Consumption and Generational Change: The Rise of Consumer Lifestyles

The study of consumption in social life is growing. Moving from being a relatively unimportant part of the processes of production, distribution, and exchange, questions of how people consume and to what ends now occupy center stage. Today's capitalism is exemplified by a global arena of consumption in which distance is no obstacle to distribution and ownership. Equally, social distinctions that accompanied classically "modern" forms of consumption are now more complex and fluid than classi...