Consumerism is both a type of behavior and a value system that focuses on buying goods and services, on the free market. As a behavior, consumerism involves spending a significant proportion of money and time on buying goods and services, especially those that are not essential for survival. Consumerism, as a value system, entails that buying goods and services becomes seen as valuable, positive, and even necessary.

In the book Dialectics of Enlightenment (1972, in German 1947b), Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno study mass culture that spreads conformism and controls social consciousness. They called this form of control over the masses "culture industry." The culture industry dominates all forms of mass culture; the mass media sell artistic values ​​as commodities; democracy is characterized by parties that control the masses through their programs and propaganda; consumer products are standardized and eliminate the need for individual consumer tastes. In Western culture, as a consequence of the Enlightenment, the instrumental form of formal rationality dominates, and the goal of that rationality is to achieve control over human action and society, through dehumanized science and technology. Capitalist societies, through the culture industry and dehumanized science and technology, destroy any real opposition by either assimilating or neutralizing it. In these societies, all models of social communication become monolithic and lead to cultural indoctrination. Modern society is becoming an iron cage of total administration, consumerism, and resignation.

Henri Lefebvre, in his four-volume book Critique of Everyday Life (1947, 1961, 1968, 1981) studies everyday life, which is not banal but represents a direct product of a society governed by consumerism and the bureaucratization of life. Everyday life is the best indicator of how the capitalist mode of production has shaped modern society. Bureaucratization and consumerism have impoverished and taken away authenticity from everyday life. Capitalism, marketing, and the liberal-democratic state have created a "bureaucratic society of organized consumption". On the other hand, everyday life contains the seeds of resistance to such a system, because it preserves the collective memory of alternative practices and supports the development of strategies and movements that challenge the existing social order.

In White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951) Wright C. Mills argues that manipulative power is exercised through several channels: 1) mass media, which promotes entertainment and sports, while at the same time obscuring real economic and political problems, 2) through marketing that promotes consumerism, 3) through an education system that instills the values ​​necessary for the survival of the system, and 4) through religious organizations that give the values ​​of American capitalism a sacred aura.

In his book The State in Capitalist Society (1969), Ralph Miliband studies how the capitalist type of ideological legitimization is implemented and especially pays closer attention to the important role marketing has in that process. Marketing spreads ideological legitimization of capitalism in several ways: capitalist corporations use marketing to portray themselves as those who work for the common good, not for their own selfish interests; advertisements associate products with generally accepted positive values ​​and emotions; marketing spreads the ideology of consumerism to the masses. 

Alvin Toffler's book Revolutionary Wealth (2006) researches the questions how wealth will be created in the future, who will create it, and how it will be distributed. The wealth of the twenty-first century will not be created in the domain of classical industry, but through many fluid and networked forms of work and education, but also consumption. The concept by which Toffler explains this creation of wealth is "prosumation", a term that represents a combination of the words production and consumption. Toffler uses this concept to describe a situation in which people, through daily activities, produce what they consume themselves and thus perform unpaid work for large corporations.

In Shadow Work (1981), Ivan Illich studies how the structure of needs influences the creation of a consumer society, and the term "shadow work" refers to unpaid slavery through which people submit to meet these artificially created needs. Examples of shadow work are: learning, homework, traveling to work, buying goods, as well as all the other activities that people do to meet their needs. Barbara and her husband, John Ehrenreich, introduced the concept of the professional-managerial class in their article “The Professional-Managerial Class”. Advertising professionals, managers, and entertainers spread capitalist and consumerist ideology among the general population. 

In Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord studies the transformation of society from one organized around the production and consumption of goods, to a society organized around the consumption of spectacle. The society of the spectacle is created by the hegemonic integration of the media and consumer culture. In that society, institutions socialize people and produce artificial social relationships through images. In this created world, there is a void between consumers and producers, while the social world can only be experienced through the accumulation of spectacle. The spectacle becomes fully present in social life and loses its connection with goods. In the society of the spectacle, life is reduced to consumption, and social status becomes tied to certain logos and brands.

James Coleman explores the impact of modern corporations on American society in his book The Asymmetric Society (1982). He believes that corporations, due to their great economic and legal influence, have drastically reduced the importance and social capital of families, neighborhoods, and churches. Corporations are increasingly influencing the destinies of individuals. With the help of marketing and mass media, corporations spread consumerism and selfishness, which conflicts with the norms of solidarity and selflessness developed by the family and the neighborhood. The impact that corporations have on individuals, society, and the environment is usually negative, and individuals are not able to oppose them, so the role of the state in limiting the power of corporations should be increasing. The role of sociology in the fight against the growing negative role of corporations must also be significant, especially in the field of research, by informing the public about the results, and by preventing corporate abuse of sociology.

