We constantly hear about 'the consumer'. The 'consumer' has become a ubiquitous person in public discourse and academic research, but who is this person? This interdisciplinary study follows the evolution of the consumer in the modern world, ranging from imperial Britain to contemporary Papua New Guinea, and from the European Union to China.

Introduction 1. Knowing Consumers: Histories, Identities, Practices: An Introduction Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck College, University of London) Part One Defining Consumers: Consumers in Economics, Law and Civil Society 2. The Problematic Status of the Consumer in Orthodox Economic Thought Donald Winch (University of Sussex) 3. From Users to Consumers: Water Politics in Nineteenth-Century London Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck College, University of London) and Vanessa Taylor (Birkbeck College, University of London) 4. Women and the Ethics of Consumption in France at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel (CNRS: Centre de Recherches Historiques, cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France) 5. Legal Constructions of the Consumer Michelle Everson (Birkbeck College, University of London) Part Two Commercial Relations: Retailers, Experts, and the Contested Consumer 6. Packaging China: Foreign Articles and Dangerous Tastes in the Mid-Victorian Tea Party Erika Rappaport (University of California, Santa Barbara) 7. From Neighbour to Consumer: The Transformation of Retailer-Consumer Relationships in Twentieth-Century Germany Uwe Spiekermann (Georg-August University, Goettingen) 8. Consumers with Chinese Characteristics? Local Customers in British and Japanese Multinational Stores in Contemporary China Jos Gamble (Royal Holloway University) 9. A Becoming Subject: Consumer Socialization in the Mediated Marketplace Stephen Kline (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada) Part Three Reframing Consumers and Consumption: Contemporary Culture and Political Economy 10. Competing Domains: Democratic Subjects and Consuming Subjects in Britain and the United States since 1945 Frank Mort (University of Manchester) 11. From Stigma to Cult: Changing Meanings in East German Consumer Culture Ina Merkel (Philipps-Universitt, Marburg, Germany) 12. The Limits of Culture: Political Economy and the Anthropology of Consumption James G. Carrier (Indiana University and Oxford Brookes University) 13. Addressing the Consumer Ben Fine (SOAS: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Index

The Cultures of Consumption Series explores the changing nature of consumption in a global context. The series investigates the different forms, development and consequences of consumption, past and present. Topics covered include consumption in the domestic sphere, the ethical consumer, alternative and sustainable forms of consumption, citizenship and consumption, and the shifting local, metropolitan and transnational boundaries of cultures of consumption.