Market Killing

What the free market does and what social scientists can do bout it

This book shows how the release of the free market in the last part of the twentieth century produced a rise in inequality and violence, the development of a huge criminal economy ad the degradation of social and cultural life.

It questions the silence of academics in the face of these changes and asks how much they have been incorporated into the priorities of commerce and governments. Many academics in the social sciences and media and cultural studies have avoided critical issues and become occupied in obscure theoretical debates such as post-modernism. The book contains a detailed analysis of the post-modern turn and looks specifically at related areas such as the active audience, discursive practice, popular culture, identity and difference, the focus on pleasure and consumption. The authors argue that the effect of much of this work was to draw intellectuals and students away from the engaged and empirical work needed to identify key social problems and possibilities for change.

The authors point to the need for independent research which can criticise political policies and reveal their effects. It also examines the possibilities for a free and democratic media and calls for the development of critical and open public debate.

With additional essays by Noam Chomsky, Derek Bouse Angela McRobbie, John Corner, Chris Hamnett, Andrew Gamble, Philip Schlesinger, Barbara Epstein, James Curran, Danny Schechter and Hilary Wainwright

Greg Philo is Research Director of the Glasgow University Media Unit , University of Glasgow

David Miller is a member of Stirling Media Research Institute, University of Stirling.

Market Killing is published by Longman , priced £16.99, 2001.

Available at Pearsoned and Amazon

Also in: Catalan translation (2010) Els mercats assassins: Estudis culturals, mitjans de comunicacio i conformisme Translated by Rafael Xambo, published in Valencia by Universitat de Valencia, ISBN 978-84-370-7416-0

Extracts from reviews

'This is a book for academics and cultural studies students brave enough to use the ammunition it contains to attempt to bring their teachers down to earth.' Mike Tomlinson, Queens University, Irish Press

Reviews