The Good Life

What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished Maya farmers in Guatemala harvesting coffee possibly have in common? Both groups are using the market in pursuit of the "good life." But what exactly is the good life? How do we define wellbeing beyond the material stan [...]
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What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished Maya farmers in Guatemala harvesting coffee possibly have in common? Both groups are using the market in pursuit of the "good life." But what exactly is the good life? How do we define wellbeing beyond the material standards of living? While we may all want to live the good life, we differ widely on just what that entails. In The Good Life, Edward Fischer examines wellbeing by exploring very different cultural contexts in an attempt to tease out universal notions of the good life and how best to achieve it. Building on the work of his earlier best-selling Stanford Press book, Broccoli and Desire, Fischer seeks to bind his subjects together in webs of desire and material production. Drawing from his research in both Guatemala and Germany, this book is a richly layered attempt to better understand the key elements of the good life, which include aspiration, opportunity, dignity, and purpose.The Good Life provides readers with fascinating on-the-ground narratives of Germans' choices regarding the purchase of eggs and cars, and Guatemalans' production of coffee and cocaine - things to which people attach their aspirations and desires for a good life, both extraordinary and mundane.