Global Denim (eBook)

On any given day nearly half the world's population is wearing blue jeans. This is entirely extraordinary. Yet there has never been a serious attempt to understand the causes, nature and consequences of denim as 'the' global garment of our world. This book takes up that challenge with gusto. It gives clear, if surprising, explanations for why this is the case, challenging the accepted history of jeans and showing why the reasons cannot be commercial. While discussing the consequences of denim at the global level, the book consists of some exemplary studies by anthropologists of what blue jeans mean in a variety of local situations. These range from the discussion of hip-hop jeans in Germany, denim and sex in Milan through to the connection between denim and recycling in the US. But through all these intensively researched ethnographies of local denim we build our understanding of the most curious of all features of blue jeans - the rise of global denim. On any given day nearly half of the world's population is wearing blue jeans - this is the first serious attempt to understand the causes, nature and consequences of the rise of 'global' denim. Please note that some images have been removed due to copyright restrictions. Daniel Miller is Professor of Material Culture at University College London. He is the author of many books, including The Sari (with Mukulika Banerjee, Berg, 2004), Anthropology and the Individual (Berg, 2009) and The Comfort of Things (2009). Sophie Woodward is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester and author of Why Women Wear What they Wear (Berg, 2007). Attempts to understand the causes, nature and consequences of denim as 'the' global garment of our worldOffers a range of case studies which could be used in a classroom context, from the hip-hop jeans in Germany, denim and sex in Milan, through to the connection between denim and recycling in the USEdited by leading anthropologists Daniel Miller and Sophie WoodwardAlso available in hardback, 9781847886323 55.00 (November 2010)

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On any given day nearly half the world's population is wearing blue jeans. This is entirely extraordinary. Yet there has never been a serious attempt to understand the causes, nature and consequences of denim as 'the' global garment of our world. This book takes up that challenge with gusto. It gives clear, if surprising, explanations for why this is the case, challenging the accepted history of jeans and showing why the reasons cannot be commercial. While discussing the consequences of denim at the global level, the book consists of some exemplary studies by anthropologists of what blue jeans mean in a variety of local situations. These range from the discussion of hip-hop jeans in Germany, denim and sex in Milan through to the connection between denim and recycling in the US. But through all these intensively researched ethnographies of local denim we build our understanding of the most curious of all features of blue jeans - the rise of global denim.