This book mainly draws and contribute to
1) Theories of citizenship: The author's central concern about who constitutes citizenry, and the structural changes that took place during the liberalization period are mainly drawn from the studies of citizenship. The author's new argument about the evolution of consumer citizenship in India by replacing the older regime idea of 'patriot producer' mooring of citizenship.
2) Caste relations and new middle class: This book clearly depicts how caste relations still exist through the exclusion and inclusion practices within the admission process and politics of the new middle class. It also talks about how liberalization and privatization's ideas of 'progress and development' itself become contradictory to the ground reality.
3) The ideology of consumerism: Consumerism's impact as a dominant ideology is one of the central concerns that the author addresses in the book. One of the greater contributions this book is going to give the future scholars is how neoliberal ideas of free market and consumerism are engaging with a space like Kerala, which claims for itself having a greater tradition of renaissance, anti-caste movement and more inclusive socialist governmentality and communist movements.
Global or Local: This book questions the meta-narrative of a universal, unanimous,monotonous phenomenon of globalization. Indeed it talks about a diverse range of processes culminates due to liberalization and free-market policies in different times and spaces. The author's selection of Kerala, with its developmental project named 'Kerala model' proves her argument of a highly localized process of globalization, which will contribute to a new discourse and discussion upon 'Glocalization'.
