What to read, click, and listen

In order to understand what people find valuable today and how they decide what’s worth paying for

This article was originally published on The Sociology of Business.

In lieu of the launch of my first book, The Business of Aspiration this Fall (you can pre-order it now), I put together a Reading List that will guide you to better understand what people today find valuable and how they decide what’s worth paying for. This reading list is for everyone who is asking for a recommendation and also for everyone who is entering areas that are new to them.

For those interested in sociology, economics, social influence, taste, and anthropology: The Field of Cultural Production, Pragmatics of Taste, Those Things That Hold Us Together: Taste and Sociology, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster, Addiction by Design, The Problem of Social Cost, How to Do Nothing, The Goffman Reader, Illuminations, The Social Construction of Reality, The Culture Industry, The Winner Take All Society, The Victorian Internet, The Nature of Economies, Liquid Modernity, The Geography of Genius, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age, Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers, The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life, The Worth of Goods: Valuation and Pricing in the Economy.