Consumerism Sociology Essay

Consumer culture can be defined as where social status, values, and activities are centered on the consumption of goods and services, basically in a consumer culture a large part of what you do, what you value, and how you are defined revolves around your consumption of stuff. The need to consume is implemented into our brains from a very young age, therefore this becomes socially acceptable to consume because it is seen to be social to follow the rules of society, e.g we buy our water from the supermarket instead of drinking water from the tap (Grimsley,1970). This essay will specifically argue that society is highly driven by consumerism because in everyday life people are bombarded with advertisements that encourage people to consume the latest object and people do this to be able to gain a certain status, there is a variety of issues as why society is driven by consumerism but that is the main reason people want to have the newest objects to be able to show off and say they have them when in reality they don’t need to have the object. This essay is split into four parts. The first part will examine how consumption is displayed in everyday life and where it stemmed from, it will also look into Veblen’s theory of wealth, status, display, and emulation and the fact that within society it is seen to be crucial to be doing better than someone else the need to own something better than someone else. The second part will focus on the work of Max Weber how he argued that it was religion that powered social change, and how Karl Marx explains commodity fetishism. The third part is Marx's theory of class conflict, Marx argues that the bourgeoisie oppresses the proletariat in every way possible. It then goes on to talk about the London riots in 2011 how the need to consume created these riots and what extent people would go to. The final part of the essay will look at globalization and how the process of cultural globalization happens through the distribution of media coverage. Zygmunt Bauman’s view on postmodernism and liquid modernity is also explained in the final paragraph he argues that we are stuck in a work where the poor experience instability in life while the rich experience it in a better way.

The consumption of goods and services is so greatly embedded into our everyday lifestyle, that it is rarely questioned as it is seen to be so normal so why would anyone question it, not only have the environmental consequences and social consequences gotten lost along the way, but also the very notion that consumption is a choice and that our basic needs are met. Consumption in a symbolic meaning is not necessary and is a choice itself (Thomson, 2016). The sociology of consumption is about a lot more than the actual purchase or act it includes a variety of emotions, behaviors, identities, values, and thoughts. This is seen to be portrayed throughout how we use goods and services. When attempting to define the relationship of ‘consumption’ and ‘consumerism’ it is deemed to be done with great difficulty. Consumerism is not coterminous with consumption. Campbell (1995) argues that consumption is defined as ‘the selection, purchase, use, maintenance, repair, and disposal of any product or service. Within sociology historically the theory of consumption has incorporated what is described as ‘macro-structural’ issues, in recent times it has been more concerned with ‘macro-cultural’ issues. The significance of consumption stems from a structural point of view in terms of the experience of whole classes or even societies. More recently sociologists have moved away from perceiving that consumption as little more than a by-product of production as part of a move towards understanding the various cultural aspects of consumption Steven Miles, (1998).

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Thorstein Veblen, (1899) theory of leisure class is one of the most significant classical contributions to a sociological understanding of consumption. Veblen (1899) Veblen examines the demand and consumption of the upper classes of society in terms that are not the traditional economic terms, and he does this without the use of data. He begins by looking at how the leisure class came into existence. Veblen begins with a primitive society in which there are no class distinctions or forms of ownership. When the institution of ownership begins, with women seized by victors, then class distinction begins. This barbarian society has different characteristics than the primitive society does, and this is where the basis of the leisure class is found. To examine consumption Veblen looks at the leisure habits of the leisure class within their lifestyle, he examines not only their characteristics but also their activities, manner of dress, religions, and pursuit of activities of higher learning. He views the activities and spending habits of this leisure class in terms of conspicuous and vicarious consumption and waste. Both were related to the display and not to functionality or usefulness. They avoid employment that may be productive since this is not seen as an honorable activity within society. (Steven Miles, 1998). Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption argues that individuals within society emulate the patterns of consumption of individuals of a higher hierarchy than them. Veblen used four words to describe consumption which are, wealth, status, display, and emulation. For example, wealth is excessive consumption, status is purchasing the finest things in life, the display is then showing it off and emulation is copying something for example a person throws a birthday party and then another person in the society wants to do it bigger and better than the last one to show they have a bigger status than the other person. There are a variety of contemporary examples of Veblen’s theory such as how easy it is to attain items within society no matter your status or class, for example being able to use credit cards nowadays and how easy they are to get which shows a false portrayal of a wealthy status and also finance on expensive cars to try and give off the impression as though the individual has a lot of money when in fact they are in a lot of debt just to say they own the car (Chen, 2018).

