Fritz Allhoff and Patrick Lin (Eds.): Nanotechnology and society. Current and emerging ethical issues. Heidelberg: Springer, 2008. ISBN 978-1-402-06208-7. 300 pp., EUR 90.90.

Nanotechnology has recently come to the fore as a new enabling technology that brings along both benefits and risks for consumers. Nanotechnology & Society is a collection of 16 papers focused on the most urgent issues arising from nanotechnology today and in the near future. Written by researchers, policy experts, and nanoethics scholars worldwide, the book is divided into five units: foundational issues; risk and regulation; industry and policy; the human condition; and selected global issues. The individual chapters tackle such issues as environmental impact, health dangers, medical benefits, intellectual property, professional code of ethics, privacy, and international governance.

Markus Anzengruber: Sozial orientiertes Konsumentenverhalten im Lebensmittelhandel. Ein Vergleich junger Deutscher mit gleichaltrigen Deutschtürken. Wiesbaden: Gabler, 2008. ISBN 978-3-835-00971-4. 401 pp., EUR 59.90.

Consumers with migrant background are a long neglected consumer group. As expected, their attitudes and behaviour depart in many ways from those of the dominant nationals. This holds particularly true for food consumption, which is highly culturally specific and usually brought along by immigrants to their new country, even for many generations. This dissertation looks into socially oriented consumer behaviour in food retailing. The author focuses on a specific target audience, namely young German–Turkish consumers with immigrant background. The attitudes and behavioural propensities of this group are compared with a same age group of Germans.

Ingo Balderjahn and Joachim Scholderer: Konsumentenverhalten und Marketing. Grundlagen für Strategien und Maßnahmen. Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel, 2007. ISBN 978-3-791-02535-3. 244 pp., EUR 39.95.

This textbook integrates three didactic approaches to consumer behaviour. The first part offers a state-of-the-art introduction to the psychological foundations of consumer science (cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioural). The second part is problem-oriented, focusing on typical tasks and problem contexts in marketing management (segmentation, cross-cultural marketing, customer satisfaction and loyalty, e-business, sustainability). The third part offers an in-depth treatment of the main marketing parameters for which consumer insight is decisive (innovation, communication, pricing). The book is targeted at master-level courses and advanced bachelor-level courses in consumer behaviour.

Benjamin Barber: Consumed. How markets corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole. New York: Norton, 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-33089-2. 416 pp., USD 26.95.

As a sequel to Benjamin R. Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld, Consumed offers a vivid portrait of an overproducing global economy that targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers and where the primary goal is no longer to manufacture goods but needs. To explain how and why this has come about, the author brings together empirical research with an original theoretical framework for contemporary consumer culture. He asserts that in place of the Protestant ethic once associated with capitalism—encouraging self-restraint, preparing for the future, protecting and self-sacrificing for children and community, and other characteristics of adulthood—we are constantly being seduced into an “infantilist” ethic of consumption.

Michael Bilharz: “Key Points” nachhaltigen Konsums. Ein strukturpolitisch fundierter Strategieansatz für die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation im Kontext aktivierender Verbraucherpolitik. Marburg: Metropolis, 2008. ISBN 978-3-89518-663-9. 391 pp., EUR 36.80.

Conception and implementation of measures to encourage sustainable consumption represent an important field of activity for sustainability communication. Starting point of the work is the assumption that these measures can be designed more effectively to enhance sustainable consumption, if hints of sustainable consumption are prioritised. Therefore, in a first step, conceptual orientations for sustainability communication are formulated. They concern the understanding of sustainable consumption, the adequate reflection of the contents of communication measures as well as the role of consumers in the context of a modern consumer policy. In the next step, a strategy concept is developed based on the ecological–social dilemma theory and structuration theory. The concept enables one to identify hints of sustainable consumption characterised by a high relevance concerning the collective sustainability-balance and a high probability to “emanate” far in time and space (so-called “key points”). The strategy concept is used as a basis for two explorative studies, one on book guides for sustainable consumption, another one with consumers with a positive attitude towards sustainable consumption. Both studies confirm that sustainability communication should concentrate on key hints that are best able to effectively enhance sustainable consumption.

Alison Blay-Palmer and Wilfrid Laurier: Food fears. From industrial to sustainable food systems. Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7546-7248-7. 196 pp., GPB 55.00.

The industrial food system of the West is increasingly perceived as problematic. The physical, social, and intellectual distance between consumers and their food stems from a food system that privileges quantity and efficiency over quality, with an underlying assumption that food is a commodity, rather than a source of nourishment and pleasure. In the wake of various food and health scares, there is a growing demand from consumers to change the type of food they eat, which in turn acts as a catalyst for the industry to adapt and for alternative systems to evolve. Drawing on empirical research, this book discusses in eight chapters how sustainable, grass roots, and local food systems offer a template for meaningful individual activism as a way to bring about change from the bottom up, while at the same time creating pressure for policy changes at all levels of government.

Magnus Boström and Mikael Klintman: Eco standards, product labelling and green consumerism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 978-0-230-53737-8. 256 pp., USD 85.00.

