Introduction

Abstract

Our aims in producing this new collection are twofold. The first aim responds to a call to rebalance theoretical emphasis of large-scale global economies characterized by, for example, structural risk, crisis and recession (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1992; Bauman, 2007; Featherstone, 1990; Slater, 1997) alongside attention towards small scale, critically diverse and everyday ‘intimate’ consumer economies (Casey and Martens, 2007; Clarke, 2004; Jackson and Moores, 1995; Sanger and Taylor, 2013). Secondly the collection aims to offer detailed empirical accounts of diverse intimacies, domestic economies and family lives. It attempts to relocate forms of ‘critical consumption’ in and through a range of ‘diverse economies’ and ‘diverse methods’ across time and place. How do we understand underrepresented social realities within consumer culture, such as non-consumption, mundane consumer choices, the choice not to consume, and alternative forms of consumption?