SOC 2112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Populism, Thorstein Veblen, Cultural Capital

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The theory of the leisure class (1899) Veblen wanted economists to account for the social and cultural causes and effects of economic changes. His book is a lampooning and satire of the shallowness and pomposity of the leisure class. Populism and anti-elitism are more pronounced here. Societies are the centrality of work/labor as a status signifier. Mass consumer market of goods and services - more people can partake in conspicuous consumption. Consumption can be aspirational and competitive: very much tied into status. Consumer society involves people who are competing with each other based on the products they have. Veblen, like marcuse - the lower classes were not out to overthrow the upper classes - strived to climb up to it and be a part of it. Examined the relationship between economics and culture via consumption. Conspicuous consumption is important for the leisure class because it"s what gets them status, through what they buy.

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