Consumption and Consumer Society
Peter Arnold
Learning Aims
 To describe sociological theories of consumption and
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production
To identify how sociologists have examined social
relations, the market and consumer
To raise perspectives from past and present sociological
thinkers
To outline the characteristics of the consumer society
To examine key contemporary themes- marketing,
branding, social identity- and consumption patterns in
modern society
To examine these within the social structure and use
comparisons
What Sort of Society Do We Live In
 Traditionally sociologists have studied society by
focussing on production
 Sociological studies of industrial and
manufacturing processes
 Sociological studies of occupations and work
 Sociological studies relating these to social class
 Increasingly the attention has shifted towards a
sociology of consumption
 This analysis is related to the social structure
 Structures of consumption are stratified
Consumption and Consumerism
 Purchases may be divided roughly into the following:
necessities, comforts, unnecessary items.
 We all have to consume so the consumption of
necessities is just that. The ongoing consumption of
unnecessary items is what is meant by consumerism.
 But who decides what is unnecessary and do the
categories change over time? Does the notion of
‘unnecessary’ have the same meaning in Hong Kong as
in Europe?
Karl Marx on Consumption
Feudal Society
Capitalist Society
Everything is produced for
immediate consumption
Workers do not own the means of
production- they sell their labour in
exchange for a wage. The wage buys
most necessities.
Production is not separate from
consumption  everything
produced is used for the
maintenance of life
What is produced by labour is not
consumed directly as it enters the
market first
Does not assume the form of a
commodity- has only use value
Products of labour assume the form
of commodities
Products of labour have ‘exchange
value’ as well as ‘use value’, i.e. what
they can be exchanged for may
exceed their use value
Karl Marx on Consumption
• Karl Marx made a still important distinction between:
• Exchange value - what the commodity can be
exchanged for, i.e. what it is worth.
• Use value – the value to which the commodity can be
put which may be small or may be great.
• This observation is extended into analysis of Commodity
fetishism – when item has a low use value but high
exchange value. This may be the sign of an affluent middle
class?
Use Value and Exchange Value
Markets, Production and Consumption
 Past social theorists, such as Marx, discussed markets
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and production processes
Weber followed this in discussing rationality and
market behaviour
In his analysis Weber analysed people’s life chances in
the market for labour
Both Marx and Weber described labour markets as
areas in which classes or groups compete
Recent sociological analysis of markets has looked at
consuming behaviour and how societies are organised
around consumption
Marcuse and others suggested that in modern society
more and more products have exchange value and
little use value
Marx and Veblen
Thinking About Markets and Consumption
 The development of global capitalism and what Marx’s
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prophesy of a world market
In his view crisis would occur out of ‘the poverty and
restricted consumption of the masses’- Capital vol 3
Marx also described how purchases could become
obsessive ‘commodity fetishism’
In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Veblen developed
economic sociology
Argued that the dominant class in America- ‘the leisure
class’ experienced a life of ‘conspicuous consumption’
Conspicuous consumption was about identity and display
Conspicuous Consumption
 Veblen’s term has been extended to describe consumer
society
 In sociological usage it is linked to media, advertising,
culture, lifestyle and identity
‘ It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most items
of consumption that people will undergo a very
considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the
necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a
decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no
means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement society,
for people to go ill clad in order to Appear well dressed’
The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899
Conspicuous Consumption
Sociological Approaches to Consumption
 Modern sociologists and political scientists help us
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understand consumer society
Bourdieu’s later works analysed culture and consumer
society-social life has many overlapping fields. People
compete for social position through lifestyle activities and
tastes
Baudrillard explained significance of media and mass
communications in consumer society. TV defines reality
Bauman on move from producer to consumer society
It is important to recognise that different modernities can
co-exist. This is a point made strongly by Bhambra in
discussion of multiple modernities. In some cases forms of
European modernity may be rejected and aspects of local
culture emphasised. There might be hybrid and mixed
modernities
Pierrre Bourdieu
Bauman and Baudrillard
Gurminder Bhambra
Emergence of the Consumer
Society
 What most consumer scholars agree on is that after the
WW2 there was a great shift towards a social structure that
could be called Consumer Society
 People had more disposable income
 Rise in the manufacture of household and leisure goods
 Advances in technology. Radio/TV – allows a direct access
to people in their homes
 Rise in the marketing and advertising industries
Capitalist Consumer Society
 Our needs, desires, and wants become increasingly
commodified.
 Do we really want/need that designer good?
 Presented as an objective (truthful) desire
 From where do the desires and wants originate?
 The power of marketing creates what theorists from the
Frankfurt school called ‘false needs’.
The Characteristics of Consumer Society
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The following characteristics are firmly identified:
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Rising affluence, personal and family expenditures
Working life drives leisure and consumer goods
Identities related to status as consumers
More time devoted to lifestyle - goods confer status
People are divided along consumption cleavages
Consumers have power, consumer replaces citizen
Markets pervade social life- health, education
Gramsci and Hegemony
Antonio Gramsci
Hegemony
 Gramsci (1891-1937) employs the
notion of hegemony
 A set of dominant ideas that
shape our beliefs and culture.
