SOC317H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Intercultural Competence, Pierre Bourdieu, Ethnography
Document Summary
It goes beyond the simple materialistic value of a product (ex. Shoes, where the basic function of them is to stay warm, comfortable and avoid injuries. However, advertisers do not emphasize on these utilitarian perspective. Instead, there is some sort of celebrity motive behind them). Thus, consumer culture creates a web of meanings through which people are influenced by objects. It differs from ordinary consumption, which can involve household activities free from displaying distinction from other people, such as cleaning, watching television, eating everyday domestic meals, listening to the radio. The relations between lived culture and social resources, and between meaningful ways of life and the symbolic and material resources on which they depend and are mediated through markets. They only use qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups (qualitative research is central, but there is a multiplicity of methods including quantitative research).
