Theories of Consumption

Prosumer Capitalism

“…However, few of these changes had occurred when Marx was in the process of creating his theory of capitalism. 13 As a result, Marx, as well as most of his early (and many later) followers, had a "productivist bias" (Ritzer, Goodman, and Wiedenhoft 2001;Ritzer and Slater 2001). That is, his gaze (and those of the early Marxists as well as many non-Marxists, such as Veblen's 1914Veblen's /1964 was almost always drawn to issues relating to production.…”

Dissent

“…60 The prospect of the public sphere is often frustrated, unfortunately, by the dominance of "state bureaucracies and market economies" which results in "squeezing shut the narrow public space between state and market economy, transforming active citizens into passive clients and economic consumers." 61 What we can do in this regard is to support "specific, and focused, analyses of the concrete 'sites' of irrationality" 62 or we can conduct the research and analysis ourselves. For this enterprise, we need to expand our knowledge and supplement our skills with applied research tools and techniques.…”

“…The history of philosophy therefore is marked by national characteristics or rather by nationalitarianisms which are like philosophical opinions." 61 Unfortunately, advanced capitalism universalizes all singular democratic states under the axiomatic and overarching principle of global capital. As Deleuze and Guattari critically elucidate:…”

Postmodernism and Sociology: From the Epistemological to the Empirical

“…According to theorists of consumer capitalism (Ritzer, Goodman, and Wiedenhoft 2001;Gottdiener 2000a), postmodern consumer society differs in important ways from modern consumer society. The multiple forms of postmodern consumption include objects of consumption as always, but proliferating in a postmodern world are two important developments: first, new subjects of consumption as mentioned above, and second, new sites and processes of consumption.…”

“…Research on consumption thus takes place in four main areas (Ritzer, Goodman, and Wiedenhoft 2001): objects of consumption, subjects of consumption, sites of consumption, and processes of consumption. Investigators ask what are the objects of consumption and what do they symbolize?…”