The Routledge Handbook of Identity and Consumption

"Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are," said Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Today, "You are what you consume" is more apt. Barbara Krueger’s ironic twist of Descartes – "I shop therefore I am" – has lost its irony. Such phrases have become commonplace descriptions of our identity in the contemporary world. In our materialistic world, it seems as if there is no debate that our consumption behavior is fused with our self-identity – shaping it, changing it, and often challenging it.

The R...