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Consumption (GS & AS) Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

List the theories of consumption

A
  • Marxist
  • Sociological
  • Psychosemiotic
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2
Q

List the forms of consumption

A
  • subcultures
  • fan culture
  • shopping
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3
Q

Explain the Marxist theory of consumption

A

Marx:

  • consumer society develops with transition to capitalism
  • pre-capitalist society: production and consumption regulated by need (use value)
  • capitalism: alienation through money (profit, exchange value), meaning invested in commodities (commodity fetishism)

Herbert Marcuse (1968)
- ideology of consumerism
> false needs
> social control

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4
Q

Define commodity and it’s relevance for the producers

A

product (goods) produced for market

> producers only relate as producers of commodities

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5
Q

Explain the difference between use value and exchange value

A

Exchange value is the value required to acquire / posses a commodity > largely based on desire
Use value is determined by the use one has for a commodity > largely based on need

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6
Q

Explain commodity fetishism

A

Investing / applying meaning in / to commodities (of relatively low value) to the extent that it defines /rules one’s life
> relationship with objects instead of social interaction

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7
Q

Explain the sociological theory of consumption

A

Thorstein Veblen (1899)
- conspicuous consumption
> consumption to articulate social status

Pierre Bourdieu (1979)
- consumption used for social distinction
> making, marking, maintaining social differences

*early 20th C. bourgeoisie identifies itself with subtleness
> culture becomes commodity, cultural capital
> bicolage!

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8
Q

Explain the psychosemiotic theory of consumption

A 
Jacques Lacan
- consumerism and romance
> quest for fullness
> indelible lack
> consumerism as solution
> "endless metonymic movement of desire"

NOTE:
individual’s imaginary relationship to him/herself

  • the moment we become an individual, we also become ‘not everyone else’
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9
Q

Explain the concept of subcultures and their link to consumption

A

Dick Hebdige (1979)
- signifying system
- subversion: parody of consumer society
- symbolic form of resistance against dominant and/or parental culture
- bricolage: use of commercially available products in ways not intended by producers
> eventual incorporation of subculture! (mimickery)

Examples:

  • chav: anti-social youth subculture, wearing (fake) designer items (Burberry)
  • mod: young men, dressed in fashionable clothing, driving scooters

NOTE
subculture is defined by consumption too:
- communication through consumption
- identification through use of commodities

Phil Cohen (1980)

  • attempt to express and resolve contradictions that remain hidden or unresolved in parent culture
  • compromise between need to create, express autonomy / difference from parents and need to maintain parental identifications
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10
Q

Explain the concept of fan cultures and their link to consumption

A 
Michel de Certeau (1984)
- consumption as secondary production
- conflict between strategies of cultural imposition (power of production) and tactics of cultural use (consumption)
> strategies produce & impose
> tactics use & manipulate
Henry Jenkins (1992)
- Textual poaching (secondary production!)
> intense emotional involvement
> continual re-readings
> communal activities
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11
Q

Explain the concept of shopping and its link to consumption

A
  • popular culture
  • social activity

John Fiske
- not passive

Paul Wilis
- symbolic act of creativity

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12
Q

Define consumption

A

OED: The action of using up a resource

*primary means of participation in culture and transformation of it by individuals

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13
Q

Define commodity

A

OED: A raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold; a useful or valuable thing

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14
Q

Explain bricolage

A

Taking exisitng odd bits and pieces and repurposing them to fulfill a new function

re-articulating commodities to produce oppositional meanings

appropriating commercially provided meanings of commodities

use of commercially available products, combined and transformed in ways not intended by producers

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15
Q

Explain the concept of identity from a sociological and psychological point of view

A

Sociological:
one’s place in society
> assigned, forces out of own control, convention

Psychological: subjective sense of self
> personal, human agency
*postmodern theories: momentary effect of continuous social performances

*(humanist) individuality vs. (constructivist) subjectivity!

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16
Q

Explain the difference between subject and individual

A

Individual: personal, subjective sense of identity

Subject: assigned, conventionalized concept of identity

*individualism: created by humanism (mid 14th-16th C.), reused by modern secular humanism (19-20th C.)

17
Q

Explain the consequences of the ‘fantasy of choice’

A

The fantasy of choice causes failure to become one’s own fault, as “one was given a choice”

*Ideology Critique

18
Q

List some of the characteristics of “cult”

A
  • Nostalgia, search for historicity
  • Labeling through discourse
  • Eclectic category, no essential, single unified defining element
  • not Mainstream, subcultural
  • Media specific
  • Knowledge as identity construct
  • Construction of individuality
  • Appropriation of cultural products
  • Class & gender specific, conservative
  • Cultural capital
  • Creative: elevates ‘easy’ art to higher level of difficulty
  • legitimization of masculine disposition
  • challenge of economic bourgeoisie by cultural bourgeoisie
19
Q

Explain the role of gender in cult

A

Male
Cult is talked about as male phenomenon
> opposition to mainstream

Female
Mainstream, popular culture is considered female
> discussed / watched by females

20
Q

Explain how fandom is pathologized

A

Fandom is treated as a disease
> either male, introvert ‘creep’ (individual)
> or hysterical female (groupie)

21
Q

Define essentialism

A

A belief that things have a set of characteristics / attributes which make them what they are, determine function and identity
> essence precedes existence

22
Q

Explain the difference between conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption

A

conspicuous:
spending lavishly on visible goods to prove that one is prosperous (Veblen, 1899)

inconspicuous:
invisible, personal, private consumption

23
Q

Explain bourgeois aesthetics

A

early 20th C.: value of art lies in difficulty
> bourgeoisie can achieve understanding through education
bourgeois aesthetics displays those elements that prove this accessibility

24
Q

Explain the difficulty in defining the concept of ‘the fan’

A

fandom performs a cultural role and is therefore not static, but shifts depending on the cultural site it emerges from
> no singular definition

25
Q

Explain the concept of ‘cultural capital’

A

John Fiske:
fan cultural capital: fan’s knowledge about object of fandom

Hill:

  • fan social capital: fan’s network of fan friends/acquaintances & access to media producers and professional personnel linked with object of fandom
  • fan symbolic capital: fan’s prestige/status based on knowledge and recognition
26
Q

Define stardom

A

a star is a performer in a particular medium whose figure enters into subsidiary forms of circulation and then feeds back into future performances

27
Q

Explain the relationship between stardom and ‘the indelible lack’

A

star are necessarily incomplete, their image is composed of fragments, that do not add up to a coherent whole
> performance promises revelation of essential being of star, completing the image
> consumption of star’s medium

Lacan:
lack vs desire > identification/projection > brief moment of jouissance > re-experienced lack & renewed desire

28
Q

Define cult

A
  • cult is what has been specifically and repeatedly described as cult
    > labelling
  • eclectic category
  • subcultural category
  • class and gender specific and conservative

Culture (9 decks)

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