Chapter 5: Economic Theory, Marxism, and Material Culture

Chapter 5: Economic Theory, Marxism, and Material Culture

1. Needs Versus Desires: Traveling Light and Arriving Heavy

   • objects/ possesions
     • brand
     • shopping
     • attachment to possessions

2. Marxist Theory & Alienation

   • economic & psychological theories explain the role of capitalism in the modern world
   • alienation: a separation or estrangement of man's true nature from the sense of self
   • Tenets
     • 1. needs are not real but artificially imposed upon people by advertising that tries to convince that buying means happiness 2. people are alienated because the work is external (work = making money to live)  3. objects & artifacts are signifiers of the alienation & estrangement

3. Class Conflict

   • classes: bourgeoisie & proletariat
   • false consciousness doctrine
   • unequal distribution of goods

4. Role of Advertising

   • Advertising - the main engine of consumer culture in capitalist societies. It is a merchandizing tool and the industry. It gives objects their valuation (Henri Lefebvre)
   • Immediate goal: to sell artifacts & products. Long-term goal: to turn people's attention away from exploitation & justify the existence of a capitalist economic system.

5. Thorsten Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption

   • Ultimate goal: an enhanced sense of self; to excel neighbors to attain heightened self-evaluation.
   • Functional analysis - objects' function to indicate & enhance status

6. Max Weber & Calvinist-Protestant Thought

   • worldly Protestant asceticism
   • Protestant ethics justifies consumption.
   • Divine Providence justifies the unequal distribution of wealth .

7. Georg Simmel on Fashion

   • clothing
   • new models of artifacts
   • women's fashion consciousness

8. Walter Benjamin & the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

   • the impact of mass production on objects
   • aura = authenticity

9. Authenticity & Postmodern Thought

   • Tenets
     • 1. Overarching metaphysical systems of belief are not important any more. 2. no boundaries between elite & popular cultures and between original works of art & reproductions/ imitations. Authenticity is not important. 3. Contemporary American culture is postmodern with mixed styles.

10. John Berger on Objects & Adversitising

    • Publicity is about social relations, not objects

11. Definitions: artifacts & human labor

    • Artifacts - objects showing human workmanship. Human labor - labor that involves designing, manufacturing, transporting, advertising, and selling objects.

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