As increasingly conscientious “citizen-consumers,” people become more interested in green consumerism. This book presents the many voluntary instruments available—eco-standards such as shopping guides, eco-labels, stewardship certificates, ranking and rating, green decelerations, codes of conduct, reporting standards, and certain trademarks with an eco-friendly profile—that have been introduced into the market to address consumers’ environmental concerns. According to the authors, there appears to be general agreement among political and other actors across the ideological spectrum in several countries that such instruments are useful and powerful. The book draws upon several years of empirical and theoretical research in analysing the practical tools of green consumerism, with a focus on green labels.

Roger J. Busch and Gernot Prütz (Eds.): Biotechnologie in gesellschaftlicher Deutung. Munich: Herbert Utz, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8316-0747-1. 376 pp., EUR 28.00.

Societal discussion about genetic modification of plants is biased—at least in many European countries. Thus, it seemed to be interesting to find out why people do not want to deal with this issue like they do with, e.g., information technology or mechatronics. Young researchers from the fields of humanities and sciences collaborated in a 2-week workshop at TTN Institute for Applied Ethics in Munich to evaluate this problem. The first part of the book contains their contributions regarding political interests, conceptions and interpretations of nature, methods and means of public dialogue, the influence of trust and confidence, concepts of risk management, and legal issues focusing on patentability. A map of relevant normative patterns has been developed as a summary of the findings. The second part of the book reports a research project that started from the results of the workshop. The project analysed the influence of intuitions, emotions, and trust on the building of individual attitudes towards genetic modification of plants. About 60 students with different attitudes towards biotechnology were exposed to an experimental setting. It has been shown that individual attitudes can be influenced by exposing participants to specific situations, challenging their willingness to decide even in cases and under conditions of uncertainty.

Emma Casey: Women, pleasure and the gambling experience. Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-7546-4617-4. 156 pp., USD 99.95.

The book focuses on the gambling behaviour of working class women. The empirical data collected demonstrates the classed and gendered nature of gambling, thus contributing to the existing feminist leisure and consumption research. Casey focuses on the aspects of gambling and leisure, gambling and (female) identity, and contributes towards explaining the success of the National Lottery in terms of the proportion of the population who play, and the regularity with which they do so.

Edward A. Comor: Consumption and the globalization project. International hegemony and the annihilation of time. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 978-0-2305-2224-4. 232 pp., GBP 50.00.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the role played by consumption in the contemporary global political economy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author assesses consumption as an increasingly influential mediator of cultures, power relations, and the neo-liberal globalization project. The book uncovers contradictions and strategic opportunities stemming from both globalization and US foreign policy after 9/11. Drawing on neo-Gramscian theory, media studies, and other analytical frameworks, the book shows that capitalist consumption—as a sociological institution—generally facilitates efforts to rule through consent in the absence of liberal democratic structures. However, largely as a result of its constitutive cultural influence, consumption also mediates how vested interests conceptualize desirable, feasible, and imaginable strategies.

Peter Diamond and Hannu Vartiainen (Eds.): Behavioral economics and its applications. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-691-12284-7. 336 pp., USD 46.95.

Behavioural economics, borrowing from psychology and sociology to explain decisions inconsistent with traditional economics, has revolutionized the way economists view the world. But despite this general success, behavioural thinking has fundamentally transformed only one field: applied economics-finance. Yet, the editors of this anthology argue that behavioural economics can have a similar impact in other fields of economics, namely: public economics, development, law and economics, health, wage determination, and organizational economics. The volume sets the agenda of an important development in economics that will interest policymakers, sociologists, and psychologists as well as economists.

John Malcolm Dowling and Yap Chin Fang: Modern developments in behavioral economics. Social science perspectives on choice and decision making. Singapore: Scientific Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-981-270-143-5. 460 pp., USD 76.00.

This book examines the still novel field of behavioural economics. It looks at decision making and behaviour from the point of view of individual behaviour and choice; group and interactive choice; and collective choices and decision making. In particular, it covers the following aspects: instances when bounded rationality leads to decisions inconsistent with standard economic assumptions; risk and the processes by which investors and consumers make decisions; altruistic and cooperative behaviour as alternatives to competition; game theory as a way to explore motives of cooperation versus competition; the determinants of happiness and the relationship between utility and well-being; the concept of social capital, including motivations for charity and being a responsible citizen; and possible ways that ethical and virtuous behaviour can be encouraged; how trust and fairness relate to economic actions and the motivation to cooperate rather than compete; behaviour such as crime, corruption, and bribery from ethical, social, and economic viewpoints; and, finally, the decision-making process of collective choice and how societies develop rules for governing themselves.

Gunter Dueck: Abschied vom Homo Oeconomicus. Warum wir eine neue ökonomische Vernunft brauchen. Frankfurt: Eichborn, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8218-5678-0. 256 pp., EUR 22.95.

