer Culture Theory is not a theory. It is much more. It is the future of research about consumers, markets, and business. The settings for the research and reflections presented here are fascinating in and of themselves: DNA testing, home away from home, Wal Mart, Christmas trees, personal trainers, gambling casinos, advertising, dolls, and poetry. But even more stimulating are insights into basic human issues addressed in these chapters. They include: Who am I? Where do I come from? What can I become? What is home? What is family? What is ritual in contemporary consumer society? How does gambling emancipate us from the market? What is Consumer Culture Theory? And how has advertising shaped culture and brought order to the world? This is a book that will fascinate, stimulate, and provoke new ways of seeing the world of the consumer. It is about a very vibrant and fresh perspective on consumption that has emerged in the past three decades and clearly has come of age.

Russell Belk Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University (Past President & Fellow, ACR)

CCT is AOK. This book brings together some of the most effervescent thinking in Consumer Culture Theory. It is the Sprite of scholarship - refreshing, invigorating and deliciously subversive. Covering everything from Christmas trees to DNA tests, Sherry and Fischer's volume sparkles with smarts and spirit and sugar-rush subversion. Image may be nothing but imagination is everything. Exploring Consumer Culture Theory is intoxicatingly imaginative. Enjoy.

Stephen Brown, Prof of Marketing, Ulster University

This book is an exploration of new ideas, new topics, new ways of thinking and writing. It will bring bright light and some heat to the debate. Exploring Consumer Culture Theory is an important step forward.

Grant McCracken (Industry consultant, author, leading consumer behavior theorist, and anthropologist)

This second installment (of what one hopes will be many) of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) conference papers delivers on CCT's promise of pluralism – in directions, inclusions, articulations, applications, theoretics and poetics. It is a must-read for marketers or social scientists with an eye on consumption. This volume invites and incites.

Rita Denny, Founding Partner, Practica Group, LLC

Eileen Fischer and John Sherry have put together a fine collection of writings from talented contributors whose insights and deft analyses demonstrate, in a variety of ways, how consumption informs and is informed by meaning-making practice. A delightful read, this work promises to invigorate the already lively field of Consumer Culture Theory by situating culture squarely in the crux of consumer research.

Daniel Thomas Cook, Rutgers University, author of The Commodification of Childhood