© Canadian Journal of SoCiology/CahierS CanadienS de SoCiologie 34(4) 2009 1190 Book Review/Compte Rendu Allison Pugh, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of Cali- fornia Press, 2009, 320 pp. $US 21.95 paper (978-0-520- 25844-0), $US 55.00 hardcover (978-0-520-25843-3) W hen you have kids, you become painfully aware of the ridiculous volunteerism of your previous views on child-rearing. Assump- tions of control (e.g., “can’t they keep their kids quiet?”), are replaced with an acute understanding of how children are autonomous beings with their own culture, needs, and powerful desires. You may wish your child preferred genderless wooden toys with simple modernist designs, but you instead receive requests for plastic action-igures, senseless (and expensive) collectible cards, pricey gaming systems, and highly gen- dered dolls. Simply put, kids want what their friends have. Until now, the primary sociological research examining children’s consumer desires was work focused on corporate marketing. While the unrelenting inlux of child-related commodities is a topic with essen- tial research precedents (e.g., Juliet Schor’s Born to Buy; Daniel Cook’s The Commodiication of Childhood), Allison Pugh’s book starts from the premise that supply is only half of the equation — the other half be- ing children’s desire for consumption. Based on three years of ieldwork with kids in the Oakland area, Pugh’s understanding of the social world of children sheds light on how children’s desire for consumer commod- ities is part of a deeply held need to belong. Pugh calls this the “economy of dignity,” and it forms the major argument of this well-written and cap- tivating book. Inspired by Arlie Hochschild’s analysis of the “economy of gratitude” amongst spouses, Pugh describes an economy of dignity where children “collect or confer dignity among themselves, according to their (shifting) consensus about what sort of objects or experiences are supposed to count for it” (p. 7). While Pugh is clearly sympathetic to children’s desire to belong, she critiques a “culture of spending that redeines care and belonging as mediated through the market” and which is intolerant of difference: “those who want to opt out ind it dificult to do so” (p. 25). Pugh’s ethnography of childhood consumer culture focused on three school sites: a low-income after-school program, an afluent public school, and an afluent private school. Together, these sites provide a