Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s

Bringing together an eclectic group of prominent and emerging scholars from across Europe, as well as the United States, the UK and Australia,Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s probes the relationship between gender and contemporary consumer cultures in the Mediterranean region.

The book draws on 18 original case studies to examine the social and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain, Portugal and Greece since the 1960s through the connected topics of gender and consumer culture. In recent history, all three countries have shared similar political and financial experiences. This makes for an intriguing comparative analysis, especially when considering the significant shifts that have taken place since these countries' respective dictatorial regimes - the Francoist regime (1936/39-1975), the Estado Novo (1933-1974) and the military dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974) - gave way to democracy. This book radically enhances our collective understanding of these transitions by exploring them through the social prism of gender issues and the sexual revolution.

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s also puts the region in wider European and transatlantic contexts to determine whether, and to what extent, concepts such as 'Americanisation' and the 'Model Mrs Consumer' are apt to describe transformations in gender relations vis-a-vis consumption in these countries.

This is an important volume for anyone interested in the modern history of Southern Europe or the history of gender and consumer culture in modern Europe more generally.

Konstantinos (Kostis) Kornetis is Assistant Professor at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University, USA. He is the author ofChildren of the Dictatorship: Student Resistance, Cultural Politics and the "Long 1960s" in Greece(2013).

Eirini Kotsovili is coordinator of the Greek Language Program at the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Nikolaos Papadogiannis is Visiting Fellow at the University of St. Andrews, UK. He is the author of the forthcoming book,Militant Around the Clock? Left-Wing Youth Politics, Leisure, and Sexuality in Post-Dictatorship Greece, 1974-1981 (2015).