SOCIOL 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Jif (Peanut Butter), Chanel No. 5, Commodity Fetishism
Document Summary
Economy/society - bruce g carruthers and sarah l. babb. Chapter 2: marketing and the meaning of things: utilitarian picture of commodities: objects with physically useful characteristics, economic theory: under perfect competition, commodities are perfectly substitutable, example: all bananas are the same, so buyers seek the lowest-priced banana. Commodity fetishism (karl marx: commodities give to social relationships a physical form; they embody social relationships, under capitalism, relationships between human beings were distorted to appear as if they were relationships between things. Economic theory notion of consumer sovereignty: simplistic notion that the economy is driven by the autonomous preferences of individual consumers. It would follow that manufacturers and distributors would passively respond to consumer preferences: sociological vie(cid:449): ad(cid:448)ertisi(cid:374)g is o(cid:374)e t(cid:455)pe of (cid:272)ulture i(cid:374)dustr(cid:455), (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h (cid:862)refra(cid:373)es (cid:373)ea(cid:374)i(cid:374)gs i(cid:374) order to add (cid:448)alue to produ(cid:272)ts(cid:863) Meaning attached to who sells a commodity: high-status commodities are sold in high-status stores, the prestige of the retail venue confers status on the commodity.
