Consumer society and consumer behavior: The evolution of concepts and modern understanding.

Bnatov Danila Alekseevich ORCID: 0009-0000-0108-6238 Postgraduate, VSHSSN, MSU 119234, Russia, Moscow, Kolmogorova str., 1 building 13A bnatov.dan@gmail.com

Introduction

Consumer society is usually understood as a stage of socio-economic development when the majority of the population can afford to constantly purchase goods and services in an amount that obviously exceeds the necessary biological minimum and the needs of physical survival. In other words, the average individual in a consumer society has benefits far beyond food to replenish the calories consumed, clothing to protect against bad weather, housing as a shelter from external threats, etc. All of these and many other values in the modern world satisfy a much wider range of human needs than it was before the advent of the era of mass consumption. But only an economic system with unprecedented scientific and technological potential in the foreseeable history is capable of this, as well as the socio-cultural environment accompanying it, which formed during socialization in the majority of the population such needs that an ordinary person did not even have an idea about at earlier stages of the development of social relations^[1].

In all scientifically, technologically and economically developed countries, the process of the emergence and formation of a consumer society occurs in a similar way, but historically the United States was the first to reach this stage in the 40-50s of the last century. It was there and then that the results of, on the one hand, the mass production of goods and services, the wide availability of most socially significant consumer goods, and, on the other, a significant increase in the real incomes of the bulk of the country's population, a multiple increase in effective demand, the aspirations of ordinary people to previously inaccessible levels of household comfort and individual well–being, and also formed in the process of socialization of the desire to constantly buy something new and increase the importance of leisure, which had to be filled with something. In other countries, the state of socio-economic development corresponding to the main characteristics of the consumer society came a little later than in the USA, and in most cases much later. First Western Europe joined them, then Australia, Japan, South Korea, etc. Today we can state the existence of a consumer society in many countries of the world, including Russia^[2].

The object of research within the framework of classical sociology and political economy

K. Marx is deservedly considered the founder of many concepts in sociology, economic theory, political science and social philosophy. He did not use the term "consumer behavior", but chronologically he was the first to focus his attention on the problem of turning a product into a fetish. The basis of the class division of society K.Marx laid economic criteria, the main of which was the attitude to the means of production, and changes in productive forces and production relations were a key factor in the transformation of the social structure. In capitalist society, the main class distinction is between the bourgeoisie and wage workers (owners and non-owners of the means of production). Social classes fundamentally differ in the nature of consumption, since for the first time in the history of mankind, capitalist society began to produce significantly more than is necessary to meet basic human needs, but all surpluses are appropriated by the ruling class, while non-owners of the means of production continue to consume at a physiological minimum^[3].

M. Weber also speaks about classes, but in an understanding somewhat different from the Marxist one. From his point of view, a class is a group of people who occupy similar status positions in the social structure of a society with a market economy and have similar life chances in general, as well as the chances of obtaining a surplus product in particular. The nature of consumption also depends on the ability to dispose of the surplus product, but classes, according to M. Weber, are not static in a capitalist society. On the contrary, they are very mobile, numerous, constantly moving from one to another, as well as individuals who are quite capable of moving between classes, instead of organizing revolutions in an attempt to swap the dominant and oppressed classes. The common approach of K.Marx and M. Weber remains the definition of classes based on the attitude to property, which allows the disposal of goods and services, which gives access to surplus product and excess consumption. But such opportunities are opened not by an initially set position in the social structure of society, but by external conditions and life experience, if they allow you to dispose of financial, material and human capital (although M. Weber did not directly talk about the latter) within the framework of existing economic relations. This gives the right to consume more than others, but it is not set initially and is not rigidly fixed in the social structure, and the classes themselves are not something very stable, fixed once and for all.

