The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950

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Avner Offer (, Chichele Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Fellow of the British Academy)

The Challenge of Affluence

Name: The Challenge of Affluence
Price: 201 AUD
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ISBN: 9780198208532

Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950

Avner Offer (, Chichele Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Fellow of the British Academy)

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English

Oxford University Press
01 February 2006

Society & Social Sciences; Society & culture: general; Sociology & anthropology; Politics & government; Economics; Economic theory & philosophy; Economic history

Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust. Avner Offer argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. His approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being. The book falls into three parts. Part one analyses the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, Offer investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.

By: Avner Offer ( Chichele Professor of Economic History University of Oxford Fellow of All Souls College Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 831g
ISBN: 9780198208532
ISBN 10: 0198208537
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 01 February 2006
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface 1: Introduction Part One: Evaluating Affluence 2: Economic Welfare Measures and Human Well-Being 3: Passions and Interests: Self-Control and Well-Being 4: Myopic and Rational Choice 5: Between the Gift and the Market: The Economy of Regard Part Two: In the Marketplace 6: The Mask of Intimacy: Advertising and Well-Being 7: Epidemics of Abundance: Body-Weight and Self-Control 8: Household Appliances and the Use of Time 9: The American Automobile Frenzy of the 1950s 10: Driving Prudently: American and European Part Three: Self and Others 11: Affluence and the Pursuit of Status 12: Inequality Hurts 13: All You Need is Love? Mating since the 1950s 14: Women and Children Last: The Ebbing of Commitment 15: Conclusion

Reviews for The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950

`The Challenge of Affluence is thus an essential survival guide both for academics and non-academics who must face the challenges thrown up by economic growth and material plenty, and the material sacrifices needed to further wider goals in the twenty-first century.' SHINOBU MAJIMA, Business History, d