The book deals with the changing mode of thinking during the different phases of the business cycle. In an upswing, people are confident, trust one another, and strive for excellence and customer satisfaction. In a downswing, the same people believe in economical and social Darwinism, mutually mistrust one another, and try to achieve unclear deals with customers to deliver compromised quality. Innovation is replaced by aggressive sales activities. The author speaks of “Phasic Instinct”: All our beliefs change in accordance with the economy. This holds true even for the “experts”: scientists, politicians, and business leaders. The author claims that in the light of these facts all our economical theories are deficient, because they assume that humans behave rationally all the time with the same unchanged logic. This assumption has been associated with the artificial economical notion of the “Homo Oeconomicus.” Yet, in reality, people change their “logical thinking” in accordance with upswing and downswing, and base their thoughts on the gut feelings of confidence and trust (upswing) or on fear and fight (downswing). Hence, the author calls for new economic theories that are truly valid.

William Ellet: The case study handbook: How to read, discuss, and write persuasively about cases. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4221-0158-2. 256 pp., USD 24.95.

The author presents a new approach for analyzing, discussing, and writing about cases. Early chapters show how to classify cases according to the analytical task they require (solving a problem, making a decision, or forming an evaluation) and quickly establish a base of knowledge about a case. Strategies and templates, in addition to several sample Harvard Business School cases, help apply the author’s framework. Later, the book shows how to write persuasive case-analytical essays based on the process laid out earlier. Examples of effective and ineffective writing illustrate the guide. The book also includes a chapter on how to talk about cases more effectively in the classroom.

Martin Evans, Ahmad Jamal, and Gordon Foxall: Consumer behaviour. West Sussex: Wiley, 2006. ISBN 0-470-09352-8. 422 pp., EUR 50.00.

Consumer behaviour is a new European textbook designed specifically around how students learn. The authors present a concise exploration of the key aspects of consumer behaviour in a rigorous manner. They also include topical issues such as consumer misbehaviour and the growing trend within marketing to attempt to understand consumers through an ever-expanding range of personalised transactional and profile data.

Gordon R. Foxall: Explaining consumer choice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4039-9862-0. 272 pp., USD 85.00.

Consumer behaviour is usually explained by reference to the intentions of the buyer: But this kind of explanation is controversial throughout the social sciences, and it is essential that researchers acquire a reasoned framework of analysis within which intentionality can be convincingly ascribed to observed behaviour in order to explain it. The book addresses this issue in the context of consumer choice in marketing-driven economies. It describes the deficiencies of a purely descriptivist approach to consumer choice and of an extensional behavioural science of consumer choice. The author proposes Behavioural Economics as a conceptual base grounded on the economic psychology of consumer choice and on marketing science.

Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil: Full disclosure. The perils and promise of transparency. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-5218-7617-9. 300 pp., GBP 25.00.

This book is about the limits and perils of policies of full disclosure. In recent decades, governments have employed public disclosure strategies to reduce risks, improve public and private goods and services, and reduce injustice. In the USA, these targeted transparency policies include financial securities disclosures, nutritional labels, school report cards, automobile rollover rankings, and sexual offender registries. They constitute a light-handed approach to governance that empowers citizens. However, as the book shows, these policies are frequently ineffective or counterproductive. Based on a comparative analysis of 18 major real world policy cases, the authors suggest that transparency policies often produce information that is incomplete, incomprehensible, or irrelevant to the consumers, investors, workers, and community residents who could benefit from them. Sometimes transparency fails because those who are threatened by it form political coalitions to limit or distort information. To be successful, transparency policies must place the needs of ordinary citizens at centre stage and produce information that facilitates their everyday choices. The book analyses policy effectiveness of corporate financial reports, Megan’s laws, nutritional labels, and school report cards. It also discusses how information and communication technology by Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, etc. foreshadows a new generation of collaborative transparency policies.

Michael Gehrer: Erster Eindruck und Vertrauen im Kaufentscheidungsprozess: eine empirische Analyse. Lohmar, Cologne: Eul, 2005. ISBN: 3-89936-358-2. 317 pp, EUR.54.00

This book is a theoretical and empirical study on first impressions and trust in consumer decision making. The author conceptualizes a causal model, which includes other central constructs such as patience and values. The author looks into how the first impression heavily influences the decision process. This framing effect seems to play a major role and hardly changes afterwards.

Anne Gerlach: Entscheidungsdefekte als Barrieren für Nachhaltigkeitsinnovationen. Ansätze zur Identifikation, Erklärung und Überwindung. Munich: Rainer Hampp, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86618-217-2. 282 pp., EUR 29.80.

In the discussion on sustainable development, it is widely accepted that innovations are vital for achieving ambitious aims like climate protection, poverty abatement, or maintenance of biodiversity. The processes of sustainability innovations are highly complex and prone to failures and setbacks. The identification of barriers at an early stage of the innovation process and taking advantage of failures are important conditions for successfully implementing sustainability innovations. The research presented in this book aims at explaining the emergence of escalating conflicts, illusions of control, and difficulties in information processing due to hidden profiles. A detailed media analysis provides insights into the implementation process of particulate filters in the German car industry, considering the outward communication of eight different stakeholders. Finally, on the basis of theoretical insights, recommendations for resolving the examined defects are pointed out.

Gerd Gigerenzer: Rationality for mortals. How people cope with uncertainty. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-532898-1. 256 pp., GBP 34.99.

The author examines the rationality of individuals not from the perspective of logic or probability, but from the point of view of adaptation to the real world of human behaviour and interaction with the environment. Seen from this perspective, human behaviour is more rational than it might otherwise appear. In 13 chapters, this volume looks at how people are “bonded and rational,” use "fast and frugal heuristics" as well as “rules of thumb” to calculate probability and risk and make decisions. It includes a newly written, substantial introduction as well as revised and updated articles where appropriate.

