A Social and Economic Theory of

Consumption
Kaj Ilmonen, Edited by Pekka Sulkunen, Keijo Rahkonen, Jukka
Gronow, Arto Noro, Alan Warde
Hardcover 9780230244108 £66.00 / $105.00

Ebooks available

Kaj Ilmonen was a pioneer in the third wave of the sociology of consumption in the 1970s; an original and
erudite scholar and sociological theorist. This book provides a balanced overview of the sociology of
consumption, reaching out towards its current and future development. The author's argument is that the
enthusiasm of 'the third wave' exaggerated the role of the symbolic and imaginary at the expense of the
materiality of human societies. Going back to Marx he reminds us that consumption should be seen as part
of the metabolism between nature and human societies, with specific characteristics in modern capitalism.
In a curious way, affluent societies highlight features of the fundamental mechanisms of the social bond,
such as gift exchange. Even money, the institution that we associate with calculative rationality, obeys laws
that violate the rules of equivalent exchange and quantitative measurement.

KAJ ILMONEN was one of the founding members of the European network of the sociology of consumption
and a pioneering theorist in the field.

PEKKA SULKUNEN is Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland. His previous publications
include The Urban Pub; The European New Middle Class; Constructing the New Consumer Society (edited);
The Saturated Society; Introduction to Sociology, and a number of other books in Finnish, Swedish, English
and French.

KEIJO RAHKONEN is Adjunct Professor of Social Policy and Head of the Department of Social Research,
University of Helsinki, Finland.

JUKKA GRONOW is Professor of Sociology at Uppsala University, Sweden.

ARTO NORO is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland.

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