Death in a Consumer Culture

Death in a Consumer Culture
Author: Susan Dobscha
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317536185

Download Death in a Consumer Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Death has never been more visible to consumers. From life insurance to burial plots to estate planning, we are constantly reminded of consumer choices to be made with our mortality in mind. Religious beliefs in the afterlife (or their absence) impact everyday consumption activities. Death in a Consumer Culture presents the broadest array of research on the topic of death and consumer behaviour across disciplinary boundaries. Organised into five sections covering: The Death Industry; Death Rituals; Death and Consumption; Death and the Body; and Alternate Endings, the book explores topics from celebrity death tourism, pet and online memorialization; family history research, to alternatives to traditional corpse disposal methods and patient-assisted suicide. Work from scholars in history, religious studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and cultural studies sits alongside research in marketing and consumer culture. From eastern and western perspectives, spanning social groups and demographic categories, all explore the ubiquity of death as a physical, emotional, cultural, social, and cosmological inevitability. Offering a richly unique anthology on this challenging topic, this book will be of interest to researchers working at the intersections of consumer culture, marketing and mortality.

Death in a Consumer Culture

Death in a Consumer Culture
Author: Susan Dobscha
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317536193

Download Death in a Consumer Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Death has never been more visible to consumers. From life insurance to burial plots to estate planning, we are constantly reminded of consumer choices to be made with our mortality in mind. Religious beliefs in the afterlife (or their absence) impact everyday consumption activities. Death in a Consumer Culture presents the broadest array of research on the topic of death and consumer behaviour across disciplinary boundaries. Organised into five sections covering: The Death Industry; Death Rituals; Death and Consumption; Death and the Body; and Alternate Endings, the book explores topics from celebrity death tourism, pet and online memorialization; family history research, to alternatives to traditional corpse disposal methods and patient-assisted suicide. Work from scholars in history, religious studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and cultural studies sits alongside research in marketing and consumer culture. From eastern and western perspectives, spanning social groups and demographic categories, all explore the ubiquity of death as a physical, emotional, cultural, social, and cosmological inevitability. Offering a richly unique anthology on this challenging topic, this book will be of interest to researchers working at the intersections of consumer culture, marketing and mortality.

Symbolic Exchange and Death

Symbolic Exchange and Death
Author: Jean Baudrillard
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1473998409

Download Symbolic Exchange and Death Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Jean Baudrillard is one of the most celebrated and most controversial of contemporary social theorists. This major work occupies a central place in the rethinking of the humanities and social sciences around the idea of postmodernism. It leads the reader on an exhilarating tour encompassing the end of Marxism, the enchantment of fashion, symbolism about sex and the body, and the relations between economic exchange and death. Most significantly, the book represents Baudrillard′s fullest elaboration of the concept of the three orders of the simulacra, defining the historical passage from production to reproduction to simulation. A classic in its field, Symbolic Exchange and Death is a key source for the redefinition of contemporary social thought. Baudrillard′s critical gaze appraises social theories as diverse as cybernetics, ethnography, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, communications theory and semiotics. This English translation begins with a new introductory essay.

Consumer Culture in Africa

Consumer Culture in Africa
Author: Samuel Kwaku Bonsu
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre: Ashanti (African people)
ISBN: 9781526476197

Download Consumer Culture in Africa Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Born and raised in Ghana, I was interested in understanding some of the consumer cultural issues I experienced as a young man. Various experiences drew me closer to the concept of death and its connection to consumption. This case traces one ethnographic journey into African consumer culture through the lens of Asante death rituals. It outlines the methodological journey which involved participant observation, long interviews, and analysis of text (videos and written material). Data gathered from the three primary sources were integrated into a cohesive interpretive output. I conclude with some ideas on how the methods discussed may be improved.

Notes on the Death of Culture

Notes on the Death of Culture
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0374710317

Download Notes on the Death of Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A provocative essay collection that finds the Nobel laureate taking on the decline of intellectual life In the past, culture was a kind of vital consciousness that constantly rejuvenated and revivified everyday reality. Now it is largely a mechanism of distraction and entertainment. Notes on the Death of Culture is an examination and indictment of this transformation—penned by none other than Mario Vargas Llosa, who is not only one of our finest novelists but one of the keenest social critics at work today. Taking his cues from T. S. Eliot—whose essay "Notes Toward a Definition of Culture" is a touchstone precisely because the culture Eliot aimed to describe has since vanished—Vargas Llosa traces a decline whose ill effects have only just begun to be felt. He mourns, in particular, the figure of the intellectual: for most of the twentieth century, men and women of letters drove political, aesthetic, and moral conversations; today they have all but disappeared from public debate. But Vargas Llosa stubbornly refuses to fade into the background. He is not content to merely sign a petition; he will not bite his tongue. A necessary gadfly, the Nobel laureate Vargas Llosa, here vividly translated by John King, provides a tough but essential critique of our time and culture.

