This volumes examines commodity consumption both as an ongoing problem for capital and a complex mediator of the post-Cold War political economy. Comor assesses consumption as a core but contradictory nodal point in contemporary world (dis)order developments arguing that capitalist consumption--as a political, economic and sociological institution--facilitates efforts to rule through consent. However, as a result of its constitutive influence, consumption also mediates how vested interests (e.g., the American state and its opponents) conceptualize desirable, feasible, and imaginable strategies.
Book Description
This is the first book to assess capitalist consumption in terms of its international political economy implications.