Sociology of consumption

The Cultural Production of Economic Value

To understand contemporary consumer society one needs to consider a long historical process.

New forms of consumption free themselves from rigid social stratification and end up being governed by fashion and by experts who supply advice on good taste.

Arjun Appadurai stresses the ability of consumers to recognize the value of objects and it is by instructing consumers on the values of objects that consumption can be stimulated.

Establishes a link between consumption and cultural value.

When we talk about flows of good we talk also about flows of knowledge.

He says that producers, consumers and traders collaborate in the creation of the meaning of the objects. These objects are crucial to our identities and to our desire of consumption only if we understand their meanings.

These meanings are rhetorical, they are given by people.

Goods are pieces that collaborate in the creation of your identity, make you similar to other people, and your uniqueness is linked.

to your goods. Chandra Mukerji, an American sociologist, said that modern consumption has a precursor in the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. She says that thanks to enormous progress in transport and communication, many new and unknown products became available in the western European market. This provoked people to cultivate their capacity for cultural classification, pushing them to develop materialist cultural attitudes. It means that we as consumers are always engaged in this cultural classification which means that we need to put our goods in a sort of list where they can acquire a specific meaning and they contribute to the creation of a cultural space in consumption. People attribute labels to different kinds of goods (exotic, northern, technological, etc.) This classification contributes to the value of the product. With this categorization, people can look at things differently. This new representation of goods was possible thanks to media (the birth of the printf people. It stimulates the economy and creates jobs. It is a symbol of wealth and status. Luxury goods are often associated with high quality and craftsmanship. They are seen as a form of self-expression and a way to differentiate oneself from others. Luxury brands invest heavily in marketing and advertising to create a sense of exclusivity and desirability. However, the concept of luxury is subjective and can vary across cultures and individuals. What may be considered a luxury item in one society may be seen as a necessity in another. In conclusion, the printed press played a significant role in shaping the cultural value of goods. Luxury goods have evolved over time and are now seen as a positive force in the economy. They provide employment opportunities and contribute to social and economic development.

Poor and drawing the world's conveniences and all the most elegant comforts of life to an industrious, wealthy and powerful nation.

The book says that we are an aggregation of self-interested individuals, bound one another by envy and competition.

There is a difference between the things we say and the things we actually do (no violence but do war).

Envy and competition are good things because it creates a wealth of the nation.

Luxury was demoralized because it was something which simply favours commerce and productivity. In abstract terms luxury could only be defined as the refinement in the gratification of the senses.

Wolfgang Schivelbusch - "tastes of paradise" th th Essay on the history of luxury goods. It considers the diffusion of coffee to the 17 to the 18 centuries. During this period coffee took a new meaning that was linked to the bourgeoisie. Before it was linked to the court, with the bourgeoisie it was linked to sobriety and industriousness. The opposite of

Alcohol. As Jurgen Habermas revealed, coffeehouses were fundamental to the development of a truly bourgeois and liberal culture. It became the symbol of public opinion. Coffee infiltrated the private sphere as a domestic beverage, known as the "warmth of home". Coffee represented a Nordic and Protestant drink, while chocolate was considered its Catholic and southern counterparts. Chocolate ranged from powdered cocoa mixed with milk as a drink for children, to chocolate pralines which represented luxury and were given as gifts to women.

LESSON 3

Marx, Veblen, Simmel are famous and important sociologists whose theories are considered the foundation of sociology. The birth of sociology as a science dates back to around the mid-19th century, a relatively recent social science. It is related to three important revolutions: the French revolution, the industrial revolution, and the scientific revolution. Before these revolutions, societies were based on a hierarchical order established by religion, resulting in closed societies.

of transcendental entities or gods. You cannot analyze that society, it's fixed. Thanks to the French revolution it was clear that queens were not at the top of the hierarchy because they were placed by god but the order of society was to be found inside the society itself because all human beings were equal "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" means all humans are equal. The explanation for this hierarchical order is inside the society, it can change. The industrial revolution changed completely everything, cities in metropolis change in the life of people.

