Three Consumption, consumers and choice
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Kirk Mann
Abstract
In the midst of the Thatcher years Featherstone observed, “pre-retirement planning today is presented as the management of life-style and consumption opportunities to enable retirement to be a progressive set of options and choices” (1987, p 134).
The central concern of this chapter is with consumption processes, consumption patterns and the difficult issue of ‘choice’. Although consumption accounts need not be in conflict with production-based perspectives, they are often portrayed as such. Marxism, it is thought, deals with production, whereas it is tempting to portray consumption- based accounts as in some way essentially Weberian. However convenient such a contrast may be it would be misleading. There is certainly a Weberian wing among those who use consumption approaches. Life chances, understood broadly to include, among other things, education, status, housing, work, credentials and the opportunities that these provide for some sort of social mobility or ‘choice’, are clearly features of consumption that would be amenable to Weberian sociologists. The degree to which consumerism conforms to, or confronts, the ‘Protestant ethic’ (Weber, 1976) of hard work, deferred gratification and thrift would also be a task suited to Weberians. There is, however, another wing in the consumption camp that points toward lifestyle, identity and choice with, for example, Baudrillard (1975, p 144) claiming that people are “mobilised as consumers, their needs become as essential as their labour power” (cited in Smart, 1992, p 121). Between Weber and Baudrillard might seem (like the proverbial rock) a hard place to be, but there are numerous and different approaches pressing for their account to be given primacy (Warde, 1990).
Abstract
In the midst of the Thatcher years Featherstone observed, “pre-retirement planning today is presented as the management of life-style and consumption opportunities to enable retirement to be a progressive set of options and choices” (1987, p 134).
The central concern of this chapter is with consumption processes, consumption patterns and the difficult issue of ‘choice’. Although consumption accounts need not be in conflict with production-based perspectives, they are often portrayed as such. Marxism, it is thought, deals with production, whereas it is tempting to portray consumption- based accounts as in some way essentially Weberian. However convenient such a contrast may be it would be misleading. There is certainly a Weberian wing among those who use consumption approaches. Life chances, understood broadly to include, among other things, education, status, housing, work, credentials and the opportunities that these provide for some sort of social mobility or ‘choice’, are clearly features of consumption that would be amenable to Weberian sociologists. The degree to which consumerism conforms to, or confronts, the ‘Protestant ethic’ (Weber, 1976) of hard work, deferred gratification and thrift would also be a task suited to Weberians. There is, however, another wing in the consumption camp that points toward lifestyle, identity and choice with, for example, Baudrillard (1975, p 144) claiming that people are “mobilised as consumers, their needs become as essential as their labour power” (cited in Smart, 1992, p 121). Between Weber and Baudrillard might seem (like the proverbial rock) a hard place to be, but there are numerous and different approaches pressing for their account to be given primacy (Warde, 1990).
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables iv
- Acknowledgements v
- Acronyms and glossary of terms vii
- Introduction 1
- Social divisions, exclusion and retirement 17
- Two versions of political economy: ease and plenty or immiseration and crisis? 49
- Consumption, consumers and choice 79
- Post-work and post-structuralism: first past the post? 111
- Risk and post-traditional welfare 143
- Looking (or put out) for greener grass? Some comparative measures of ‘success’ 173
- Prophets, profits and uncertain conclusions 207
- Bibliography 225
- Index 255
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables iv
- Acknowledgements v
- Acronyms and glossary of terms vii
- Introduction 1
- Social divisions, exclusion and retirement 17
- Two versions of political economy: ease and plenty or immiseration and crisis? 49
- Consumption, consumers and choice 79
- Post-work and post-structuralism: first past the post? 111
- Risk and post-traditional welfare 143
- Looking (or put out) for greener grass? Some comparative measures of ‘success’ 173
- Prophets, profits and uncertain conclusions 207
- Bibliography 225
- Index 255
