Theorising the struggle for social recognition can be approached from numerous angles. One – rather cynical – account has been given by the nineteenth-century Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen. In his view, the struggle for social standing is carried out in a specific area of communication which is antagonistic in nature. Central to his work...
Read more →Contemporary consumption patterns are characterised by a permanent increase in private and public commodification. These processes usually take place in spheres of exchange in which goods become commodified, decommodified, recommodified or sacralised. Some objects may be consumed and then removed from the sphere of exchange (either permanently or temporarily). In a society which is...
Read more →In the sociology of consumption much emphasis has been directed towards the exchange-value of commodities. In contrast to use-value, the exchange-value of a commodity is based on equivalences which unfold when a product enters the market (commodification). In a capitalist system any object X can be made equivalent to a certain proportion of any...
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