In the last decade lifestyle television has become one of the most dominant television genres, with certain shows now global brands with formats exploited by producers all over the world. What unites these programmes is their belief that the human subject has a flexible, malleable identity that can be changed within television-friendly frameworks. In contrast to the talk shows of the eighties and nineties where modest transformation was discussed as an ideal, advances in technology, combined with changing tastes and demands of viewers, have created an appetite for dramatic transformations. This volume presents case studies from across the lifestyle genre, considering a variety of themes but with a shared understanding of the self as an evolving project, driven by enterprise. Written by an international team of scholars, the collection will appeal to sociologists of culture and consumption, as well as to scholars of media studies and media production throughout the world.
Chapter 1 Introduction - The Habit of Scrutiny, Gareth Palmer; Chapter 2 Bad Citizens: The Class Politics of Lifestyle Television, Anita Biressi, Heather Nunn; Chapter 3 Digging for Difference: British and Australian Television Gardening Programmes, Frances Bonner; Chapter 4 'Who Let the Dogs Out?' Pets, Parenting and the Ethics of Lifestyle Programming, Maggie Andrews, Fan Carter; Chapter 5 Fashioning Femininity: Clothing the Body and the Self in What Not to Wear, Yael D. Sherman; Chapter 6 Foodie Makeovers: Public Service Television and Lifestyle Guidance, Isabelle de Solier; Chapter 7 Shame on You: Cosmetic Surgery and Class Transformation in 10 Years Younger, Julie Doyle, Irmi Karl; Chapter 8 Revealing the Inner Housewife: Housework and History in Domestic Lifestyle Television, Laurel Forster; Chapter 9 What Not to Buy: Consumption and Anxiety in the Television Makeover, Deborah Philips; Chapter 10 Making Over the Talent Show, Guy Redden; Chapter 11 Masculine Makeovers: Lifestyle Television, Metrosexuals and Real Blokes, Buck Clifford Rosenberg; Chapter 12 A Nation of Cocooners? Explanations of the Home Improvement TV Boom in the United States, Madeleine Shufeldt Esch; Chapter 13 'Ecoreality': The Politics and Aesthetics of 'Green' Television, Lyn Thomas;
