Outline Who Are the Winners and Losers in Consumer Society.
Outline who are the winners and losers in consumer society.
Post-industrial society, consumer society, society where consumption is more important than occupation, society whose main feature and most visible is the acquisition. Consumption has changed the look of main streets – more eating places, less local shops, and changed edges of the cities – new retail parks, many shopping malls. This distinguishing mark has divided contemporary society. As Zygmunt Bauman and main concept of his theory about Consumer society says, there are two major groups – ‘the seduced’ and ‘the repressed’. Outright Bauman’s theory leads us to consider society in the context of winners and losers.
People are shopping all the time and shopping is a part of consumption; however people can consume not just goods, they are able to consume services and experiences too. Many social scientists suggest we are living in a consumer society. They describe it as a label to refer a society when is defined as much by how people purchase and use as by what they make or do’ (Hetherington, 2009, p. 13).
Zygmunt Bauman, Polish sociologist who came to England in 1971, wrote his theory of Consumer Society which is divided into two main groups – the seduced and the repressed.
The seduced are those who are able to partake in the consumer society by purchase goods and services on offer or having the transport to go to shopping or by being in the crowd. ‘The seduced included wealthy people... people with a good steady income and secure job who have enough money, or disposable income... to allow them to by things beyond the basic necessities of life’ (Hetherington, 2009, p. 26). They could satisfy their desires, they have the privilege of living their lives by on their ways, and for this reason they could call themselves the winners.
The repressed are those left behind ‘consumer society’. That group include unemployed, the low paid, older public, some with disabilities or sic, or those who don’t have
Post-industrial society, consumer society, society where consumption is more important than occupation, society whose main feature and most visible is the acquisition. Consumption has changed the look of main streets – more eating places, less local shops, and changed edges of the cities – new retail parks, many shopping malls. This distinguishing mark has divided contemporary society. As Zygmunt Bauman and main concept of his theory about Consumer society says, there are two major groups – ‘the seduced’ and ‘the repressed’. Outright Bauman’s theory leads us to consider society in the context of winners and losers.
People are shopping all the time and shopping is a part of consumption; however people can consume not just goods, they are able to consume services and experiences too. Many social scientists suggest we are living in a consumer society. They describe it as a label to refer a society when is defined as much by how people purchase and use as by what they make or do’ (Hetherington, 2009, p. 13).
Zygmunt Bauman, Polish sociologist who came to England in 1971, wrote his theory of Consumer Society which is divided into two main groups – the seduced and the repressed.
The seduced are those who are able to partake in the consumer society by purchase goods and services on offer or having the transport to go to shopping or by being in the crowd. ‘The seduced included wealthy people... people with a good steady income and secure job who have enough money, or disposable income... to allow them to by things beyond the basic necessities of life’ (Hetherington, 2009, p. 26). They could satisfy their desires, they have the privilege of living their lives by on their ways, and for this reason they could call themselves the winners.
The repressed are those left behind ‘consumer society’. That group include unemployed, the low paid, older public, some with disabilities or sic, or those who don’t have
References: Hetherington, K. (2009) ‘Consumer society? Shopping, consumption and social science’ in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J., and Bromley, S. (eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Allen, J. (2009) ‘ One-stop shopping: the power of supermarkets’ in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J., and Bromley, S. (eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University.