This fascinating book is one of the first to explore the personal and emotional impact of globalization, rather than its political or economic effects, on real people. It looks at the pressure consumerism puts on us to change and 'improve' every aspect of ourselves: not just our homes and gardens but our careers, food, clothes, sex lives, faces, minds and bodies, and the results, it warns, can be destructive. Exploring the dark side of self-reinvention through research, interviews and real-life stories, Elliott and Lemert investigate: - a young woman whose quest for the perfect body leads to multiple cosmetic surgery operations bordering on self-mutilation. - a technology entrepreneur who turns obsessively to self-help books and therapy in a bid to gain the same control over his inner feelings as he has over his business empire. - a middle-aged woman who reinvents herself online through cybersex chatrooms. As the boundaries between reality and her Internet fantasies begin to blur, her marriage crumbles and the stability of her life comes under threat. Ideal for students of sociology, cultural studies and philosophy, this powerful book cuts against the grain of current orthodoxies. Internationally renowned authors Elliott and Lemert argue that today's worlds are not only risky but deadly, yet, they contend, there is hope beyond the complexities.

Author Biography

University of Kent at Canterbury Welseyan University, USA