Consumerism is a perennial buzzword in healthcare. But it's a tricky and somewhat controversial trend to define, as some argue recasting patients as mere consumers of healthcare extracts some humanity ...

John Kravitz is CIO of Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, a physician-led health system with 13 hospital campuses. The system also includes a 600,000-member health plan and the Geisinger Commonwealth ...

In Chapter 3 of What Is College For? Elaine Tuttle Hansen proposes that the public purpose of higher education is to “emancipate students from the shackles of consumerist society,” to produce ...

It's become a cliché to note that we in the modern world have gorged on an unprecedented abundance of stuff. Still, Frank Trentmann's new book on consumerism, The Empire of Things, begins with an ...

There was a popular, if cynical, phrase that seemed to be everywhere in the 1980s: "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." But after decades of go-go consumerism, many people around the world seem to ...

Look around any supermarket aisle or shopping street and you see that social responsibility sells. From laundry detergent from Seventh Generation to durable jackets from Patagonia, companies that do ...

I finally caught on. I don't take part in Christmas. That's no gifts, no donations, no church, no decorations, no guilt, no worry. What a relief. Is consumerism creepy or creeping? The latter, I ...