Max Weber published his highly influential work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904. The focus of Weber’s study was that religion was the engine of social change. Weber argued that the values of the Protestant religion led to the emergence of capitalism in Western Europe around the 17th century. Weber theorized that the different value systems had very different effects, the values of Protestantism encouraged the ways of acting which then resulted in capitalism emerging over decades (Karl Thompson,2017). Weber didn’t believe that people within society are what shape our society, Weber argued that societies enforce certain different types of motive action for example the religion of Calvinism encouraged people to save money, which eventually led to capitalism. Weber believes that there are four types of social actions, ideal types are used as a tool to look at real cases and compare them to the ideal types to see where they fall.

The first social action is traditional social action which is actions controlled by traditions, which means “the way something has always been done”. The second social action is affective social action which are actions deemed by someone’s affections and emotional state and someone who does not think about the consequences of their actions. The third social action is value rational social action which are actions that are determined by a conscious belief within a type of behavior, for example, religion. The fourth social action is instrumental rational social action which are actions that are used to create a certain goal by doing something to create a result. A critique of Weber would be that he focused too much on society shaping the individual, symbolic interactionism argues that individuals have more freedom to shape their identities. Karl Thompson,(2017).

According Karl Marx (1867), Marx borrows this concept to make sense of what he terms 'commodity fetishism.' As Marx explains, the commodity remains simple as long as it is tied to its use-value. People within a capitalist society treat commodities as though they just appear in an object, not the effort a laborer may have put into the object to produce the result. Marx saw the worker's relationship to the means of production and the commodity as a key influence on that person’s life, the actual reception and consumption of that commodity has become substantially a lot more influential. Marx argues that all aspects of social life become subject to the laws of the marketplace. An example of commodity fetishism could be the brand Nike, the company is very big on advertising and promoting the company by using celebrities to promote the brand. An example of a celebrity promoting Nike would be the 2014 advertisement starring famous football player Cristiano Renaldo showing off Nike clothing. These adverts draw in consumers as well as increase commodity fetishism. (Jackie Wilkcom,2014).

Marx’s theory of class conflict is included within the capitalist society, the division of the two classes, each class has a bond of mutual interests and a degree of property ownership, often supported by the state. The bourgeoisie represents the members of society who hold the majority of the wealth and means. The proletariat includes those considered working class or poor. Due to the rise of capitalism, Marx argued that the Bourgeoisie was a minority within the population and they would use their influence to oppress the proletariat which was the majority class. Marx argued that laborers have very little control over the economic system because they don’t own factories or materials, their work becomes devalued over time. This then creates an imbalance between business owners and workers, which then leads to social conflicts. Marx argued that these problems would eventually be fixed through a social economic revolution (Fulcher & Scott, 2011).

