| Description |
1 online resource (iv, 211 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover -- Challenging Choices -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part One: Choice And Consumerism -- 1. What Is Choice? -- 2. Making Choices: Just Fun? -- Opportunity Cost, Regret And Complexity -- Adapting To Choice: Maximisers And Satisficers -- Reversibility And Provision -- Individual And Collective Choice -- Making Choices More Or Less Stressful -- Adaptation: A Sting In The Tail -- 3. Choice And The Consumer Society -- Industrialisation And The Acceptance Of Constant Change -- The Political Consequences Of Industrialisation -- Markets And Their Problems -- Engaging With The Problems: Socialism And Social Democracy -- The Inevitability Of Social Democracy -- The Rise Of Affluence And The New Right -- The Coming Of Affluence -- The Legacy Of The New Right: The Consumer Society -- The Politics Of Consumerist Choice -- Credit And Consumerism -- Consumerism And The EmperorS New Clothes -- Tolerance As A Leading Value Of Consumerism -- Choice, Tolerance And Meaning -- 4. When Choice Does Not Work -- Does Choice Overwhelm Or Empower? -- Professionals And Other Experts: Intermediaries -- Provision -- Popular Music And Broadcasting: Counter-Examples? -- 5. Some Wider Problems With Choice -- Cartels And Competition -- The Problems Of Intervention -- Pubs And Beer -- Cartels: A Permanent Feature Of The Modern Economy -- Choice And The Big Lie -- Cars -- Supermarkets -- Retail Financial Services -- Bad Choices -- Credit And The Money Illusion -- Choice And Duty -- Conclusion: Spoiled For Choice -- Part Two: Choice And The Life Cycle -- 6. Introduction: Choice And The Life Cycle -- 7. Jobs And Careers -- 8. Lovers, Partners, Spouses -- 9. Fertility And Family -- Child Rearing -- 10. Retirement -- 11. Death -- The Current Debate -- The Problems Of Care -- Part Three: Conclusions -- 12. Choice And Meaning -- Religion As A Support For Meaning -- Individualism And The Retreat Into Self In The Search For Meaning: Hedonism -- The Retreat Into Self: Self-Improvement -- Choice And Meaning: Three Options -- 13. Conclusion -- Notes And Sources -- Index |
| Summary |
This lively and topical book provides a critique of choice in contemporary society and policy. Having choices empowers us, but constant extension of choice overwhelms us. In a concise and readable style, the author considers whether choice enhances or burdens our lives, and questions the blithe assumption that more choice is always for the better |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-204) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Social choice.
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Decision making.
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Decision Making
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decision making.
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PSYCHOLOGY -- Social Psychology.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- General.
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Decision making
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Social choice
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Alltag
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Wahlmöglichkeit
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Entscheidungsfindung
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Kollektiventscheidung
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Verbraucherverhalten
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781847428660 |
|
1847428665 |
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1282754343 |
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9781282754348 |
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9781447300670 |
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144730067X |
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