The Approaches of Bourdieu and Bauman

The Approaches of Bourdieu and Bauman

Consumption and Class Anaysis On The Approaches Of Bourdieu and Bauman

All societies place emphasis on one structure which gives form to the total society and integrates all the other structures such as the family, voluntary association, caste, age, and sex groupings into a social unity. Social stratification means any system of ranked statuses by which all the members of a society are placed in some kind of a superordinate and subordinate hierarchy. While money and occupation are important in the ranking process, there are many more factors, and these two alone do not establish social position.

While income has generally been the most widely used behavioral indicator in marketing,
social-class membership provides a richer dimension of meaning. The individual's consumption patterns actually symbolize his class position, a more significant determinant of his buying behavior than just income.

There is a social-class system operative in metropolitan markets which can be isolated and described. The kinds of things a person will or will not buy are strongly related to his class membership, and also whether he is mobile or stable. Likewise the individual's store loyalties and his spend-save aspirations will in considerable part be class related.

Bourdieu and Bauman discuss the consumption to understand social stratification in different contexts in terms of class analysis within the society.

Modern consumer theory deals with experiences, motivations and reasons why people buy things and why different groups of consumers buy different things. Bourdieu, for instance, describes consumption and “good taste” as a way for higher social classes to distinguish themselves from the lower classes (Bourdieu, 1984) and he shows how residential neighbourhoods in this way form part of the symbolic power structure of society.

Bourdieu’s writing is extensive and but primarily it will be introduced his three fundamental concepts describing human action, which are...

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