Gerd Gigerenzer and Christoph Engel (Eds.): Heuristics and law. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-262-07275-5. 510 pp., USD 40.00.

In recent decades, the economists’ concept of rational choice has dominated legal reasoning. And yet, in practical terms, neither the lawbreakers, the law addresses, nor officers of the law behave as the hyperrational beings postulated by rational choice. Critics of rational choice and believers in “fast and frugal heuristics” propose another approach: using certain formulations or general principles (heuristics) to help navigate in an environment that is not a well-ordered setting with an occasional disturbance, as described in the language of rational choice, but instead is fundamentally uncertain or characterized by an unmanageable degree of complexity. This is the intuition behind behavioural law and economics. In Heuristics and the Law, experts in law, psychology, and economics explore the conceptual and practical power of the heuristics approach in law. They discuss legal theory; modelling and predicting the problems the law purports to solve; the process of making law, in the legislature or in the courtroom; the application of existing law in the courts, particularly regarding the law of evidence; and implementation of the law and the impact of law on behaviour.

Flemming Hansen and Sverre Riis Christensen: Emotions, advertising and consumer choice. Gylling: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2007. ISBN 978.-8-7630-0198-4. 462 pp., EUR 67.00.

The book focuses on recent neurological and psychological insights—originating from brain scanning or neurological experiments—on basic emotional processes in the brain and their role in controlling human behaviour. These insights are used by the authors to describe the behaviour of ordinary individuals in everyday life. The book looks at these developments in the light of traditional cognitive theories of consumer choice and the implications for advertising and other communication testing are discussed. The volume offers a thorough review of contemporary thinking in the field of consumer behaviour and presents lots of empirical evidence to support the authors’ notion of an emerging paradigm of emotionally based consumer choice where mental brand equity becomes a central phenomenon. The empirical evidence is to a large extent based on a questionnaire method of measurement, pioneered by the authors.

Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Paul M. Herr, and Frank R. Kardes (Eds.): Handbook of consumer psychology. New York: Psychology Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8058-5603-3. 1280 pp., GPB 49.95.

This comprehensive handbook contains—on more than 1,200 pages—a collection of original contributions written by researchers in the dynamic field of consumer psychology. Although these researchers are housed in different academic departments (i.e., marketing, psychology, advertising, communications), all have the common goal of attaining a better scientific understanding of cognitive, effective, and behavioural responses to products and services, the marketing of these products and services, and societal and ethical concerns associated with marketing processes. Consumer psychology is a discipline at the interface of marketing, advertising, and psychology. The research in this area focuses on fundamental psychological processes as well as on issues associated with the use of theoretical principles in applied contexts. The handbook presents state-of-the-art research as well as providing a place for authors to put forward suggestions for future research and practice.

Reinhold Hedtke: Ökonomische Denkweisen. Eine Einführung. Multiperspektivität, Alternativen, Grundlagen. Schwalbach/Ts.: Wochenschau-Verlag 2008. ISBN 978-3-89974443-9, 335 pp., EUR 19.80.

This book offers a pluralistic introduction to economic phenomena and problems as well as their treatment, concentrating mainly on households, consumption, markets, and consumption policies. An unorthodox way of pluralist economic thinking on solving economic and political problems is used to reveal the basic ideas, assumptions, and values behind economic concepts. The interconnectedness of the economy and economics with politics and society is explained comprehensibly using examples and materials, many of which are related to the field of consumption. The economic is seen both as economic and as political while the political in turn is perceived as economic. Throughout the book, the author stresses the close connection of history, society, and economy.

Martin Holle: Health Claims—kompakt. Die europäischen Regeln für die Lebensmittelwerbung. Cologne: Carl Heymanns, 2007. ISBN 978-3-452-26636-1. 144 pp., EUR 24.80.

This book explains the European rules for food advertising, in particular health claims. The author provides an overview of the scope of the respective EU regulation, rules for nutrition claims and health claims as well as comparative advertising. It also looks into the role of brands.

Geoffrey Hunt and Michael Mehta (Eds.): Nanotechnology. Risk, ethics and law. London: Earthscan, 2006. ISBN 978-1-84407-358-0. 319 pp., GBP 49.95.

Nanotechnology, i.e., technology at the molecular level, promises to create a trillion dollar economy and to solve problems from curing cancer to reprocessing waste into products and building superfast computers. Yet, as with GMOs, many view nanotech as a high risk technology that once unleashed has the potential to cause unpredictable, perhaps irreversible, environmental, and public health disasters. With the race to bring products to market, there is pressing need to take stock of the situation and to have a full public debate about this new technological frontier. This edited volume provides an overview of the state of nanotech and society in Europe, the USA, Japan, and Canada, examining the ethics, the environmental and public health risks, and the governance and regulation of this enabling technology.

Ian Rees Jones, Martin Hyde, Christina R. Victor, Richard D. Wiggins, Chris Gilleard, and Paul Higgs: Ageing in a consumer society. From passive to active consumption in Britain. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-8613-4882-1. 160 pp., GBP 19.99.

