Please find details below of a new book that may be of interest to the list:
Smart Living: Lifestyle Media and Popular Expertise
by Tania Lewis
Published by Peter Lang (New York)
http://www.peterlang.com/Index.cfm?vID=68677&vHR=1&vUR=2&vUUR=1&vLang=E
Synopsis
What do the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the Supernanny and
celebrity chef Jamie Oliver all have in common? Lifestyle gurus are
increasingly intruding on everyday life, directing ordinary people to see
themselves as projects that can be made over through embracing an ethos of
relentless self-improvement. Smart Living argues that they represent a new
form of popular expertise sweeping the world. Written in a lively and
accessible manner, the book examines this cult of expertise across a range
of media and cultural sites and offers the reader a range of critical tools
for understanding the recent emergence of this popular international
phenomenon. Smart Living is a must-read for anyone interested in the
relationship between popular media culture and contemporary social life.
Reviews
“Lifestyle formats work within the familiar, contrastive dynamics of modern
popular culture. Enhanced 'personal development' and the chance to get
closer to happiness go along with the further reach of commerce into who we
are and what we do. Tania Lewis offers a thoughtful exploration of origins,
communicative forms and impact, setting this within a broader appraisal of
the future of public identity.” (Professor John Corner, School of Politics
and Communication Studies, University of Liverpool)
“Smart Living explores the increasing prevalence of lifestyle expertise in
the mass media and in the process tells us something important about the
forms of selfhood we have and aspire to today. Tania Lewis's lucid readings
of the popular genres of advice on the management of the self offer serious
insights both into the media and into the social underpinnings of malleable
selfhood. Smart Living is an exemplary analysis of a shift in some of the
fundamental categories of social life.” (Professor John Frow, School of
Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne)
Table of contents
Introducing the lifestyle expert: Zen and the art of spot removal
1 From manners to makeovers: A history of modern lifestyle advice
2 Eating expertise: From nutritionists to TV chefs
3 ‘He needs to face his fears with these five queers!’: Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy, makeover TV, and the lifestyle expert
4 Honey We’re Killing the Kids: Producing lifestyle TV in Australia
5 DIY lifestyles? Health, lifestyle media, and the reflexive consumer
6 Lifestyle Inc.: Celebrity, branding, and ordinary expertise
References
Index
ISBN-10: 0820486779 ISBN-13: 978-0820486772 pp.169
Dr Tania Lewis
La Trobe University
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