KARL MARX 1818-1883

One of the founders of sociology. He develops his thoughts around some important concepts.

Difference between structure and superstructure:

• The structure is the set of productive forces and manufacturing relationships in a specific society in a specific historical context in history.
• Superstructure refers to legal and political forms of social consciousness that mirror the economic

structure was based on feudalism, where the majority of the population were peasants who worked the land owned by the nobility. The means of production were controlled by a small elite, leading to social inequality and exploitation. Marx argues that with the rise of capitalism, the means of production became concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class. This led to the emergence of the proletariat, the working class, who were forced to sell their labor in order to survive. The capitalist system, according to Marx, is inherently exploitative, as the bourgeoisie extract surplus value from the labor of the proletariat. In this capitalist society, Marx sees the superstructure, which includes institutions such as the state, law, and ideology, as serving the interests of the ruling class. The dominant ideology, he argues, is shaped by the economic base and serves to maintain the existing social order. Marx also criticizes the alienation that arises from the capitalist mode of production. He argues that workers are alienated from the products of their labor, as they have no control over the means of production and are reduced to mere wage laborers. This alienation extends to all aspects of life, as workers are also alienated from their own creative potential and from each other. Overall, Marx's analysis of society is centered around the relationship between the economic base and the superstructure. He sees the economic forces as the driving factor in shaping social relations and moral values. By understanding and transforming the economic base, Marx believes that a more just and equitable society can be achieved.revolution was characterized by the feudalsociety. A period in which the relationship between the land owner and the farmer was basedon human values, and close relations. Today the relations between factory workers and thecapitalist are colder. Even if farmer need to work for the land owner to produce goods this kindof relation is based on different kind of values, not dominate by the exchange value becausepeople produce their own goods.Today according to Marx, we see that factories worker are not autonomous as the ancient one,he doesn't own their work, he cannot decide anything. It depends on the decision of thecapitalist system.This kind of system is based on the division of labour, an organizational principle, of therepetition of small, specialized tasks at various points in the assembly line. The production linewith specialized tasks increases productivity and profit for the capitalist.The factory worker is not responsible for all the activity of production of the final

Product buthe performs all the time the same task and this results in alienation for the factory worker.

Alienation:- The means of production are produced by workers, but owned and controlled by owners, workers lost control over the things they produce and over the activity of producing it.

If the transaction in the feudal society was characterized by labour in industrial society it's characterized by money that represents the exchange value relates to the value of the product in the market.

Society is divided into 2 classes: workers and capitalists. All revolutions in society from that moment on are caused by conflicts between these classes.

"Capital" - the difference between the use value and the exchange value.

The use value is the cost of material and production.

The exchange value is the price in the marketplace of commodities consequence of the new society, the fact that everything can be quantified by money.

This cost depends not only on the value of materials.

but also on the value people give to this good. A commodity's usefulness is generally determined in a non-numerical way, based on our needs, which are difficult to quantify. The commodity's exchange value is partially based on the average amount of labour-time that it takes to make it. The true cost is also due to the exploitation of labour. People are paid less than the price of a commodity in the market does not mirror the price of the material and labour implied. The monetary economy is an abstract universal equivalent. It is used as a way of measuring commodities and transforming them into monetary value. This quantification of everything is an impersonal way of measuring the value of things, it depends on a lot of factors. Price is the money name of the labour objectified in a commodity. Not completely true because the price includes also other factors. Surplus value is based on the undervaluation of human labour. Capitalists pay workers less than the value of their labour. The added value.(it is what makesgoods "luxury") that workers produce is not paid by the capitalists. Helps companies to increase profits paga bassa ma selling price very highCommodity and fetichism current phenomenonFetishism derives from anthropology and refers to some pre-modern beliefs that inanimateobjects have magical or godly powers (totems etc...)In the same way, we forget that the commodities we use are produced in factories. The realproducers of commodities mostly remain invisible. We only approach their products "throughthe relations which the act of exchange establishes between the products". Products becamethe only things that really matter, relations only between things and not people.Money forms an arbitrary equivalence in terms of labour power, whereby every object can betraded for another. The exchange value is the value