This book revisits John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society from the perspective of the background to, and causes of, the 2008 global economic crisis. Each chapter takes a major theme of his book, distils Galbraith's arguments, and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments.

• Preface


• 1: Why Revisit The Affluent Society?


• 2: The Power of Ideas: Reflections on the Conventional Wisdom


• 3: The Central Tradition


• 4: Inequality


• 5: Economic Security


• 6: The Ambiguities of Production


• 7: The Dethroned Consumer


• 8: Inflation


• 9: Debt


• 10: The Theory of Social Balance


• 11: Switching Tracks


• 12: The Idea of Power


• 13: The Moral Order


• 14: Concluding Thoughts


• A Reader's Guide

Mike Berry is Emeritus Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia, where he was for many years Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy. He is a frequent adviser to state and federal governments in Australia and has had visiting positions at a number of international institutions, including Rutgers University, Lund University, the University of Cambridge, and the University Sussex. He was Foundation Executive Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the largest and longest continuing collaborative research facility in Australian social and policy sciences. He has taught, and published widely, in the areas of housing, urban planning, environmental policy, and political economy. He is a director of one of Australia's largest non-profit housing associations. Part of the research for this book was carried out whilst he was a visiting fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation Center, Bellagio.