Class and Consumption Flashcards
Social Class
social groups are devided through economic differences
different social classes fulfill different social functions, roles in society
Class is hierrarchal and marks different levels of power
Entails lifestyles, habits, education
Thomas Piketty
clergy
nobility
commonors
social class: Karl Marx
focuses on economic factors to define class
who owns capital is higher in social hierarchy and has more power
Bourgeoisie & proletarian
social class: Max Weber
Economic and social classes
mobility only within ones own social class
skill and capital as main factors
Capitalists: own property and means of production
Petty bourgeoisie: smaller merchants
(un-) Skilledworkers: without property
social class: pierre Bordieu
habitus: general disposition towards the world depending on what we learned in our social class
cultural capital
(embodied; education need to incest work and time, objectified; cultural artifacts, institutional; academic titles)
social capital
(access to recourses through social circles)
economic capital
(basis for other forms of capital)
Consumption
usually seen in economic dimension
basic resources or luxuriour
different ways of consuming (deoends on background)
consumerism: consumption is seen as positive for life
consumption: Herbert Marcuse (Marxist)
individual passive and powerless
false needs as form of social control created through the ideology of consumerism
consumption: Psychosemiotic (lacal)
Consumption as a symptom of a quest for fullness/completeness, solving of all problems -> unachievable
Consumption: Sociological
Consumption constitutes social position among others in society
conspicuous consumption (Veblen):obvious showing of one status through consumption
consumption against parents culture
identity formation through consumption
consumption: Mass Culture
shopping as social leisure activity and hobby
Surplus value
Workers produce more value than what is paid = profit
Historical materialism
Theory of history that understands social developments (including the formation of social class) as grounded in the economic base of society
What are subcultures
Cultures of minorities, of marginalized groups in society, or youth culture
Over time ovten get incorporated in so mainstream society
Dick hebdige
Subcultures challange the dominant social class not directly but indirectly through fashion and lifestyles that differ from the dominant cultural norms
Bricolage
The practice of using different objects, cultural practices, texts to create something new
