"This rich and diverse collection of studies of consumers and consumption in Latin America provides a wonderfully vivid window on class, politics, popular culture, international political economy, and the history of everyday life. This will be an enormously useful text for students of cultural and media studies and scholars throughout the social sciences. Its particularly good to see such a ... Read moregeographically diverse collection of authors engaged in this book." - Barry Carr, Visiting Professor, University of California and Fordham University, US, and Senior Fellow, Institute of Latin American Studies, La Trobe University, Australia "Writings about consumption are so often anecdotal, superficial, and in essence judgemental, which is precisely why this volume, which is none of these things, is both welcome and necessary. The core is an empathetic engagement with consumers across Latin America. The extraordinary range of topics shows just how absurd it is to try and understand everyday life without dealing with consumption, because, in so many respects, this simply is the contemporary world of Latin America. The volume also succeeds in addressing advertising, banking, business and branding as the essential context, without reducing consumption to these forces." - Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, University College London Show Less