SOCY 227 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Conspicuous Consumption, Decommodification, Media Culture
17 Mar 2016
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Under capitalism, for marx, sensory life and desire are extravagantly inflated, in which pleasure depends upon the continual accumulation of more and more things . After tv, shopping is the most popular leisure pursuit" across the world. More people define their lives in terms of what they acquire and own. The freedom to consume" has become central to how we consume freedom". Commodities are things" that have equivalent" value for counterparts and can thus be exchanged. These are material (production) and cultural (consumption) processes. Not all things" are commodities, and some things are at some commodities and at other times not. Consume: to make away with, use up, devour, eat or drink up (oed); from. Consumere": designating not only the use of things but their disposal. Early usage of the term consume" in 14th century english referred to consumption as to destroy", exhaust", to waste", to completely use up".