Targeted as the “grey consumer,” people retiring now participated in the creation of the post-war consumer culture. These people have grown older but have not stopped consuming. This book examines the engagement of older people with consumer society in Britain since the 1960s. It charts the changes in the experience of later life in the UK over the last 50 years, the rise of the “individualised consumer citizen” and what this means for health and social policies. Its chapters cover: social change and later life; the historical evolution of the third age; cohort, generation, and time; consumption and the changing nature of the household in later life; later life in consumer society; income, expenditure, and inequalities in later life; consumer health and social policy.

Udo Kelle: Die Integration qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden in der empirischen Sozialforschung. Theoretische Grundlagen und methodologische Konzepte. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007. ISBN 978-3-531-15312-4. 331 pp., EUR 34.90.

This book is about the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in empirical social sciences. It presents theoretical groundwork as well as practical methodology concepts, and discusses pros and cons of the application of the latter.

Michael Klein (Ed.): Kinder und Suchtgefahren. Risiken, Prävention, Hilfen. Stuttgart: Schattauer, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7945-2318-4. 520 pp., EUR 49.95.

This edited volume is about “children and addiction.” It compiles 50 original contributions on a broad range of addictions such as: alcohol, television and computers, smoking, eating disorders, drugs, gambling, and addictive shopping. It discusses the systematic individual and social risks that promote addictions and presents an overview of available prevention strategies. Moreover, an appendage presents effective forms and practical advice for therapeutic help.

Johne Knechtel (Ed.): Food. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-262-11309-0. 320 pp., USD 15.95.

Food is essential to our sense of place and our sense of self, but today—as the fast food nation meets the slow food movement, and eating locally collides with on-demand arugula—our food habits are shifting. This book examines and imagines these changes, with projects by writers and artists that explore the cultural and emotional resonance of food, from the “everyday Dada” of mashed potatoes and Jell-O to the rocket science of food eaten by astronauts in space. For instance, the artist photographs everything he ate in 2006 (and some things he did not eat, including “Food I Left in the Fridge Too Long”) and finds the results both “seductive and repulsive;” a writer describes the global agro-assembly line that produces an organic bento box for Japanese commuters containing rice and vegetables from California, pork from Mexico, and salmon from Alaska; a short story writer offers an eight-page graphic novel, Eating in Cafeterias; a landscape architect compares a commercial orange with an organic apple using visualized data; an award-winning New York City food writer tells a postmodern tale about small-town Chinese-American cuisine.

Karl Kollmann and Manfred E. A. Schmutzer (Eds.): Mächte des Marktes…der ohnmächtige Verbraucher? Band 35. Vienna: Verlag Österreich, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7046-5097-9. 177 pp., EUR 32.00.

Contrary to the mainstream belief that the market is an objective and thus “just” an instrument for the provision of goods, the authors in this volume show that its operations are by no means objective or free from outside influence. It is therefore impossible to assert that the market could achieve “fair” distribution within a society. It is equally incorrect to claim that there is no better control mechanism for the economy than the market economy system. The essays in this book are written by scholars and media experts, through which the editors aim to “encourage a critical analysis of the ideology and apotheosis of the market.”

Judith Levine: No Shopping! Ein Selbstversuch. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-378-01093-2. 299 pp., EUR 19.95.

Inspired by environmental, social, and financial worries, the author enlists herself and her partner in a radical experiment of consumption abstinence. For an entire year, they forgo all but the most necessary purchases. The author describes how they—without consumer goods and experiences—pursue their careers, nurture relationships, and try to keep their sanity, their identities, and their sense of humour intact. The book is about fundamental issues of consumption: need and desire, scarcity and security, consumerism, and citizenship. The author also looks into the macro issues such as the question of whether and how the economy can survive without shopping.

Shlomo Maital (Ed.): Recent developments in behavioral economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007. ISBN 978-1-8454-2406-0. 480 pp., GBP 108.00.

This book comprises cutting-edge research in behavioural economics and economic psychology, published mainly since 2000. The selection of articles examines the subject from a variety of perspectives and includes papers on: the historical origins and methodologies of behavioural economics; methodologies for researching behaviour and decision choices; rational choice in childhood; present–future choice; behavioural aspects of saving, risk, and investment; effort, pay, and poverty; seeking happiness; social norms and culture; and preferences. The editor himself contributes an original introduction that complements his choice.

Carlo Mari: Consumer motivation. Foundations for a theory of consumption. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2008. ISBN 978-88-495-1613-5. 88 pp., EUR 9.00.

Is consumer motivation still a relevant concept in developing marketing knowledge? Can its use help to build a middle-range theory of consumption? Have marketing and consumer behaviour scholars dealt convincingly with this concept during the past 40 years? This short monograph is an attempt to address previous issues through a new perspective focused on both the language of marketing and the social infrastructure surrounding the knowledge development system in marketing. The monograph shows how the lack of precision in defining consumer problems arouses drawbacks that affect theory building. This outcome is strongly linked to basic features of the social component of scientific inquiry as described in the book. To overcome such weaknesses, this booklet proposes a simple conceptual framework that re-defines the discourse about consumer motivation.