They are presented as common
sense, and as a result we consent
to them
 A political concept concerned
with the nature and distribution
of power between groups in
society.
 Involves securing the consent of
subordinate groups
Hegemony and Control
 So control through consent is prevalent in modern
societies (extreme coercion is very rarely used in
modern, democratic, capitalist societies).
 Liberal societies encourage individuality rather than
collective and class action
 Ideas shape our thoughts and circumscribe our actions
Marcuse and the Frankfurt School
 Through the work of the Frankfurt School sociological understanding focussed
strongly on the media and how capitalism generated artificial needs in the
consumer
 Through the development of false consciousness workers pursued consumer
goods which distracted them from their true class interests
 In One Dimensional Man (1964) Herbert Marcuse set out his view of false
needs which are imposed on the individual to serve the interests of the
dominant political and economic groups. Society creates the needs and fulfils
them:
“ If the individuals are satisfied to the point of happiness with the goods
and services handed down to the by the administration, why should they
insist on different institutions for a different production of different
goods and services?”
(Marcuse,1964:50)
Marcuse: One Dimensional Man
(1964)
 As we are kept busy fulfilling our needs we are unaware
of our condition
 Consumer choice an illusion of freedom
“The range of choice open to the individual is not the
decisive factor in determining the degree of human
freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen
by the individual”
(Marcuse, 1964:7)
 Consumption keeps us content and unlikely to rebel
Does the Consumer Society
Empower?
 Against the negative critique of consumerism as creating
false hopes for the many and riches and extravagance for
the few an alternative positive view can be constructed
 Instead of being cultural dopes consumers may be
regarded as exercising choice and freedom. The desire to
own need not be destructive and can involve ethical
choices over products
 In addition, the experience of consumerism may be
regarded as allowing release and uplifting us from
monotonous and unrewarding daily routines
 In modern debate the central issue is more about the
morality of consumption than its futility
The World As A Department Store
Iconic Store
Hong Kong As A Consumer Society
Hong Kong As A Consumer Society
Hong Kong As A Consumer Society
Hong Kong As A Consumer Society
Hong Kong As A Consumer Society
Baudrillard on Modern Consumer
Society
 Baudrillard sees the period since the industrial
revolution up to the 1960s and slightly beyond as the
era of modernity and production. They are controlled
by use and exchange value.
 Baudrillard sees a new shift from modernity to
postmodernity which he associates with the increase
in consumption and consumerism.
 Baudrillard’s work is especially useful to us in helping
us understand the signs and symbols of the consumer
age and in understanding how electronic media shape
opinion and even events
Baudrillard: Sign, Use, Exchange Value
Sign Value
Sign and Image
 Baudrillard starts with Marx's
• For Baudrillard the logic of sign
distinction between use value
and exchange value.
 Baudrillard adds the value of
the sign to the use/exchange
duo so we have three
elements of value: use value,
exchange value, sign value
value imposes a cultural order.
• As consumers we are vehicles for
the transmission of controlled
differences according to the
demands of advertising and
marketing.
• For Baudrillard ‘categories of
persons’ are produced through
this categorisation of objects.
Think how this is taken up in
marketing.
Power of the Image and Categories of
Person
Mercedes Formula 1
Mercedes Consumer
Branding Lifestyles and People
The Language of the Consumer Society
 Advertising shapes, or guides behaviour, commodities have
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symbolic value
In areas of public life clients become consumers, users,
stakeholders
The language of the market and the consumer spreads into
political life
Politicians are marketed and packaged
Particular social groups become target consumers children, young people, the elderly, women, men
Particular consumer ideologies have a tenacious gripowner occupation, car owning, etc, etc
Friendship and emotion invested in material celebratory
purchases and social relationships
Describing the Consumer Society
‘ The distinctive mark of the consumer society is not
consumption as such; not even the elevated and fast rising
volume of consumption. What sets the members of the
consumer society apart from their ancestors is the
emancipation of consumption from its past instrumentality
that used to draw its limits- the demise of ‘norms’ and the
new plasticity of ‘needs’, setting consumption free from
functional bonds and absolving it from the need to justify
itself by reference to anything but its own pleasurability’
Bauman, Z (2001) in Woodward, K (2010) Social Science: The
Big Issues, Routledge, p 91
The Language of The Market
Celebrities and Fashion (1960s)
Celebrities and Fashion Brands
Does the Consumer Society Empower
People?
