The modern society of consumption is a society of fashion. Fashion has extended its influence over various fields of social life and, together with taste, become central to our understanding of the inner dynamics of any modern society.
The Sociology of Taste looks at the role of taste - or the aesthetic reflection - in society at large and in modern society in particular. Taking case studies from social life, for example eating and food culture, it illustrates the role of fashion in the formation of collective taste.

The modern society of consumption is a society of fashion. Fashion has extended its influence over various fields of social life and, together with taste, become central to the understanding of the inner dynamics of any modern society.

The sociology of consumption has concentrated unduly on the more spectacular and visual aspects of contemporary consumer behaviour, thereby constructing an unbalanced and misleading view. This collection emphasises ordinary rather than extraordinary items, routine and repetitive behaviour rather than conscious decision-making. It studies practical contexts of use rather than decisions to purchase and analyzes collective identification rather than personal identity. Each essay argues one or more of these points, for the most part using new empirical material from several different national...

Karl Kautsky was, for three decades before the First World War, the main authority on the intellectual heritage of Marx and Engels, the founding fathers of Marxism. His interpretation of Marx's Capital and the basic laws and contradictions of capitalism was the standard reference point for both the foes and allies of Social Democracy. Jukka Gronow's On the Formation of Marxism analyses Kautsky's impact on the self-understanding of the European labour movement from his dispute over Revisionism with Eduard Bernstein to his polemics with V.I. Lenin over Imperialism and the Russian...