Sociology 2172A/B Chapter Notes -Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption, Pierre Bourdieu
Document Summary
Commodification as the most personal of issues: self-esteem, values, and relationships can be commodified, advertised and sold. Also treated in moral terms, as something good for self expression, individual development, or a reward for hard work: at the same time can be regard as wasteful unethical, or a bottomless desire for objects. Taxes become the embodiment of moral punishment. The marist perspective on production and consumption from a structural point of view. Not about individual taste, purchasing power or freedom. Consumption and production at 3 levels: first, raw materials immediate available for production, second, production and consumption constitute a mediated relation because of their mutual dependence. Production is a means for consumption and consumption the purpose of production: third, consumption and production completes and creates itself as the other, and each feeds off the other as an expression of supply and demand. Supply can become useless if the material object is not used or consumed.