or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
18 used & new from £4.20
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The System of Objects (Radical Thinkers)
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The System of Objects (Radical Thinkers) (Paperback)

by Jean Baudrillard (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £6.99
Price: £5.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £1.50 (21%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 weeks.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

12 new from £4.20 6 used from £9.29
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover Order it used
Paperback 8 used & new from £1.93

Frequently Bought Together

The System of Objects (Radical Thinkers) + Simulacra and Simulation (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) + Society of the Spectacle
Price For All Three: £22.51

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Simulacra and Simulation (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)

Simulacra and Simulation (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)

by Jean Baudrillard
3.4 out of 5 stars (9)  £10.09
The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

by Professor Jean Baudrillard
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £20.26
Society of the Spectacle

Society of the Spectacle

by Guy Debord
4.1 out of 5 stars (12)  £6.93
Fragments (Radical Thinkers)

Fragments (Radical Thinkers)

by Jean Baudrillard
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £4.97
On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection

On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection

by Susan Stewart
£11.39
› Explore similar items

Product details

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Lean Thinking opens new browser window
www.valueadding.com  -  See how lean thinking and processes can improve your organisation 
  
 

Product Description

Review

"A sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the post-Marxist left." - New York Times "The most notorious intellectual celebrity to emerge from Paris since Roland Barthes and the most influential prophet of the media since Marshall McLuhan." - i-D magazine


New York Times

‘A sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the post-Marxist left.’
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
versoradicalthi nkers
social science
politics
philosophy
jean baudrillard
anthropology

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The System of Objects (Radical Thinkers)
75% buy the item featured on this page:
The System of Objects (Radical Thinkers) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£5.49
Simulacra and Simulation (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)
10% buy
Simulacra and Simulation (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) 3.4 out of 5 stars (9)
£10.09
Society of the Spectacle
6% buy
Society of the Spectacle 4.1 out of 5 stars (12)
£6.93
Mythologies (Vintage Classics)
4% buy
Mythologies (Vintage Classics) 3.4 out of 5 stars (10)
£4.76
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Reworking the Object, 29 Sep 2008
By Mike Cormack (Aberdeen UK) - See all my reviews
Baudrillard (pronouced "Bodra-jar") was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th Century, a landmark giant of the (post)structuralist movement (a term I'm sure all involved would refuse), which includes such figures as Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard and Lacan amongst others. Baudrillard began from a more orthodox Marxist position (whereas Derrida took his starting place from Heidigger and Foucault from Nietzsche, an under-appreciated fact), but inspired by the structuralist anaylsis or Roland Barthes in "Mythologies", he worked through Marxism to produce his own original work.

By "working through" I mean that where Marx saw commodites as containing surplus value which was "expropriated" (or stolen) by the capitalist, Baudrillard sees them as semiotic signs. Which means that all consumer objects are symbols, have values with which people can communicate. This works on four levels - the functional value (the use of the object); the exchange value (the market price); the symbolic value (such as wedding rings); and the sign value (which occurs within a system so that all objects have a relation to each other - one pair of jeans will be more urban, more niche, than another; one car will be be more powerful, more upper-class, more independence-giving, than another). Thus consumption rather than production is the key determinant in society, the most important signifier of "class".

In this early (1968) work Baudrillard looks at the relations of objects and the manner in which they are consumed, and how this determines the consumer. It's become so commonplace nowadays that self-realisation (becoming the person you want to be) happens through consumption of shopping, holidays, clothes and labels, cars, all the way to household furniture, that the fundamental shift this entails isn't fully appreciated. But Baudrillard documents that shift and saw the full implications of it, and for this reason this book is vitally important. The text is relatively straighforward for Baudrillard (much more than his later works on simulacra, for which he is probably best known thanks to "The Matrix"), and one of the best introductions to his work and ideas - along with the 1970 work, "The Consumer Society", which further develops his analysis.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject














i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.