Much more stable, according to M. Weber, are not classes, but estates, which can be based on classes, but are not only conditioned by them. Classes are only access to material or other goods and the ability to dispose of them, and the benefits of such disposal should be directed, among other things, to excessive consumption. However, estates are something more. To belong to a certain class, it is not enough to have money or property in the means of production, although this is essentially the only condition for being classified as a social class. Belonging to a class is much more often inherited, and is also formed in the process of upbringing and socialization, which results in a style of consumption corresponding to this class, which cannot be quickly developed or perceived only with material or other resources. At the same time, estates are more a sign of a closed society characterized by low social mobility, whereas classes arise in conditions of a more open social structure and high mobility, which exactly corresponds to capitalist relations. Estates are also present in them, but they have much less significance, although consumption is more a derivative of the estate than of the class, since the possession of money only makes it possible to consume excessively, but does not form consumer preferences, because the latter mainly arise in the process of socialization in a specific estate environment ^[4].

The concepts of K.Marx and M. Weber had a significant impact on the subsequent development of the concepts of consumer society and consumer behavior. Thus, the Marxist idea of "commodity fetishism" was continued in the writings of J.Baudrillard, many of whose provisions today serve as a theoretical justification for scientific and ideological criticism of consumer society. The very ideas of J.Baudrillard is rather loosely connected with the concept of K. Marx, and sometimes contradict the latter. For example, according to J.Baudrillard, in contrast to Marxism, the main incentive for the development of the capitalist economy is not production, but consumption (that is, to consume more than to produce, and not to produce more than to consume). In turn, M. Weber's concept of consumption, conditioned by belonging to a class, and not a class, was continued in the so-called "class fractions" of P. Bourdieu, which are still used today in sociological, socio-cultural and socio-philosophical concepts devoted to the conventionality of the behavior of individuals and groups. Quite a few researchers believe that estates, at least in a status or symbolic form, quite exist in modern society, determining to a large extent the nature of consumption. A quite successful attempt to combine the concepts of K. Marx and M. Weber in terms of their views on consumer behavior was made by T. Geiger^[5].

The concepts of T.Veblen ("the theory of prestigious consumption"), G. Simmel ("the theory of fashion"), V. Sombart ("the theory of luxury") and a number of other scientists can also be considered an equally significant contribution to the development of this field of knowledge within the framework of that stage of its development, which belongs to an earlier period in relation to the emergence of the consumer society itself (mainly at the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries). Thus, T. Veblen developed the concept of ostentatious consumer behavior, and he separately considered the issue of the relationship between consumer behavior and social inequality. Initially, it was believed that the emergence of various consumer practices was due to social inequality, but later in sociology the opinion spread that consumer practices themselves generate such inequality. That is, consumption is not a goal, but a means to implement complex social strategies of status differentiation (both class and class). Such strategies are described by T. Veblen in his classic work "The Theory of the Leisure Class"^[6].

G. Simmel drew attention to the tendency of consumers to copy each other's behavior. His theory of fashion can also be seen as a tool for differentiating classes. Fashion is an imitation of this model, thanks to which it satisfies the needs of an individual in belonging to a significant social group for him, including one that exists only in his consciousness, ideas and values. But to exactly the same extent, fashion satisfies the needs for difference, the desire to somehow distinguish itself from the social environment or part of it, to stand out from the general mass. That is, G. Simmel essentially identifies two main functions of fashion: integration and differentiation, since an individual may well simultaneously seek affiliation with some groups and distance from others, and both are often achieved by consuming the same goods or services (inherent in one group and completely unacceptable in another). That is, fashion is a tool for uniting one circle of people (as well as recognizing each other by them) and separating it from others. Individuals unite most often with equal social status or seek to emphasize their belonging to higher positions, whereas isolation usually occurs from lower groups. With this fact, G. Simmel explains that fashion spreads in the direction from the higher layers to the lower ones, but not vice versa. As soon as it reaches the lowest statuses, it ceases to be a fashion^[7].

The results of the evolution of consumer behavior concepts in the twentieth century

The most prominent theorists in the field of sociological study of consumer behavior and consumer society within the framework of the current stage of development of the relevant concepts are undoubtedly P. Bourdieu and J.Baudrillard. In an effort to explain the formation and reproduction of consumer behavior, P. Bourdieu relies on the concept of habitus as an "acquired system of generative schemes" and questions the purposefulness of consumer behavior on the grounds that the illusion of having a goal and the organization of consumption is due to its stability, but not clearly defined goals and strategies. In other words, people consume any goods and services not because they seek to save money, achieve status positions or prestige, but simply because of habit. Habitual practices shape the lifestyle of social groups, due to the uniformity of their habits. The structure and volume of consumption is also influenced by cultural capital, which allows an individual to recognize the strategies and principles of other people's actions. For example, with an increase in income, the scale of consumption may not increase due to the accepted norms of behavior in this local community or reference group^[8].

