Routledge Lifestyle Society: New Implications for Class, Belonging, and Cultural Identity

Lifestyle Society offers a compelling exploration of how lifestyles have become the central organizing principle of contemporary social life, reshaping traditional understandings of class, identity, and social differentiation. Moving beyond rigid class structures, the book argues that lifestyles function as dynamic forms of symbolic stratification, expressed through consumption, cultural preferences, and everyday practices. Structured across four parts and ten interconnected chapters, the book combines strong theoretical grounding with rich empirical illustrations. It engages with key sociological perspectives―from Weber to Bourdieu―while examining how consumerism, media, and algorithmic environments actively shape lifestyle formation. Particular attention is given to the role of symbolic capital, taste, and habitus in structuring social hierarchies in late modern societies. The book further explores how lifestyles are embodied in concrete domains, including celebrity culture, leisure practices, youth subcultures, and diverse family forms. By linking macro-level transformations with individual practices, it demonstrates how lifestyles operate as powerful carriers of identity and inequality across different social contexts. Accessible yet theoretically rigorous, Lifestyle Society is essential reading for students and scholars in sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and consumer research, offering a nuanced framework for understanding social organization in an increasingly individualized world.