SOCY 306 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Conspicuous Consumption, Consumerism

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Social Sci, Edu and Soc Work - Sociology
• Course: SOCY 306
• Professor: Ryan Martin

Document Summary

Part two: incenting consumers: how do we know we are consumers we as consumers in almost all aspects of life . Consumers did not arrive effortlessly as an automatic re- sponse to the spread of markets but that to be made. Between need and luxury: 18th century: rapid spread of sugar in england, partly because of increased avail- ability and reduced cost, the diffusion of sugar represents a key moment where the domination model of. The consumer becomes stabilized: individualist materialism, the satisfaction of in- dividual western consumers desire, firmly linked to virtuous mechanisms in the public sphere (work, family, mortality, control) Sovereign consumers: the dominant perspective on consumer behaviour is economic , classical economics positions all consumers ad sovereigns of the market . The consumer makes self-directed choices which, when put together with other consumers, create a demand .