Consumption
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7079152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Timothy Ryan (0000-0003-2586-8829, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Pages | 1-5 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosc102 |
| OpenAlex | W4230676855 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
Consumption has been defined by economists in utilitarian terms as individuals taking care of their needs and maximizing their utilities in market exchanges, with the act of consumption taking place for the most part in private life. Even Marx saw it this way when he conceptualized the production process in four moments: production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. He saw the first three moments as a socialized process determined by the social relations of property and production. While the shares of consumption for individuals were determined by property and production relations, the moment of consumption was a matter for individuals in their private lives. Veblen and Mauss were the first social theorists to detect and conceptualize a social logic of emulation and competition for prestige and power in consumer practices. Competition for prestige was not invented in market economies and societies; it could be found in the gift‐giving rituals that Mauss analyzed in tribal cultures. It could also be found in the idle pursuits of nobles in agrarian societies when useful work was considered ignoble and when indolence, warfare, sports, sacred activities, governing, and academic pursuits or devotion to the beaux arts were deemed appropriate because they were thought to have no practical significance, even if they actually did have social significance. So, while acts of consumption are the acts of individuals, they also are organized through a social logic of emulation and competition for prestige and power
Competition (biology · Conspicuous consumption · Consumption (sociology · Economics · Economy · Institutional economics · Market economy · Microeconomics · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Power (physics · Prestige · Production (economics · Social science · Sociology · Veblen good · Economic Theory and Institutions · Political Economy and Marxism
| Highly cited | No |
|---|