From Value to Consumption. A Social- theoretical Perspective on Simmel's Philosophie des Geldes

Bibliographic Data

ID2300465
AuthorsR Sassatelli (0000-0003-4240-9691, University of East Anglia, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume43
Issue3
Pages207-218
Publication date2000-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Sociologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/000169930004300302
OpenAlexW1973653245
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited35

Re-interpreting Simmel's work on money as an attempt to develop a critical sociology of consumption from a relativist theory of value, this paper illustrates the extent to which it may be seen as something more, and different than, sociological impressionism. The modern social space of valuation is chiefly defined by the development of money economy within metropolitan settings. This allows for the public commensurability of values and pushes for their private incompatibility. Subjectivism is heightened in so far as individuals' capacity to sustain difference is vital to social, objective exchange. Contrary to neo-classical economics, the appreciation of individual choice entails for Simmel a critical appraisal of the social conditions of its existence which results in a discussion of the risks associated with the pressure to perform as autonomous choosers. The paper concludes with a view on what may be a Simmelian sociology of consumption, one which enriches the classical focus on social distinction with a critical concern for the modern conditions of valuation and self-constitution. Fashion and style may be conceived of as techniques of consumption that, embodying particular combinations of difference and indifference, help govern the modern world of goods. In this view, these mundane practices have the potential to function as a balancing practice of self-constitution, taking place between the indifference of the market which allows individualization, and the risk that the individuality thus constituted remains empty, a reproducer of commensurability unable to bestow value on things

Capitalism · Commensurability (mathematics · Constitution · Consumption (sociology · Economics · Epistemology · Neoclassical economics · Normative · Political science · Positive economics · Relativism · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivism · Valuation (finance · Value (mathematics · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access