Consumption matters to everyone, arguably more than ever before. This up-to-date selection of papers considers some of the key changes in the patterning and social significance of consumption. It is based on a recent series of ESRC funded seminars (1994-96) involving sociologists, social anthropologists, and policy researchers.As well as reporting on recent empirical studies, an extended introduction is provided, and future directions for social scientific research, especially sociological research, are discussed. Among the issues considered are: the privatization and marketization of welfare state services: class, gender, ethnicity, and consumption: the consumption of education, Christmas and vitamins: consumption and identity: the consumption of the past: and the influence of Bourdieu on the sociology of consumption.