The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Large Print 16pt)

The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Large Print 16pt)
Author: Wesley J. Smith
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2010-10-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 145877841X

Download The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Large Print 16pt) Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

When his teenaged son Christopher, brain-damaged in an auto accident, developed a 106-degree fever following weeks of unconsciousness, John Campbell asked the attending physician for help. The doctor refused. Why bother? The boy's life was effectively over. Campbell refused to accept this verdict. He demanded treatment and threatened legal action. The doctor finally relented. With treatment, Christopher's temperature subsided almost immediately. Soon afterwards he regained consciousness and today he is learning to walk again. This story is one of many Wesley Smith recounts in his groundbreaking new book, The Culture of Death. Smith believes that American medicine ''is changing from a system based on the sanctity of human life into a starkly utilitarian model in which the medically defenseless are seen as having not just a 'right' but a 'duty' to die.'' Going behind the current scenes of our health care system, he shows how doctors withdraw desired care based on Futile Care Theory rather than provide it as required by the Hippocratic Oath. And how ''bioethicists'' influence policy by considering questions such as whether organs may be harvested from the terminally ill and disabled. This is a passionate, yet coolly reasoned book about the current crisis in medical ethics by an author who has made ''the new thanatology'' his consuming interest.

Architects of the Culture of Death

Architects of the Culture of Death
Author: Benjamin Wiker
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2009-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1681490439

Download Architects of the Culture of Death Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The phrase, ""the Culture of Death"", is bandied about as a catch-all term that covers abortion, euthanasia and other attacks on the sanctity of life. In Architects of the Culture of Death, authors Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker expose the Culture of Death as an intentional and malevolent ideology promoted by influential thinkers who specifically attack Christian morality's core belief in the sanctity of human life and the existence of man's immortal soul. In scholarly, yet reader-friendly prose, DeMarco and Wiker examine the roots of the Culture of Death by introducing 23 of its architects, including Ayn Rand, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Jack Kevorkian, and Peter Singer. Still, this is not a book without hope. If the Culture of Death rests on a fragmented view of the person and an eclipse of God, the future of the Culture of Life relies on an understanding and restoration of the human being as a person, and the rediscovery of a benevolent God. The personalism of John Paul II is an illuminating thread that runs through Architects, serving as a hopeful antidote.

Death and Bereavement Across Cultures

Death and Bereavement Across Cultures
Author: Pittu Laungani
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1134789777

Download Death and Bereavement Across Cultures Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

All societies have their own customs and beliefs surrounding death. In the West, traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and though science has had a major impact on views of death, it has taught us little about the way to die or to grieve. Many who come into contact with the dying and the bereaved from other cultures are at a loss to know how to offer appropriate and sensitive support. Death and Bereavement Across Cultures, provides a handbook with which to meet the needs of doctors, nurses, social workers, counsellors and others involved in the care of the dying and bereaved. Written by international authorities in the field, this important text: * describes the rituals and beliefs of major world religions * explains their psychological and historical context * shows how customs change on contact with the West * considers the implications for the future This book explores the richness of mourning traditions around the world with the aim of increasing the understanding which we all bring to the issue of death.

Consumer Culture Theory

Consumer Culture Theory
Author: Eric J. Arnould
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2018-06-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1526452111

Download Consumer Culture Theory Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Outlining the key themes, concepts and theoretical areas in the field, this book draws on contributions from prominent researchers to unravel the complexities of consumer culture by looking at how it affects personal identity, social interactions and the consuming human being. A field which is characterised as being theoretically challenging is made accessible through learning features that include case study material, critical reflection, research directions, further reading and a broad mix of the types of consumers and consumption contexts including emerging markets and economies. The structure of the book is designed to help students map the field in the way it is interpreted by researchers and follows the conceptual mapping in the classic Arnould & Thompson 2005 journal article. The book is organised into three parts - the Consumption Identity, Marketplace Cultures and the Socio-Historic Patterning of Consumption. Insight is offered into both the historical roots of consumer culture and the everyday experiences of navigating the contemporary marketplace. The book is supported by a collection of international case studies and real world scenarios, including: How Fashion Bloggers Rule the Fashion World; the Kendall Jenner Pepsi Commercial; Professional Beer Pong, Military Recruiting Campaigns, The World Health Organization and the Corporatization of Education. The go-to text for anyone new to CCT or postgraduate students writing a CCT-related thesis.

Celebrating the Family

Celebrating the Family
Author: Elizabeth H. Pleck
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2000-07-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674002791

Download Celebrating the Family Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Pleck examines changes in the way Americans celebrate holidays like Christmas or birthdays.