Sam Binkley

Sam Binkley is assistant professor of sociology at Emerson College, Boston. His research considers the production of identity in the context of contemporary cultures of consumption, with a concentration on the role of lifestyle movements from the counterculture of the 1970s to contemporary anti-consumerist activism. He has also researched topics ranging from Cuban socialism to the temporality of neo-liberalism, as well as a range of theoretical inquiries related to Pierre Bourdieu, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault. His recent monograph, Loosening Up: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s (Duke University Press, 2007), examines the role of lifestyle discourse in the shaping of reflexive identity, and several recent articles have studied the everyday production of identity against the backdrop of new economic rationalities. He currently serves as co-editor of the journal Foucault Studies, and his articles have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Cultural Studies, Time and Society, Rethinking Marxism, The European Journal of Cultural Studies and the Journal for Cultural Research. He is currently working on a new book on happiness.