Transforming Images: Screens, affect, futures (International Library of Sociology)

Contemporary social and cultural life is increasingly organised around a logic of self-transformation, where changing the body is seen as key. __Transforming Images__ examines how the future functions within this transformative logic to indicate the potential of a materially better time. The book explores the crucial role that images have in organising an imperative for transformation and in making possible, or not, the materialisation of a better future. Coleman asks the questions: which futures are appealing and to whom? How do images tap into and reproduce wider social and cultural processes of inequality? Drawing on the recent ‘turns’ to affect and emotion and to understanding life in terms of vitality, intensity and ‘liveness’ in social and cultural theory, the book develops a framework for understanding images as __felt and lived out__. Analysing different screens across popular culture – the screens of shopping, makeover television programmes, online dieting plans and government health campaigns – it traces how images of self-transformation bring the future into the present and affectively ‘draw in’ some bodies more than others. __Transforming Images__ will be of interest to students and scholars working in sociology, media studies, cultural studies and gender studies. The sociology of consumption has concentrated unduly on the more spectacular and visual aspects of contemporary consumer behaviour, thereby constructing an unbalanced and misleading view. This collection emphasises ordinary rather than extraordinary items, routine and repetitive behaviour rather than conscious decision-making. It studies practical contexts of use rather than decisions to purchase and analyses collective identification rather than personal identity. Each essay argues one or more of these points, for the most part using new empirical material from several different national contexts.The topics analysed include shopping in Taiwan, second-home ownership in France, environmental considerations concerning food choice in Denmark, the take up of new domestic technologies in Finland and kitchen design in England. Key concepts like tradition, routine and habit are clarified and new conceptual distinctions are made, with the book defending theoretical approaches deriving from Simmel, Weber, Durkheim and Bourdieu.Ordinary Consumption promotes a distinctive approach to the understanding of the central practices of consumer society, it is a book with a controversial message, one which will be a source of debate about the appropriate agenda for future research. Cover 1 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 9 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction: transformation, potential, futures 12 1 Screening affect: images, representational thinking and the actualization of the virtual 40 2 Bringing the image to life: interactive mirrors and intensive experience 58 3 Becoming different: makeover television, proximity and immediacy 83 4 Immanent measure: interaction, attractors and the multiple temporalities of online dieting 104 5 Pre-empting the future: obesity, prediction and Change4Life 124 Conclusion: transforming images – sociology, the future and the virtual 144 Notes 158 References 171 Index 180 Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Transformation, Potential, Futures -- Screening Affect : Images, Representational Thinking And The Actualization Of The Virtual -- Bringing The Image To Life : Interactive Mirrors And Intensive Experience -- Becoming Different : Makeover Television, Proximity And Immediacy -- Immanent Measure : Interaction, Attractors And The Multiple Temporalities Of Online Dieting -- Pre-empting The Future : Obesity, Prediction And Change4life -- Conclusion : Transforming Images : Sociology, The Future And The Virtual -- Bibliography -- Index. Rebecca Coleman. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Content: Acknowledgements -- Introduction: transformation, potential, futures -- Screening affect : images, representational thinking and the actualization of the virtual -- Bringing the image to life : interactive mirrors and intensive experience -- Becoming different : makeover television, proximity and immediacy -- Immanent measure : interaction, attractors and the multiple temporalities of online dieting -- Pre-empting the future : obesity, prediction and change4life -- Conclusion : transforming images : sociology, the future and the virtual -- Bibliography -- Index. Ordinary Consumption promotes a distinctive approach to the understanding of the central practices of consumer society, a book with a controversial message, it will be a source of debate about the appropriate agenda for reserach.