Hans-Peter Meister and Felix Oldenburg: Beteiligung—ein Programm für Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Heidelberg: Physica, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7908-1601-3. 163 pp., EUR 49.95.

How can a senior manager or CEO be sure to get acceptance for new models concerning working hours? How can a First Minister solve a conflict regarding the expansion of an airport that has been dragging on for decades? How can decision-makers in Germany obtain agreement and win trust? The key to all of this, according to the authors, is participation. An increasing number of top executives enjoy genuine success when they move beyond the old division of labour between companies, politics, and society. They implement new processes of dialogue, co-operation, and conflict resolution that enable joint decision-making. The book presents methods and processes that enable change to be successfully shaped by means of participation. Participative strategies have recipes for success—and a good number of potential pitfalls—just as much as traditional core management theories on customer loyalty, cost cutting, or publicity do.

Gerd Michelsen and Jasmin Godemann (Eds.): Handbuch Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation. Grundlagen und Praxis. 2nd ed. Munich: Oekomg, 2007. ISBN 978-3-936581-33-1. 940 pp., EUR 49.90.

Modern and professional communication is required to implement the idea of sustainability in society. This book develops a theoretical and empirical framework, integrating interdisciplinary perspectives from communication theory, psychology, sociology, educational sciences, system theory, and constructivism toward establishing sustainability communication. Complementing these main theoretical implications, the book shows practical instruments and concepts in different areas such as corporate practice, education, media and journalism, consulting, and NGOs. Furthermore, best practice examples of sustainability communication are presented.

Kathryn C. Montgomery: Generation digital: Politics, commerce, and childhood in the age of the internet. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-262-13478-1. 368 pp., GBP 18.95.

Children and teens today have integrated digital culture seamlessly into their lives. For most, using the Internet, playing videogames, downloading music onto an iPod, or multitasking with a cell phone is no more complicated than setting the oven to “bake” or turning on the TV. In Generation Digital, media expert and activist Kathryn C. Montgomery examines the ways in which the new media landscape is changing the nature of childhood and adolescence and analyses recent political debates that have shaped both policy and practice in digital culture. The media have pictured the so-called “digital generation” in contradictory ways: as bold trailblazers and innocent victims, as active creators of digital culture, and passive targets of digital marketing. This reflects our ambivalent attitude toward both youth and technology. The author charts a confluence of historical trends that made children and teens a particularly valuable target market during the early commercialization of the Internet and describes the consumer-group advocacy campaign that led to a law to protect children’s privacy on the Internet. Not all of today’s techno-savvy youth are politically disaffected; Generation Digital chronicles the ways that many have used the Internet as a political tool, mobilizing young voters in 2004 and waging battles with the music and media industries over control of cultural expression online.

Felissa Mühlich: Übergewicht als Politikum? Normative Überlegungen zur Ernährungspolitik Renate Künasts. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008. ISBN 978-3-531-15816-7. 117 pp., EUR 19.90.

Over the past years, excess weight and obesity have increasingly become political issues in many countries. It seems, however, as if political actions aiming at a “healthy diet” for individuals were violating notions of privacy. This study examines the relationship between politics of nutrition and normative concepts of privacy. In the theoretical part, the author presents different normative understandings of privacy and its value, in particular the modern liberal conception of “decisional” privacy, and explores their connection with nutrition, dietary habits, and excess weight. As the value of privacy is mainly seen as being an enabling condition of autonomous agency, also the relationship between autonomy and nutrition is addressed. The empirical part concentrates on the politics of the former German Federal Minister for Consumer Protection, Nutrition, and Agriculture, Renate Künast. How are political interventions in this field being justified? Are the arguments brought forward (such as social justice, equal opportunities, and exploding public healthcare costs) legitimate when it comes to justifying interventions into the private? The author shows why individual dietary habits and weight can normatively be understood as part of “decisional” privacy. From this point of view, some political actions seem problematic, while others become feasible to protect autonomous choices and hence privacy.

Marcus M. Neumann: Konsumentenvertrauen. Messung, Determinanten und Konsequenzen. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8350-0784-0. 248 pp., EUR 49.90.

This dissertation entitled “Consumer trust: measurement, determinants, and consequences” deals with a key concept of consumer markets. In a first part, the author looks at the conceptual base of consumer trust in different schools of thought. In a second part, he develops his own concept of trust and discusses how to measure and operationalize it. He then presents an empirical application of the concept and looks in particular at the causalities of trust. The results of his empirical investigation show that consumer trust is primarily dependent on the reputation, the perceived problem solving capacity as well as the self-similarity of a company or brand.

Peter Oosterveer: Global governance of food production and consumption. Issues and challenges. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84542-938-6. 304 pp., GBP 75.00.

The provision of food is undergoing radical transformations throughout the global community. This book argues that, as a consequence, conventional national governmental regulations can no longer adequately respond to existing and emerging food risks and to environmental concerns. Considering the transformation of recent thinking in the social sciences (e.g., Manuel Castells, John Urry) to the global food sector, this book reviews the challenges facing global food governance and the innovative regulatory arrangements that are being introduced by different governments, NGOs, and private companies. The analysis includes case studies on the European BSE crisis, GM-food regulation, salmon and shrimp farming, and food labelling. The author highlights how contemporary governance arrangements also have to acknowledge increasing consumer demand for food produced with care for the environment, animal welfare, and social justice. Developing and implementing adequate global food governance arrangements therefore demands the active involvement of private firms, consumers, and civil society organizations with national governments.

