SOCI 1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Susan Bordo, Erving Goffman, Conspicuous Consumption
16 Mar 2017
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The impossibility of balance: consumer capitalist societies produce unstable personality types, 2 duties: Consumption and the prestige economy consumption and what we buy reflect our status and class who we are as people. Erving goffman: status symbols have expressive significance - it says something about the type of person/values we have. Leisure class: the wealthiest class at the top of the social structure in terms of prestige: provide the norms of taste and worth for everyone else. Tv: goods and services were once only for functional/utility use (no surplus frills) If so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g is (cid:862)(cid:272)heap(cid:863) it (cid:271)e(cid:272)o(cid:373)es (cid:272)heap i(cid:374) (cid:272)ultural ter(cid:373)s too: goods as secondary social use (non utilitarian extras, e. x. yoga pants, purses, conspicuous waste: waste becomes a source of prestige in consumer goods. Machine made things are no longer a source of prestige, hand made things are: e. x. artisanal products.
