Theories Of Consumerism

Consumerism in the United States among young people, specifically below thirty years, has been a subject of research by many scholars over the years. From a sociological standpoint, consumerism has been explored by some of the most renowned sociologists such as Thorstein Veblen and Bourdieu. These two sociologists sought to understand and explain consumer behavior during their lifetime and maintained that their sociological theories regarding consumerism were bound to persist in the future. Veblen is commonly known in the marketing and economics domains with his theory regarding the leisure class whereas Bourdieu’s concepts have been used widely in contemporary America in the explanation of consumer behavior among young people. Bourdieu’s concepts …show more content…
The aristocrats who amassed great fortunes during the Gilded Age engaged in philanthropy and through financing education such as libraries (Veblen 2005). However, Veblen noted that despite their relentless efforts to finance education through philanthropy, that era failed to produce any notable academic that can be remembered through history. Veblen was immortalized for his efforts and pioneer work in investigating how consumerism and wealth interrelated in American society. Veblen theorized that expensive items often conferred a social status that most Americans desired (Douglas and Anderson 1994). For instance, a diamond ring, whereas had no productive value, had some consumerism value and its expensive nature made it a coveted item among Americans. Veblen also explored the consumerist concepts such as pecuniary emulation where people tended to emulate those of a higher social class. Also, Veblen investigated the idea of conspicuous waste and a myriad of other issues of interest regarding the American public and how they spent their …show more content…
Bourdieu believes that the culturally dominant in society have the ability to dictate and define social standards, influence tastes, and define boundaries such as what may be classified as legitimate or illegitimate, profane or sacred. Bourdieu suggests that the only way that consumer taste can cease being defined by the people with social clout is through the cessation of recognition of the social structures and hierarchy that the dominated class seems to believe in (Longhurst and Savage 1996). Therefore, Bourdieu champions for the following of a unive`rsal culture such as freedom of economic necessity. Evidently, Bourdieu believes that consumer researchers are responsible for their complicity regarding activities that maintain this