Recent work by Schor revives concerns raised by Veblen and Hirsch over the destructive consequences of competitive consumption. In contrast, Twitchell argues that increased access to commodities as symbols of luxury signals a democratization of class and social status. Rather than playing the role of dupes, consumers are active co-conspirators in the creation and maintenance of luxury goods markets. While flawed, each of these perspectives has something important to offer to social economists interested in understanding consumption. A key question for social economists is whether material pleasure and the symbolic expression of identity through consumer goods is compatible with a more politicized, socially conscious consumption ethos. Food consumption offers a fruitful starting point for pursuing this issue. I begin by examining food and its symbolic role in identity formation. I then consider the Slow Food movement and explore the ways in which it maintains a central role for material pleasure while promoting a socially and environmentally conscious stance toward consumption.consumer identity, cultural capital, food consumption, social capital, slow food,

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The incorporation of work by Freire and Habermas into adult education theory has contributed to the development of concepts such as "communicative competence" and "transformative education." This contribution has generated a lively and spirited debate within the field of adult education. My purpose is to extend the debate to include an analysis of the role of power and knowledge in educational theory. By examining the contribution of postmodern social and cultural theories to adult education, I argue that (a) adult educators not lose sight of the connection between knowledge and power, (b) all individuals in educational settings occupy multiple subject positions through which they construct a complex and often contradictory understanding of their life world, and (c) that adult educators be attuned to the various ways in which power is deployed through their own discourse about particular discipline-specific knowledge.

The sphere of consumption and the behavior of consumers has been a neglected area of investigation by radical political economists. The production/consumption duality is examined with special reference to Marx. Postmodern Marxism is offered as an alternative with which to examine consumer activities. Furthermore, insights and methods of analysis from the social construction of technology (SCOT) and feminist theory are investigated. These approaches can help to reclaim the terrain of consumer behavior for heterodox economics.

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The publication of The Second Industrial Dividehelped to initiate a sustained inquiry into the transformation of work under industrial capitalism in the late twentieth century. The argument that the breakdown of Fordist mass production ushered in a new production paradigm in the shape of flexible systems of work organization is reexamined. The dominant role of high-volume mass production and its craft-based counterpart can continue to coexist well into the future. Nevertheless, current income and employment trends appear to disadvantage the traditional blue-collar Fordist worker and industrial unions. The cause of these trends may not, however, be directly linked to skills associated with computer technology. Finally, the type of flexibility most closely associated with the work of Piore and Sabel—flexible specialization—is discussed. It is argued that flexible specialization within industrial districts that (a) foster the development of socially informed economic action and (b) constrain competitive behavior may form the basis for the creation of different employment opportunities that challenge the dominant logic of capitalist development through which flexible employment strategies are used in tandem with corporate downsizing and increased managerial control.Fordism, flexible specialization, industrial district, work organization, employment, skill,

From the vantage point of a critical moment in the history of statebuilding in the United States, we wish to take a fresh look at questions about the resources and wherewithal of the national state. Within modern American political science, a focus on state capacity is at least as old as the landmark essay by Woodrow Wilson on “The Study of Administration” and as current as the important scholarly impulse that has revived interest in the state at a time of struggle about the size and span of the federal government. The dominant motif of these various accounts of American statebuilding has been a concern with organizational assets, which usually are assayed by their placement on a linear scale of strength and weakness.

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