Robert B. Reich: Supercapitalism: The transformation of business, democracy, and everyday life. New York: Knopf Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-26561-6. USD 25.00.

Mid-twentieth-century capitalism has turned into global capitalism, and global capitalism has turned, the author claims, into “supercapitalism.” However, the downside of this development is that democracy is becoming less and less effective. Following the author, widening inequalities of income and wealth, heightened job insecurity, and the spreading effects of global warming are the logical outcomes of supercapitalism. Companies, fighting harder than ever to maintain their competitive positions, have become even more deeply involved in politics; average citizens, seeking great deals and having invested in the stock market to an unprecedented degree, are increasingly loath to stand by their values if it means biting the hands that feed them. The author claims that the tools traditionally used to temper America’s societal problems—fair taxation, well-funded public education, trade unions—have withered as supercapitalism has burgeoned.

Udo Reifner (Ed.): Geld nutzen. 20 Jahre Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen e.V. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8329-2753-0. 216 pp., EUR 29.00.

This reader reports about the philosophy and the work of the Hamburg based German Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen (iff)—Institute of Financial Services—since its founding 20 years ago. From the onset, the institute has addressed some of the major issues of money and society. The first part of the book deals with ethical, social, and moral issues in financial services. The second part gives an account of the research and services with regard to the general development of consumer protection in financial services in Germany. This book provides insights and an overview on the possibilities of “using money sensibly” in our modern credit society. It contains a short history of scandals and successes in the sector of financial services over the past 20 years, at a time when “corporate social responsibility” remained an empty expression and had yet to feature in public discussions.

Ortwin Renn, Pia-Johanna Schweizer, Marion Dreyer, and Andreas Klinke: Risiko. Über den gesellschaftlichen Umgang mit Unsicherheit. Munich: Oekom, 2007. ISBN 978-3-86581-067-0. 272 pp., EUR 24.80.

This book integrates different disciplines dealing with the many facets of “risk”—ranging from the calculation of probabilities of occurrence to the analysis of human responses to risky situations. It provides a detailed presentation and discussion of a set of disciplinary perspectives to assess and evaluate risk and includes an account of the “classical” major elements of dealing with risk including risk assessment, risk perception, risk evaluation, risk management, and risk communication. On the basis of these conceptual considerations, the book introduces a new integrative approach to risk and risk handling which builds on a social–ecological perspective and incorporates suggestions of the German Council for Global Environmental Change (WBGU) as well as the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). How to involve civil society in the selection, evaluation, and management of risks in democratic societies forms the final part of the book.

Franziska Rischkowsky: Europäische Verbraucherpolitik. Theoretische Grundlagen und neue Probleme am Beispiel des Internets. Marburg: Metropolis, 2007. ISBN 978-3-89518-643-1. 286 pp., EUR 36.80.

The insight that it is finally the consumer who determines by his decisions the development and the success of the Common Market led to a European Consumer Policy. The promotion of consumer interests and the insurance of a high level of consumer protection should increase the confidence of the European citizens in the internal market. To facilitate and to cheapen transnational consumer transactions, electronic business is a powerful instrument. Simultaneously, it holds new risks for the consumers and enforces existing problems (e.g., new marketing methods, multiple national consumer regulations, information overload). The present book evaluates European consumer regulations within the b2c e-business (information disclosures, rights of withdrawal, and constraints of the freedom of contract). As a reference framework the contributions of different economic approaches (information economics, new institutional economics, behavioural economics, and consumer research) are consolidated for a justification and an economic sound design of a “modern consumer policy.” Against this background, a modern consumer policy has to consider internal and external constraints of the consumer behaviour that affect the alternative set of transactions given to him as well as his motivation and ability to make deliberate choices.

Ralph Salzmann: Multimodale Erlebnisvermittlung am Point of Sale. Eine verhaltenswissenschaftliche Analyse unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Wirkungen von Musik und Duft. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8350-0882-3. 333 pp., EUR 55.90.

This dissertation is about “The design and effects of multimodal experiences at the point of sale in retail: A behavioural science analysis with a special focus on music and scent.” The author first presents the foundations of perception theory, in particular for music and scent. He then discusses relevant models of environmental psychology as well as empirical knowledge on sounds and scent in retail. In an empirical part, the book presents three studies and reports on the validity of the developed instruments. One major result is that the most effective marketing strategy targets all senses in a well-planned target-group specific and concerted way such as “luxury” or “romantic.”

Arnold Tukker, Martin Charter, Carlo Vezzoli, Eivind Stø, and Maj Munch Andersen (Eds.): System innovation for sustainability 1. Perspectives on radical changes to sustainable consumption and production. Sheffield: Greenleaf, 2008. ISBN 978-1-906093-03-7. 470 pp., GBP 50.00.

