Conclusion: Consumer Society and the Economists

The historical journey undertaken in this book reveals that economists have struggled to develop a synthesis view of consumer society. Naturally, one must be cautious about overgeneralisation: it is possible to distinguish two distinct intellectual genealogies. The first—chronologically speaking—comprises economists who have shown a willingness to consider (at least as a theoretical possibility) the deviation thesis. These figures are found across a wide range of schools, including classical political economy, Marxism, institutionalism, ecological economics, and even strands of neoclassical economics. The second genealogy aligns strongly with the progress thesis and is associated with the type of neoclassical economics that rose to dominance during the mid-twentieth century and, to a significant extent, continues to shape mainstream economic thinking today. The difficulties encountered by the deviation thesis within this second genealogy stem in part from matters of economic theory, but also from a specific conception of economics as a social science, as well as from the political success of the doctrine of consumer sovereignty. The deviation thesis emerged more naturally among economists of the first genealogy, yet the path towards a synthesis view has faced significant obstacles. Some of these relate to the theoretical integration of the world of consumption. Others stem from persistent challenges in forging meaningful connections with history, sociology, and philosophy. Meanwhile, consumer society has maintained only an intermittent presence in the field of vision of economists across various schools and tendencies—something that has further limited the profession’s capacity to elaborate a synthesis view.