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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 7 page paper considers each sociologist's concepts of the consumer society, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes conflicting, and what we can learn from them by applying the opposing viewpoint. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVBauWei.rtf
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sociologists concepts of society, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes conflicting, and what we can learn from them in both instances. Complementary Thinking First, its important to note that Baudrillard,
who is a sociologist and philosopher among other things, is one of the most challenging authors who ever wrote. Its very difficult to comprehend his meaning, even after reading his
work several times. Because of this, well use works that help explain Baudrillard, as well as the writings of the man himself. In Baudrillards own words, society is one rife
with consumer consumption: "... we are everywhere surrounded by the remarkable conspicuousness of consumption and affluence, established by the multiplication of objects, services and material goods" (Baudrillard). Baudrillard went on
to say that this "conspicuous consumption" (a term first used by Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book The theory of the leisure class) (Conspicuous consumption, 2006) has created a "fundamental
mutation in the ecology of the human species. Strictly speaking, men of wealth are no longer surrounded by other human beings ... but by objects" (Baudrillard). Baudrillards early works
are "attempts, within the framework of critical sociology, to combine the studies of everyday life ... with ... studies [of] the life of signs in social life" (Kellner, 2005). These
attempts center "on the system of objects in the consumer society ... and the interface between political economy and semiotics" (Kellner, 2005). Baudrillard was one of the first "to appropriate
semiology [the study of signs] to analyze how objects are encoded with a system of signs and meanings that constitute contemporary media and consumer societies" (Kellner, 2005). Boiling Baudrillard down
to a ridiculously simplistic level, we might say that he studies the ways in which "keeping up with the Joneses" has damaged society, turning us, as noted above, from people
...