Business Management

What does sociology teach us about ‘the consumer’? What can management learn from this?
Key Readings
Gabriel, Y. and Lang, T. (2008) ‘New Faces and New Masks of Today’s Consumer,’
Journal of Consumer Culture 8, pp. 321-340
Gay, P. D., & Salaman, G. (1992). The cult [ure] of the customer. Journal of management studies, 29(5), 615-633.
Granter, E. (2009) Critical Social Theory and the End of Work. Farnham: Ashgate [Phd on BBoard]
Warde, A. (1994) ‘Consumption, identity-formation and uncertainty’, Sociology, 28: 4, pp. 877-898.
Reith, G. (2004) ‘Consumption and its discontents: addiction, identity and the problems of freedom,’ The British Journal of Sociology 55: 2, pp. 283-300.
Klein, N. (2001) No Logo. Flamingo.
Further Readings
Trentmann, F. (2006) (ed.) The Making of the Consumer: Knowledge, Power and Identity in the Modern World, pp. 1–27. Oxford and New York: Berg Publisher.
Backes, N. (1997) ‘Reading the Shopping Mall City,’ The Journal of Popular Culture 31: 3, pp. 1–17
Manzo, J. (2010) ‘Social Control and the Management of “Personal” Space in Shopping Malls,’ Space and Culture 8: 1, pp. 83-97.
Lindquist, U. (2009) ‘The Cultural Archive of the Ikea Store’, Space and Culture 12: 1, pp. 43-62.
Bowlby, R. (2000) Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping. London: Faber and Faber.
Du Gay, P. (1996) Consumption and identity at work. London: Sage.
Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage.
Miller, D. (1998) A Theory of Shopping. Cambridge: Polity Press.