Is Consumer Society a Divided Society?
Outline the view that a consumer society is a divided society
A consumer society is a society where people often buy new goods that they do not need (buy goods that are not necessary) and in which places a high value on owning many things (a high value placed on consumption of those goods). This essay will outline how social division is created through consumption and the consequences of consuming. It will first outline what Zygmunt Bauman calls the seduced and the repressed and how people are divided in our society based on these terms. It will then show evidence to support these claims by looking at the study of retail parks by Peter Jackson. Finally this essay will outline the two big supermarket (two different market) powers, namely, the zero-sum power and the positive-sum power and give evidence to support this by outlining the big supermarkets such as Tesco being the main one and how these two powers being looked at by showing two sides of an argument. (use the evidence gathered on big chain supermarket Tesco in the UK to support these two oppositional concepts by looking at the both sides of the argument)
Not everyone is able to consume equally, firstly we will look at the seduced and the repressed. They are two divided (divisions in a) consumer society. According to a social scientist Zygmunt Bauman (1988), people in contemporary western society can be broadly divided into two groups. The seduced what Bauman calls, are the people who can afford to consume to a greater degree than others. An example of the seduced are the people who have a secure job with a really good income, them having to consume greater than others gives them a social membership with a positive identity. However the seduced not only include with (with not needed) people who have enough money to buy goods and services, but also the ones who are seen by the consumer society as valued members, both by other consumers and by those who have something to sell to a lucrative market. They
A consumer society is a society where people often buy new goods that they do not need (buy goods that are not necessary) and in which places a high value on owning many things (a high value placed on consumption of those goods). This essay will outline how social division is created through consumption and the consequences of consuming. It will first outline what Zygmunt Bauman calls the seduced and the repressed and how people are divided in our society based on these terms. It will then show evidence to support these claims by looking at the study of retail parks by Peter Jackson. Finally this essay will outline the two big supermarket (two different market) powers, namely, the zero-sum power and the positive-sum power and give evidence to support this by outlining the big supermarkets such as Tesco being the main one and how these two powers being looked at by showing two sides of an argument. (use the evidence gathered on big chain supermarket Tesco in the UK to support these two oppositional concepts by looking at the both sides of the argument)
Not everyone is able to consume equally, firstly we will look at the seduced and the repressed. They are two divided (divisions in a) consumer society. According to a social scientist Zygmunt Bauman (1988), people in contemporary western society can be broadly divided into two groups. The seduced what Bauman calls, are the people who can afford to consume to a greater degree than others. An example of the seduced are the people who have a secure job with a really good income, them having to consume greater than others gives them a social membership with a positive identity. However the seduced not only include with (with not needed) people who have enough money to buy goods and services, but also the ones who are seen by the consumer society as valued members, both by other consumers and by those who have something to sell to a lucrative market. They