                Consumerism in the Globalized World

David Harvey's most famous and influential book is The Condition of Postmodernity (1989). Postmodern culture expresses itself in the "cultural logic of late capitalism" (Jameson). The global increase in the availability and consumption of television, film, and other media content spreads the capitalist culture of consumerism to the entire planet. The global culture of consumerism creates new social identities and consumer styles that transcend national borders, but also class affiliation. The new global consumerist culture emphasizes the production of events and spectacles, concerning the production of physical goods. Postmodernism celebrates ephemerality, spectacles, and the commodification of cultural forms.

In the article “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” (1990) Arjun Appadurai studies the globalization of consumption and introduces the concept of “global cultural economy” which refers to the “complex, overlapping, disjunctive order" that breaks the center-periphery model of the global economy. Migrations of people create “global consumption”, that is, “deterritorialized” versions of cultures that originated in the country where people emigrated from. All over the world consumers can buy versions of cultural products introduced by immigrants that are interesting for immigrants because they are familiar and have sentimental value, while, at the same time, serve as a chance for locals to try exotic products, in their countries, from a different culture. Appadurai states that, instead of cultural homogenization and Americanization, globalization introduces ‘‘heterogenization’’ and hybridization. That means that globalization introduces more variety in what can be consumed in any country and creates an interplay between world markets, international corporations, local cultural identity, and changing consumption patterns. In the book Modernity at Large, Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (1996) Appadurai researches the possibility of human agency in the globalized world and concludes that: “where there is consumption there is pleasure, and where there is pleasure there is agency” (1996: 7).

In Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992), Roland Robertson developed a specific sociological approach to globalization. He studies the global market for goods and services and the spread of consumer culture. Although the market for goods and services is becoming more and more global, and consumer culture (consumerism) is spreading to all parts of the world, the global market is adapting to specific local markets. The production and marketing of many goods and services, sold globally, are adapted to local tastes and consumer habits. Robertson calls this process glocalization.

In the book Globalization of Nothing (2004), George Ritzer takes the concept of "non-places", which was introduced by anthropologist Marc Augé and further expounds it. Apart from non-places, such as shopping malls and airports, Ritzer believes that there is also a globalization of "non-things" (Gucci bags), "non-people" (costumed characters at Disneyland), and "non-services" (bank ATMs). Ritzer defines "nothing" as something that is controlled and conceived at the central level, and at the same time deprived of specific essential content. Ritzer calls the process of spreading nothing (non-places, non-things, non-people, non-services) "grobalization". Grobalization is the complete opposite of the process of "glocalization" (Robertson).

Globalization theorist Leslie Sklair introduced the concept of  "culture-ideology of consumerism." He developed this notion to emphasize the breadth and importance that the practice and values ​​of the culture-ideology of consumerism have on the economy, politics, and everyday behavior of people. The media and retail chains are key players in the spread of consumerism. The mass media implants the cultural ideology of consumerism in the minds of individuals while they are still children. The mass media blurs the boundaries between information, entertainment, and product promotion to sell the products they advertise to customers, but also to spread a consumerist view of the world. Retail chains, primarily through shopping malls, create places where the experience of buying goods merges with the experience of going to an amusement park. The final effect is the creation of a cultural need, fully internalized by individuals, for products created by capitalist corporations.

In No Logo (1999), Naomi Klein studies the business of global corporate brands, production conditions, marketing tactics, and the ideology of consumerism. She critiques the rise of consumerism and its role in shaping modern culture, particularly in relation to branding and corporate power. She argues that consumerism is no longer just about purchasing products; it's become about buying into an entire lifestyle and identity created by corporations. Klein explains that companies increasingly focus on building strong brands rather than producing tangible products. These brands create emotional connections with consumers, selling not just a product, but a narrative and an aspirational way of life. Klein emphasizes how corporations use advertising, sponsorship, and celebrity endorsements to reinforce their brands and embed them in every aspect of our lives. This leads to a culture where personal identity becomes tied to the products we consume. She also critiques the corporate-driven trend of globalization, where companies outsource production to low-wage countries and exploit workers while simultaneously pushing products that are marketed as symbols of luxury and success. Klein argues that consumerism, driven by branding and corporate interests, not only manipulates individuals but also has detrimental effects on society by eroding culture, worker rights, and the environment. She calls for a rejection of brand-driven culture and a reclaiming of public space and identity from the clutches of corporations.

                          Consumerism as Status Seeking

Werner Sombart has made significant contributions to the study of consumption, especially luxury consumption, in the book Luxury and Capitalism (1912). He connects the growth of the consumer mentality with the emergence of court life, where the need for luxury goods was a means to achieve upward mobility and social ambitions. Luxury goods were not used to make life more comfortable, instead, those goods were used to show higher social status, in a situation when the rules of social stratification were not the clearest. 

