Smart Living - Lifestyle Media and Popular Expertise

What do the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the Supernanny and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver all have in common ? Lifestyle gurus are increasingly intruding on everyday life, directing ordinary people to see themselves as "projects" that can be "made over" through embracing an ethos of relentless self-improvement. Smart Living argues that they represent a new form of popular expertise sweeping the world.
Written in a lively and accessible manner, the book examines this cult of expertise across a range of media and cultural sites and offers the reader a range of critical tools for understanding the recent emergence of this popular international phenomenon. Smart Living is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between popular media culture and contemporary social life.