Sociology And Consumerism

Consumerism encourages the purchase of goods and services thus it serves as a mechanism by which social and status rankings can be distinguished. Producers sell their goods and gain profits while consumers acquire satisfaction from consumption. Consumerism enhances a shift in the behaviour and personal expectations of consumers. It constructs the rules in how consumers should behave when they purchase goods as a way of life. Thus, consumerism spurs consumption. Consumerism is held as an economic ideology that enhances global development with its increasing consumption that spurs economy with greater purchasing power. It has allowed people to enjoy more access to increasing levels of disposable income. As such, consumerism stirs consumers to

The quest for lower prices and greater profits has somehow brought about poverty and a greater division between the rich and the poor. The gap has widened steadily during the last two decades where many poor regions and their people provide low wage labour to make consumer goods for others. Rapid economic growth therefore has created many changes in our lifestyles and in general, the impact of the economic development. It has created a rise in upward mobility throughout the entire world. In addition, technology also creates a distinction between those who have the resources to partake in consumption and those who are incapable. It therefore forms the core of the cultural transformation which generates great changes in our cultural and political landscape. However, the rural-urban gaps still prevail in most societies. Socially, modern society seems to be characterised by way of consumerism rather than subsistence. Consumerism therefore plays a significant role in the rise of many multi-national

It identifies the individual of being a member of a particular class. The increase thirst for individuality, advertising and marketing influences has enabled fashion to reassert itself as an irresistible social force. It gives consumers something that they want. The individual fulfils through fashion but the fulfilment is not an individual one. Fashion provides pretence of individuality and a sense of commonality that the consumer craves. It portrays the false impression that consumerism can offer. It offers the individual variable routes of consumption which apparently seems to be uniquely individualistic. Fashion does not simplify choice however, it exaggerates. Fashion has emerged as an everyday norm in which clothes determine the aesthetic value of a person. The body is constantly re-clothed and re-fashioned in accordance with the changing arrangements of self. Fashion marketing constructs a sense of what fashion should be in order to meet the dynamic requirements of consumers. The clothing fashion industries actively prioritise the needs of its consumers. Fashion can also be determined from a general rise in income that enables the purchasing power of world consumers. It therefore has an overwhelming control on the purchasing power of the world’s