In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment Taste (1979) Pierre Bourdieu explores the relationship between cultural consumption and class. This book is based on a large empirical study of cultural consumption, including newspapers, music, food, and other forms of consumption. He concluded that there are three hierarchically ordered types of aesthetic taste or style of cultural consumption: elite (legitimate), middlebrow, and popular (mass). Each type of cultural consumption and taste serves to give individuals a sense of place within the social structure. The aesthetic taste of a person (elite, middlebrow, or mass) in one of the areas of cultural consumption (e.g. art) usually corresponds to the type of taste in other areas (e.g. fashion, sports, literature). In the same Book Bourdieu presents his theoretical approach to classes. Bourdieu sees classes as the product of symbolic self-classification of a particular group, but also of external classification by other groups. A significant and underestimated aspect of class tensions is, in Bourdieu's opinion, the "classification struggle" concerning the symbolic function of everyday cultural consumption and lifestyles.

                Consumerism in the Age of Postmodernity

In the books, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973) and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976) Daniel Bell argues that the hedonistic culture of capitalism, in most developed countries, is not in line with the dominance of rationality required by the economic system. There is a growing divergence and alienation of the economy, as an area of ​​social structure, on the one hand, and culture, on the other. The Postmodern culture celebrates the hedonistic world of mass consumption, fashion, photography, and travel, the consumerist culture is built around play, entertainment, and show. In postmodern culture, the bourgeois value system based on Protestant ethics and Puritan self-control is being rejected. Post-industrial society is not a decentralized society, because there is a new social structure that is growing. He emphasizes that modern capitalism contains the deepest opposition in its very logic of functioning, because it requires a puritanical ethic of work, while, at the same time, it depends on the hedonistic ethic of consumption.

Jean Baudrillard, in his early works The System of Objects (1968) and The Consumer Society (1970), sees modern society as increasingly structured with signs and symbols. All objects can be analyzed in the context of binary oppositions that reveal the rules and internal relationships that structure objects. Marxism overlooked that goods are a sign that gives individuals a cultural identity. The sign constitutes a special material reality that is used for prestige, status, and thus for social differentiation. The concept of commodity fetishism refers to consumption as a spectacle of signs that are separated from other social processes and relations.

Zygmunt Bauman made a postmodern turn in the books Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Postmodernity, and Intellectuals (1987), Freedom (1988), and Intimations of Postmodernity (1992). As specific features of postmodernity, he singles out: the huge growth and expansion of mass media, new information technologies, an increase in transnational migrations, the post-industrial economy, the growth of the ideology of consumerism, the commodification of culture, etc. Large metanarratives and a strong state, which dominated modernity, have been replaced by a state of consumerism that is subject to the will of multinational corporations. Bauman believes that in such a society, it is necessary for intellectuals, as well as other people, to take a critical stance, build their sense of moral correctness, and take responsibility for their own lives.

In the books, Liquid Modernity (2000); Liquid Love (2003), Liquid Life (2005), and Liquid Fear (2006) Bauman examines various aspects of liquid modernity – the concept he developed. While early modernity hampered every form of criticism, liquid modernity encourages criticism, but a whole new form of criticism. Instead of a substantial political and economic transformation, the liquid state encourages an individualistic form of criticism. Instead of calling for a "just society", there is an insistence on the realization of individual "human rights", so the discourse focuses on the right of individuals to be different and to have the unrestricted right to choose their lifestyle. Individuals in the new modernity cease to be "citizens", they cease to fight, together with others, for collective well-being, and they only become consumers whose only interest is self-affirmation. The consumer society needs a multiplicity of lifestyles and choices because that means that a larger quantity and more diverse goods can be placed on the market. In that postmodern habitat, specific archetypes emerged: tourists and vagabonds, consumers and unsuccessful consumers, and rich and poor. These archetypes function as abstract personifications of different individual perspectives and strategies in postmodernity. Consumers, drawn into ubiquitous consumerism, buy pre-packaged solutions, goods, and services, as short-term compensation for their dissatisfaction and fears. Unsuccessful consumers are those who in the market fail to provide themselves with the products that the consumer culture tells them they should have. "Tourists" and "vagabonds" represent specific archetypes. Tourists travel because they want to because tourism is a key part of postmodern consumer culture. On the other hand, vagabonds are those who are forced to travel, that is, to emigrate, to solve their economic existence. New political theory views citizens not as voters, but as consumers, while it views politicians as businessmen who strive to sell their products to as large a share of consumers as possible.