 There is a substantial sociological debate on
whether a consumer culture is beneficial
 Critics argue that consumerism destroys cultures
and local identities
 Ritzer (2004) criticises ‘cathedrals of consumption’
 The shallowness of brand name cultures is
criticised, consumers are duped
 Others, from producer and consumer perspectives,
point to growth, choice, diversity and cultural
enhancement
 The consumer is ‘sovereign’
Consumerism and Marketing
 In the consumer society the power of advertising,
branding and marketing are
 People crave specific items and identities
 Advertising and marketing are an accepted part of
modern culture
 Through skilful use of the media advertising and
marketing encourage spending
 In the media there is a constant urge to make overhouses, gardens, bodies, personalities
Make-Overs
Advertising and Marketing
‘ Advertising and marketing are so deeply embedded
in our culture now that it’s hard to imagine a time
when a product placement and network logo and
‘burns’ and ‘bugs’ weren’t everywhere you looked,
when our lifestyles and culture weren’t predicated
on consumption. But that pre-marketing era was
not so long ago: only two generations’
Lasn, K (2000) quoted in Woodward, K (2010) Social
Science: The Big Issues, Routledge, p 89
Consumption and Modern Economies
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In examining consumption sociologists explore
interconnected themes:
MacIonis and Plummer (pp 525-529) summarise
five:
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The branding of commodities
Born to shop
Mass consumption- dopes and dupes
Inequalities and consumption
Disneyization
Items 1 and 2 are summarised here. Items 3 and 5 are also
of significance for lecture 3.
Branding
 Consumers develop identity with brands, rather
than products- a coke not a drink
 Global advertising has grown faster than general
economic growth
 New markets generate new consumers and new
brands
 Through brands global lifestyles and identities are
produced
 Branding and theming dominate much of the
global economy and operate through superstores
and branded villages
The World’s Most Famous Brand ?
Born to Shop
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The born to shop culture has made shopping a
leisure activity evidenced in:
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Growth of shopping malls and superstores
Malls and stores become part of leisure time
Commodities have expanded in range- specialist sports
equipment, different styles of eating, expansion of product
ranges as in cosmetics
Cultural shopping identities- ‘I shop therefore I am!’
Age specific shoppers, esp in music and fashion
Internet and teleshopping
Expansion of credit and shopping cards
Shopping, travel and tourism
Global Cities of Consumption
 In the past 30 years new global cities of consumption have
emerged driven by huge investment, rising earnings and
the development of urban infrastructure dedicated to the
consumer.
 Dubai is the classic 20th and 21st century example. Lacking
the natural resources of neighbour states Dubai’s
development has been tied to shopping malls, theme
parks, artificial islands, tourism and the advantages of
accessibility by air and sea
 Against the established media image of successful
consumerism, the other side of the analysis has to take into
account massive migration of labour (over 250,000) low
pay, exploitation and cases of investment failure
Dubai City and the Consumer
Cities and The Consumer
Dubai Aerial View 2013
Dubai Palm Island
Applying Sociological Concepts
 The sociology of consumption has expanded in its own
right
 New areas of inquiry, such as globalisation have added to
understanding
 Established core areas in sociology still have great
relevance, for example;
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Social class, status and social division
Culture and materialism
Market and economic position
Social inequalities and power
Stratification and hierarchies
Work, gender and family
Social identity
Organisations, media and communication
Do We Over-consume?
Critical Perspectives on Consumer
Society (See especially chapters 1, 3, 5)
Conclusion
 Study of consumption and the consumer society have
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become more common
These offer different perspectives on social life to those
from studies of production
These two areas are, however, closely linked
How we ‘buy and sell’ takes us into new realms of social,
economic and cultural life
Studies of consumption and market relations can be
complex
‘Consumption is more than going shopping’ Woodward, K
(2010) Social Science: The Big Issues
Consumption patterns reflect the social structure
Recommended Reading and References
Aldridge, A (2003) Consumption: Key Concepts, Polity Press
Bauman, Z (1998) Work, Consumers and the New Poor, Open University
Bauman, Z (2003) Liquid Modernity, Polity Press
Bhambra, G (2007) Rethinking Modernity, Palgrave/ MacMillan, especially
chapters 2, 3 and conclusion
Cohen, L (2003) Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in
Post war America, Knopf
Cohen, R and Kennedy, P (2013) Global Sociology, Palgrave, Second Edition,
chapter 4
Elliott, A (2014) Contemporary Social Theory, Second Edition, Routledge,
chapters 1, 2 9
Giddens, A and Sutton, P (20) Sociology, Polity Press, Seventh Edition, esp ch
6
Klein, N (2000) No Logo, Flamingo
MacIonis, J and Plummer, K (2012) Sociology: A Global Introduction, Pearson,
Fifth edition, ch 15
Slater, D (1997) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Polity Press, esp chs 1-3
Woodward, K (2010) Social Science: The Big Issues, Routledge, especially
chapters 4, 5, 7
www.consume.bbk.ac.uk
Some Thinking Questions
 What was your last concentrated shopping
experience?
 What motivated you to buy?
 How was your shopping experience structured?
 Are you a spender or a saver?
 If a spender, Why? If a Saver, Why?
 How responsive are you to advertising and
branding?