Models of the Genesis of Consumer Society: From Commodity Fetishism to Symbolic Consumption

Abstract

In this article, the author aims to answer the question of why consumer society has emerged as one of the main ways in which society describes itself. Many of the possible answers were outlined by social thought before the very concept of consumer society emerged or without reference to it. Nevertheless, taking them into account is important for understanding the process of consumerization. The author of the article offers a classification of theoretical explanations of this phenomenon, consisting of four possible directions: macro-conflict, individual-conflict, macro-functional, individually-functional. Further, the genesis of consumer society is examined as part of the concept of commodity fetishism by K. Marx, in the works on consumption by E. Fromm, in the concept of the society of abundance and demonstrative consumption by T. Veblen, fashion – R. von Jhering – G. Simmel, in the works of P. Bourdieu and other authors. Based on these concepts, the article provides an explanation of the expansive nature of the development of consumer society.