From Makeover Media to Remaking Culture: Four Directions for the Critical Study of Self‐Help Culture

Abstract

AbstractThe popularity of self‐improvement literature has lead to an abundance of scholarly considerations of the self‐help literature and lifestyle media. This interdisciplinary review article considers the dominant trends in these discussions and suggests four new directions for fruitful inquiry: (1) investigating self‐help literature from the global South and the evolving Asian economies in cross‐cultural comparative analyses; (2) more thoroughly assessing the role of religious movements and discourses in these self‐help discourses and practices; (3) exploring more fully the impact of interactive media on self‐help practices; and (4) continued creative explorations of strategies to transform makeover culture into a broader movement to make over our culture.