Overview

Capitalism and the Senses is the first edited volume to explore how the forces of capitalism are entangled with everyday sensory experience. If the senses have a history, as Karl Marx wrote, then that history is inseparable from the development of capitalism, which has both taken advantage of the senses and influenced how sensory experience has changed over time. This pioneering collection shows how seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching have both shaped and been shaped by commercial interests from the turn of the twentieth century to our own time. From the manipulation of taste and texture in the food industry to the careful engineering of the feel of artificial fabrics, capitalist enterprises have worked to commodify the senses in a wide variety of ways. Drawing on history, anthropology, geography, and other fields, the volume's essays analyze not only where this effort has succeeded but also where the senses have resisted control and the logic of markets. The result is an innovative ensemble that demonstrates how the drive to exploit sensorial experience for profit became a defining feature of capitalist modernity and establishes the senses as an important dimension of the history of capitalism. Contributors: Nicholas Anderman, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Jessica P. Clark, Ai Hisano, Lisa Jacobson, Sven Kube, Grace Lees-Maffei, Ingemar Pettersson, David Suisman, Ana Maria Ulloa, Nicole Welk-Joerger.

Full Product Details

9781512824209

Table of Contents

Reviews

Industrial capitalism was bent on disciplining the senses in the interests of production. Consumer capitalism seeks to entice the senses to stimulate consumption. The tale of capitalism's shifting investments in the senses needs telling, and this book does so piercingly, brilliantly, sumptuously. * David Howes, Concordia University *

Author Information

Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Professor of Business History and Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society at the University of Leeds. David Suisman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available