In Bauman’s theory of the failed consumer, if the definition of normality in a producer society was to be the worker then the definition of abnormality was to be the unemployed, then you become the none person, the outsider. To be a failed worker didn’t mean it was the end of the road for the individual, the economic cycle and periodic wars meant that society had some reason to invest in you. The need to keep you fit and healthy to then be ready for work or war if it occurred. Furthermore, the failed workers were a class, they lived in the same communities and had a sense of shared class solidarity. In today's modern-day life, the failed consumer faces a much more hostile, humiliating life. Society does not need the failed consumers they can’t spend so they have no value now or in the future (Kalleberg & Biggs, 2015). A failed consumer nowadays is known as having a miserable existence because their daily life experience is subjected to being trapped, to be told that designer goods are the hallmarks of success, but then to be told you can’t have them. The failed consumer then has to realize not being able to escape the fact of never being allowed into that cycle. They are permanent window shoppers who can look but can never touch or own. The London riots in 2011 gave the failed consumers a chance to escape the trappings of being stuck and not being able to consume, it gave them the chance to take stuff that defined them. It was the chance to have the items for free and just for a moment be like everyone else. Bauman wrote on the pages of the Social Europe Journal after the looting and burning “ These are not hunger or bread riots. These are riots of defective and disqualified consumers”. In a consumer society, the site of the process was the shops, which symbolize where economic and cultural power lies and will be the target of the failed consumers. The sciences of the riots resembled the well-known game Grand Theft Auto. The aftermath of the London riots created a brief fundamental debate about politics and exposed the differences between the left and right-wing. The right-wing argues that “the British welfare state has created an underclass. The looting is not an indication of economic despair”. They went on “Their problem is not that they have been given too little, but they have deserved nothing”. The issue, the problem was purely that of personal moral responsibility. The left-wing argued that it was fundamentally about poverty and equality (Lawson,2016).

Globalization has created the ability to purchase life-changing goods for consumers, it has provided many different consumption alternatives at reasonable prices. Globalization has created many changes within societies and cultures across the whole world (Kumar & Kalai Raji, n.d.). The process of cultural globalization happens through the distribution and consumption of the media, consumer goods, and the Western consumer lifestyle. It is also fuelled by social media and media coverage of the world elite and their lifestyles, the movement of people from the global north around the world via business and leisure travel, and the expectations of these travelers that host societies will provide amenities and experiences that reflect their cultural norms. (Nicki Lisa Cole, 2017). It is very easy in this day and age to go to any major city in the world and share in a similar ‘consumption experience’. People from countries such as Asia and South America are reaching the point of enjoying high-consumption lifestyles within the West, an example of this could be car ownership and tourism which are both on the rise globally. In the same aspect is the growth of similar styles of shopping malls, and leisure parks which provide homogeneous cultural experiences within different regions across the world. Ulrich Beck (1992) argued that there is a distinct feature of globalization which is the development of a global risk consciousness, which stems from the shared global problems that threaten people in multiple countries, an example that could be used is the threat of terrorism and the rise of organized crime which is predominantly through international drug trafficking. (Karl Thompson, 2017)

Postmodernism is a broad movement that occurred in the 20th century, the ideas associated with it can be seen in response to the various social changes occurring with the shift from modernity to postmodernity. Zygmunt Bauman accepts that the modern project that came from the European enlightenment of rationally shaping society no longer makes sense. Bauman has increasingly moved away from the term ‘postmodernism’ which he argued that had become corrupt by too much diverse usage and now describes this day and age as ‘liquid modernity’, reflecting the fact no matter how many times stability and order have been tried to be put into the world and has created uncertainty while doing so. Bauman argues that it is capitalism that has produced the postmodernist world we live in and that predominantly it is the poor that experience instability in life while the rich experience it in a better way, Bauman argued that if we want a better world to live in it is up to us as individuals to figure out a way of being more in control of what kind of world we live in rather than just accepting our fate as consumers. (Zygmunt Bauman,2013).

In conclusion, it is fair to say that consumerism and happiness show a clear link, it is clear to say that happiness is a relative term for different people. Nowadays it is seen to be that owning nice new shiny objects has become part of such everyday life. Throughout this essay, the extent of consumerism has been discussed through different theories such as Veblen’s theory of leisure class in 1899, Max Weber’s work of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904, Karl Marx theory of class conflict, Bauman’s theory of the failed consumer, Beck’s theory of globalization 1992, and Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity. The need to consume in everyday life has grown massively due to how the media or social media portray the need to consume and how important it is to own a variety of luxuries to gain a certain status.

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