An edited collection exploring divisions and changes within and between the spheres of consumption and production. Peter Saunders' work provides the initial stimulus for many of the papers, but all go beyond his narrow conception of a sociology of consumption and his liberal analysis of patterns of social inequality.

List of Tables and Figures - Preface - Notes on the Contributors - Consumption, Class and Contemporary Sociology; R.Burrows & C.Marsh - Notes on the Relationship Between Production and Consumption; A.Warde - Constructing Consumers and Consumer Protection: The Case of the Life Insurance Industry in the United Kingdom; G.Morgan & D.Knights - Social Class, Consumption Divisions and Housing Mobility; M.Savage, P.Watt & S.Arber - Medicine and Markets: Power, Choice and the Consumption of Private Medical Care; J.Busfield - Principles and Practice: the Case of Private Health Insurance; M.Calnan & S.Cant - Managed Markets: Consumers and Producers in the National Health Service; R.Flynn - Patterns of Social Consciousness amongst the Middle Classes; R.Crompton - Thirtysomething and Contemporary Consumer Culture: Distinctiveness and Distinction; F.Bonner & P.Du Gay - Class Differences in Access to Higher Education; C.Marsh & R.M.Blackburn - Competing Views of Contemporary Social Mobility and Social Divisions; G.Payne - Index