Wal-Mart Wars : Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century / Rebekah Peeples Massengill.
2013
HF5429 .M337 2013
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Details
Title
Wal-Mart Wars : Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century / Rebekah Peeples Massengill.
ISBN
9780814763353
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource : 5 black and white illustrations
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9780814763353.001.0001 doi
Call Number
HF5429 .M337 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification
658.8/7
Summary
Wal-Mart is America's largest retailer. The national chain of stores is a powerful stand-in of both the promise and perils of free market capitalism. Yet it is also often the target of public outcry for its labor practices, to say nothing of class-action lawsuits, and a central symbol in America's increasingly polarized political discourse over consumption, capitalism and government regulations. In many ways the battle over Wal-Mart is the battle between "Main Street" and "Wall Street" as the fate of workers under globalization and the ability of the private market to effectively distribute precious goods like health care take center stage. In Wal-Mart Wars, Rebekah Massengill shows that the economic debates are not about dollars and cents, but instead represent a conflict over the deployment of deeper symbolic ideas about freedom, community, family, and citizenship. Wal-Mart Wars argues that the family is not just a culture wars issue to be debated with regard to same-sex marriage or the limits of abortion rights; rather, the family is also an idea that shapes the ways in which both conservative and progressive activists talk about economic issues, and in the process, construct different moral frameworks for evaluating capitalism and its most troubling inequalities. With particular attention to political activism and the role of big business to the overall economy, Massengill shows that the fight over the practices of this multi-billion dollar corporation can provide us with important insight into the dreams and realities of American capitalism.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814763339
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part 1. Why Should We Care about the Wal-Mart Debate?
1. Constructing Moral Markets
2. Contextualizing the Wal-Mart Wars
Part 2. Competing Frameworks for Market Morality
3. Individuals and Communities
4. Thrift and Benevolence
5. Freedom and Fairness
Part 3. Market Morality in Media and Politics
6. How Wal-Mart Wins the War of Words
7. Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century
Appendix. Methodology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part 1. Why Should We Care about the Wal-Mart Debate?
1. Constructing Moral Markets
2. Contextualizing the Wal-Mart Wars
Part 2. Competing Frameworks for Market Morality
3. Individuals and Communities
4. Thrift and Benevolence
5. Freedom and Fairness
Part 3. Market Morality in Media and Politics
6. How Wal-Mart Wins the War of Words
7. Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century
Appendix. Methodology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author