"It is simply too much" is a common complaint of the modern age. This book looks at how people and institutions deal with overflow - of information, consumption or choices. The essays explore the ways in which notions of overflow - framed in terms of excess and abundance or their implicit opposites, scarcity and dearth - crop up in a number of contexts such as sociological and economic theory, management consulting, consumer studies, and the politics of everyday life. Chapters range from studies of overload at home, at work or in the world of cyber information; strategies of coping with overflow in institutions such as news agencies; and historical comparisons. When, where, how and for whom is overflow a problem or a blessing?

1. The Inherited Theories of Overflow and Their Challengers Orvar Löfgren and Barbara Czarniawska 2. Pompes Funèbres and the Overflowing of Ostentatious Funerals Pascale Trompette 3. News Agencies: The Places Where Information Permanently Overflows Barbara Czarniawska 4: "In Datamatrix Veritas"? Managing Wine Flow and Information Overflow with a Two-Dimensional Barcode Franck Cochoy 5. Book Reviewing For Amazon.Com: How Socio-Technical Systems Struggle to Make Less from More Trevor Pinch 6. Scenes from a Marriage: Regulating Flows Between Work and Home Gideon Kunda 7. It's Simply Too Much! Coping with Domestic Overflow Orvar Löfgren 8. Cozy Friday: An Analysis of Family Togetherness and Ritual Overconsumption Helene Brembeck 9. Waste in Overflow Lynn Åkesson 10. Afterword: Keep Calm and Carry On? The Economic History of Overflow Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

Orvar Löfgren is Professor Emeritus of European Ethnology at Lund University, Sweden.

Barbara Czarniawska is Professor of Management Studies at GRI, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.