Theoretical Framework

This chapter explores the scholarship on (1) the sociology of consumption, (2) neoliberalism, and (3) ethical consumption. It also includes an overview of the intersection of consumption with class, gender, and race. The first—and most detailed—survey focuses on work done in the sociological field. It starts with an investigation of the scholarship of Marx and Weber, both of whom examine the reconfiguration of consumption amid the burgeoning of the industrial age, the former focused on its role in capitalism, the latter examining its role in one’s status. Next is a survey of the theoretical contributions of Veblen and Simmel, who—unlike Marx and Weber, whose interest in consumption is secondary—focus on consumption specifically and how it can be deployed as performance and interwoven into identity. Subsequently, the review moves to the middle of the twentieth century and includes a synopsis of the body of work coming from Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse of the Frankfurt School, who conceive of consumption as form of social control. Next is an examination of the contributions of Featherstone, Beck, Baudrillard, and Bauman, whose scholarship reflects the emerging turn toward postmodernism. Finally, there is a summary of the developments in the sociology of consumption that have occurred during our current century, which are—in some ways—reimagining consumption as worthy of closer examination. After that is an examination of the scholarship on neoliberalism and that of ethical consumption, both of which cross a number of disciplinary boundaries. Academic work on neoliberalism is found throughout political science, economics, philosophy, and sociology. Research on ethical consumption is concentrated primarily in marketing and business studies, with a smattering in sociology, geography, psychology, and political science.