Hi all,

I'm biased (as I have a chapter in it) but I thought some of you might find
this new collection on commodity activism interesting...

Best,
Melissa


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jodi Narde <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:02:23 -0500
Subject: New book from NYU Press - Commodity Activism
   <http://nyupress.org>

[image: Book Title]<http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookid=6902>
*Commodity Activism*
Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times

*Edited by Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser*
  314 p. | Paper $26.00

"Commodity activism has a long history but never has its significance been
more complex to unravel than today, when the boundaries and direction of
political action are unclear, commercial forces mobilize consumers’ values
to secure their emotional loyalty, and individual consumers hope their
choices mean that ‘something is being done.’ Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah
Banet-Weiser's* smart, empirically rich and globally wide-ranging *new
collection provides us with very welcome coordinates in this difficult
terrain."—Nick Couldry, author of *Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics
After Neoliberalism*

<http://www.amazon.com/Commodity-Activism-Resistance-Neoliberal-Communicatio/dp/0814764010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327946937&sr=8-1>

<http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/commodity-activism-roopali-mukherjee/1102038011?ean=9780814764015&format=paperback&itm=1&usri=commodity+activism>
   <http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookid=6902>

Buying (RED) products—from Gap T-shirts to Apple—to fight AIDS. Drinking a
“Caring Cup” of coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to support fair trade.
Driving a Toyota Prius to fight global warming. All these commonplace
activities point to a central feature of contemporary culture: the most
common way we participate in social activism is by buying something.

Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser have gathered an exemplary group
of scholars to explore this new landscape through a series of case studies
of “commodity activism.” Drawing from television, film, consumer activist
campaigns, and cultures of celebrity and corporate patronage, the essays
take up examples such as the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign, sex positive
retail activism, ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover, and Angelina Jolie as
multinational celebrity missionary.

Exploring the complexities embedded in contemporary political
activism,* Commodity
Activism *reveals the workings of power and resistance as well as
citizenship and subjectivity in the neoliberal era. Refusing to simply
position politics in opposition to consumerism, this collection teases out
the relationships between material cultures and political subjectivities,
arguing that activism may itself be transforming into a branded commodity.

*Roopali Mukherjee* is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the City
University of New York, Queens College, and the author of *The Racial Order
of Things: Cultural Imaginaries of the Post-Soul Era. *

*Sarah Banet-Weiser* is Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication
and Journalism and the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the
University of Southern California. She is the author of *The Most Beautiful
Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity*, *Kids Rule!
Nickelodeon and Consumer Culture*, and *Authentic™: The Politics of
Ambivalence in a Brand Culture *(forthcoming from NYU Press).
    [image: blankbar]
  [image: NYUpresslogo] <http://nyupress.org>
 Connect with us online!
nyupress.org | blog <http://fromthesquare.org>
 <http://facebook.com/fromthesquare>
<http://www.twitter.com/nyupress>
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/fromthesquare>