Roberta Sassatelli, University of Milan

Roberta Sassatelli is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Università Statale of Milan (Italy), where she teaches Sociology of Culture, Consumer Culture and Contemporary Sociological Theories. Her research focuses on the theory of consumer action, with a particular interest for the contested development of the notion of the consumer as against notions such as citizen or person. She has done research on the commercialization of sport and in particular on the way the fitness movement has been variously appropriated as a leisure pursuit. She also works in the sociology of the body and the representation of femininity in the media. She has conducted research on critical consumption and sustainability both in Italy and the UK, as well as on the sexualization of the body, food quality circuits, and emotional codes in market relations. She is Editor of the Journal “Studi Culturali” [with C. Demaria]. She is currently completing an introduction to the Sociology of Gender and the Body [with R. Ghigi]. Among her recent books in English you find “Fitness Culture. Gyms and the Commercialization of Fun and Discipline, Palgrave, 2010 [2014 Paperback Ed.]. Her last book is “Fronteggiare la crisi. Come cambia lo stile di vita del ceto medio”, Il mulino, 2015, with M. Santoro e G. Semi].
Email: roberta.sassatelli@unimi.it; website: http://users2.unimi.it/rsassatelli/

Talk topic: “Consumption, gender and class. The glass cliff of ordinary life.”