Spending Bundles: Incorporating Household Expenditures in the Sociology of Consumption

Abstract

Sociologists of consumption focus primarily on understanding the determinants and consequences of social variation in tastes. Patterns of variation in actual purchases, however, remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, the author proposes a framework for studying household expenditures. Drawing on the work of Mary Douglas, the author proposes a classification of goods and services into four spending bundles that are defined in relation to their contribution to social reproduction strategies. The author first tests the construct validity of the classification using household spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The author then examines the relationship between cultural capital and patterns of actual spending. In contrast to expectations derived from the sociology of consumption, the author finds that cultural capital is only weakly associated with how households actually spend their money. Overall, this suggests that sociologists need to incorporate issues of spending into the predominantly cultural focus of much consumption research.

The Segmentation of Polish One-Person Households Due to Consumption

“…For these household consumption behaviors "for show" may be observed. Households seek to social status through consumption [36]. Symbolic consumption applies to all consumers, but plays a greater role in the group of younger ones [37].…”

Capitals, occupational fields and consumption preferences: An analysis of the British family expenditure survey (2009–2016)

“…Using expenditure survey data is a well-established methodology in the sociology of consumption (e.g. Bourdieu, 2010;Charron-Chenier, 2018;Warde, 1997). We look 'beneath' the NS-SEC categories of 'service class' and focus on between-occupational differences in specific consumption categories that may act to augment particular capital forms -expenditure aggregates representing consumption of goods related to status-signalling, appearance, socialization and cultural goods.…”

Classes sociais e consumo

“…Los padrones del consumo probablemente diferencian las clases sociales y sus fracciones de acuerdo con los principios de diferenciación social operantes en el espacio social. Los dados son extraídos de la Encuesta de Presupuesto Familiares (2017-2018. Además de comparar los gastos relativos medios con diferentes ítems por clase social, serán utilizadas técnicas exploratorias descriptivas denominadas Análisis Geométrica de Dados.…”