This reader is the first result of a positive confrontation between experts from all four communities (i.e., research, industry, consumer groups, eco-labelling organizations) within the EU-financed research network “SCORE!.” It examines what sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is and what it could be, provides a state-of-the-art review on the governance of change in SCP policy, and looks at the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches. The experts focus on the three key consumption areas: mobility, food and agriculture, energy use and housing. These areas are responsible for 70% of the life-cycle environmental impacts of Western societies. The aim of this exercise is to stimulate, foster, or force change to SCP theory in practice. Each chapter of this book examines problems and suggests solutions from a business, design, consumer, and system innovation perspective. It primarily examines the differing solutions necessary in the consumer economies of the West, but also comments on the differing needs in rapidly emerging economies such as China, as well as base-of-the-pyramid economies.

United Nations Development Program: Human Development Report 2007/2008. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 978-0-230-54704-9. 480 pp., USD 29.95.

Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing choice, and enjoying the freedom to lead the lives they value. Created in 1990, the Human Development Report has explored themes including gender equity, democracy, human rights, globalization, cultural liberty, and water scarcity. The window of opportunity for avoiding dangerous climate change is closing fast. This year’s Human Development Report explains why we have less than a decade to change course and start living within our global carbon budget. It explains how climate change will create long-run low human development traps, pushing vulnerable people into a downward spiral of deprivation. Because climate change is a global problem with global causes and effects, it demands a global response with countries acting on the basis of their historic responsibility and capabilities.

Madhu Viswanathan, S. Gajendiran, and R. Venkatesan: Enabling consumer and entrepreneurial literacy in subsistence marketplaces. Heidelberg: Springer, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4020-5768-7. 224 pp., EUR 80.20.

This book describes research on low-literate, poor buyers and sellers in subsistence marketplaces, the consequent development of an innovative marketplace literacy educational program that enables consumer and entrepreneurial literacy, and implications of the research and the educational program for business, education, and a variety of disciplines and functions. There are two important resources that individuals living in subsistence need in order to function in the economic realm: finances and know-how. The book describes an educational programme that focuses on enabling generic skills about the marketplace. This programme uses the “know-why” or an understanding of marketplaces as a basis for the know-how of being an informed buyer or seller. This volume discusses implications of the research and the educational programme for non-profit organizations, for research and practice in education, for business research and practice, and for academic and applied research.

Birgit Voß: Das Lebensmittel- und Futtermittelgesetzbuch. Ge- und Verbote, Verantwortlichkeit, Verfahren. 2nd ed. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2007. ISBN 978-3-503-10014-9. 372 pp., EUR 46.80.

This is the second edition of an overview of the German Law on Food and Feed. The author provides an overview of current legislation and proposes improvements for a new revision of the law.

David Ward (Ed.): The European Union and the culture industries. Regulation and the public interest. Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7546-7018-6. 282 pp., GBP 60.00.

This edited collection brings together leading academics in their respective fields to examine the European Union’s impact on media and public policy. It provides an analysis of the broader areas of EU policy and links these together to give a greater appreciation of the nuances and scope of EU regulatory initiatives and their impact on the member states. Under a broad public interest perspective, the authors provide an assessment of the success of EU policy in protecting the public interest in the culture industries and respecting certain normative principles while balancing these with market dynamics.

Claus Wilke: Informationssuche und Konsumentenvertrauen am Beispiel der Versicherungswirtschaft. Eine empirische Untersuchung. Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8300-2798-0. 252 pp., EUR 78.00.

This dissertation is an empirical investigation into information search and consumer trust in the insurance sector. Insurances are particularly delicate financial products since firstly, they have the characteristics of credence goods (i.e., their quality cannot be searched for beforehand but will only be revealed at a later unknown stage in life), and secondly, they can have a large impact on people’s welfare. Yet, many people are not motivated to engage in extensive information search since products are overly complex, difficult to compare, and the markets are far from being transparent. Hence, information search should be made as easy as possible. Also, information brokers and “infomediaries”—such as independent consultants—have an important role to play.

Nick Wilkinson: An introduction to behavioral economics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ISBN 978-0-2305-3259-5. 536 pp., GBP 24.99.

This is a comprehensive approach to the study of behavioural economics, which provides an alternative approach to the standard economics model in understanding how and why economic decisions are made. It includes recent research and offers an overview of methodology as well as case studies in every chapter that elucidate the issues raised. The chapters cover: nature of behavioural economics; values, attitudes, preferences, and choices; decision-making under risk and uncertainty; mental accounting; intertemporal choice; behavioural game theory; fairness and social preferences; and rationality.

Guido Zurstiege: Werbeforschung. Konstanz: UVK, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8252-2909-2. 236 pp., EUR 17.90

In recent years, advertising research has been appreciated as a growing domain within communication studies. On the way to establishing advertising research as a productive field in communication studies, this introductory textbook forms a step forward. In a first approach to the field, the author delineates the characteristic elements of advertising as a communication process. Against this background, the key fields of advertising research are outlined. The core issues dealt with in this book are: The history of advertising and advertising research; systems of theoretical approaches to advertising research; the legal norms related to advertising; the theory and practice of self regulation; the professionalization of advertising; the organization and economy of advertising; the communication media of advertising; research in advertising content; technical terms, methods, and results of advertising effects research; and finally research in the uses and gratifications of advertising.