Thorstein Veblen is best known for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), which studies the status consumption of the "leisure class", which consists of renters and absent property and business owners. Veblen rejects the idea of ​​completely rational economic behavior and believes that a large part of consumption, and thus production, can be explained by the desire of people to increase their own social status and reputation. To achieve this higher status, individuals, especially those belonging to the upper classes, indulge in the wasteful consumption of luxury goods. In countries that have great social and geographical mobility, such as the United States, luxury spending is the fastest and safest way to confirm one's social status. The wasteful spending of the leisure class has no function other than creating a social distinction that allows that class to reproduce the social hierarchy.

In the book One-Dimensional Man (1964), Herbert Marcuse explores forms of reification in a developed industrial society. Reification is reflected in the growth of the race for profit, bureaucratic impersonality, militarism, mass conformism, and value-empty culture. Technology and consumerism have prevented social criticism and conflict by assimilating and pacifying criticism and opposition from the working class by constantly creating "false needs." The end result is the emergence of a "one-dimensional man " who is unable to think critically about the society in which he lives. That is why true critical thought must come from marginal social strata, which are not integrated into the system. 

          Consumerism in the Anthropological Perspective

Mary Douglas researches consumerism and consumer choices in the book The World of Goods: An Anthropological Approach to the Theory of Consumption (1978), co-written with the econometrist Baron Isherwood. In the authors' view, goods function is to create, communicate, and reproduce cosmologies. Douglas explores the cultural aspects of consumption and the symbolic meaning of goods within different societies. She argues that consumption is not merely about satisfying material needs but is deeply connected to social structures and cultural values. She claims that consumer behavior reflects broader societal patterns and is crucial in defining identity, social relationships, and class distinctions. The way goods are used and consumed is shaped by social norms, rituals, and the symbolic roles that goods play in society. The main claim is that the consumption of goods is a form of communication. The items people choose to consume and how they use them often reflect the values of the group or community they belong to. These goods can reinforce social hierarchies, demonstrate status, and express individual or collective identities. Thus, consumerism is not simply a matter of personal choice or economic function but is deeply embedded in the social fabric and carries meanings that go beyond their practical use. Goods are organized in ways that reflect the structure of society, such as categorizing goods based on their level of "purity" or "dirtiness," which mirrors cultural classifications and moral codes. For example, some goods are considered more "sacred" or "prestigious" while others are seen as "polluted" or "low-status."

Arjun Appadurai, in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (1986) examines how society places value on things and commodities. Each commodity, beyond any trade and commercial network, tells a powerful story about society. The multidisciplinary approach is most suited for exploring those stories. The value placed on the object relies on the specific social rules of exchange because the same object can be a commodity in one setting and a gift in another social setting. While the market tends to commoditize and homogenize all objects, consumers are able to recontextualize purchased objects so that they become sacralized, singularized, and decommoditized.

References:

Arjun Appadurai. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”, in Public Culture (1990);

    -     The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (1986);

Baudrillard. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures  (2016, in French 1970);

Bauman. Toward a Critical Sociology (1976);

    -     Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Postmodernity, and Intellectuals (1987);

    -     Freedom (1988);

    -     Intimations of Postmodernity (1992);

   -     Globalization: The Human Consequences (1998);

    -     Liquid Modernity (2000); 

    -     Liquid Love (2003);

    -     Liquid Life (2005);

    -     Liquid Fear (2006);

    -     Liquid Modernity (2000);

Bell. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973);

    -     The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976);

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment Taste (1979);

Certeau. Practice of Everyday Life (2011, in French 1980);

Coleman. The Asymmetric Society (1982);

Debord. Society Of The Spectacle (2021, in French 1967);

Douglas, Mary, and  Baron Isherwood. The World of Goods: An Anthropological Approach to the Theory of Consumption (1978);

Ehrenreich. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream (2005);

Harvey. The Condition of Postmodernity (1989);

    -     A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005);

Horkheimer, and Adorno. Dialectics of the Enlightenment (1972, in German 1947),

Illich, Ivan. Shadow Work (1981);

Klein N. No Logo (1999);

Lefebvre. Critique of Everyday Life: The Three-Volume Text (2014, in French 1947, 1961, 1968, 1981);

Marcuse. One-Dimensional Man (1964);

Miliband. The State in Capitalist Society (1969);

Mills. White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951);

Ritzer. The McDonaldization of Society (1993);

    -     Globalization of Nothing (2004);

    -     The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age (2018);

Robertson. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992);

    -     Global Modernities (1995); 

Sklair. Transnational Capitalist Class (2001);

Sombart. Luxury and Capitalism (1922, in German 1912);

Toffler, Alvin Revolutionary Wealth (2006);

Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).