According to the concept of Zh .Baudrillard, objects of consumption constitute a system of signs differentiating individuals. According to the scientist, consumption at a certain stage ceases to be just a process aimed at satisfying needs. There is already a clearly expressed systematic activity and a set of universal reactions to external influences and stimuli, on which, among other things, culture and social relations are based. In the concept of J.Baudrillard changes the meaning of the consumption process, since its object is no longer goods or services, but signs. Consumption, therefore, is a systematic manipulation of signs. In this process, the object turns into a sign through which the individual transmits to others about his belonging to a particular class, occupied statuses, performed roles, needs and value orientations.

Such signs are understandable to others, thanks to which a certain attitude is formed to the subject transmitting them, and in modern society it is no longer possible to consume without taking into account the fact of this kind of attention from others. In this sense, consumption also performs the function of communication, since by mutually reading the transmitted signs, people make the process of interaction between themselves much simpler and more predictable. J. Baudrillard notes that manipulating signs turns the needs to possess some benefits into unlimited, and consumer behavior itself into infinite. Consumption under such conditions changes its content and turns into a process of interpreting symbols. The transition to symbolic consumption gradually erases the boundaries between social strata that were previously defined by groups of purchased goods or services. In the conditions of the information society, inequality is determined not so much by the style of consumption as by access to information technologies, as well as communication resources^[9].

The most significant contribution to the "new theory" of consumption was made by G. Becker, K. Lancaster and J.Stigler. In their works, the consumer turns from a passive "utility maximizer" into an active actor. G. Becker's interest primarily consisted in studying the process of consumption itself, and not the attributes of goods. He also focused on reducing the dependence of the economic theory of consumption on the psychological theory of tastes^[10]. K. Lancaster attempted to overcome the inability of the marginalist theory to consider the multiple characteristics inherent in the product. To solve this problem, he analyzed the individual demand for a product, decomposing it into its constituent elements, and built models of such demand already in relation to individual characteristics. K. Lancaster argued that goods are sets of parameters and criteria, therefore, consumer demand for them should be understood as the need to possess a product due to certain characteristics, and not as a need for a specific product in general^[11]. J. Stigler created the so-called "search theory", according to which the consumer should search for the product with the lowest price until the costs of such a search exceed the benefits of buying at a lower price. The approach formulated by him began to be applied not only in consumer behavior research, but also in state or municipal management, as well as the work of commercial enterprises (for example, in the study of logistics processes or the creation of optimal inventories)^[12].

J.Duzenberry and M. Friedman tried to explain the fact that consumption increases faster than income increases, but consumption decreases significantly slower when they decrease. Scientists have hypothesized that consumers receive utility not from the absolute level of their income, but from income relative to the reference group with which they correlate their social status or strive to belong to it. When incomes decline, consumers begin to spend out of their accumulated funds in order to maintain the previous high level of consumption that they previously achieved. According to J.Duzenberry, current consumption largely depends on habits formed earlier for a long time, which do not change quickly. That is, consumer behavior is largely due to the desire of an individual or household to imitate a certain pattern, which may no longer exist in the social environment, but continues to be significant for a particular actor^[13]. M. Friedman, when explaining this effect, used the permanent income hypothesis, according to which consumption is due to the average income of an individual throughout his life. According to the researcher, current income is the sum of permanent and temporary income, and according to his hypothesis, consumption depends on permanent income, while savings and loans can be used to smooth out fluctuations in temporary income^[14].

Conclusions

In general, it can be argued that the sociological concepts of studying consumer society and consumer behavior are closely related to psychological ones, which present models of irrational consumption and choice based on the emotional characteristics of the consumer as an acting subject. Purchases bring not only benefits, but also pleasure, so it is impossible to explain the consumption process only by satisfying the needs caused by the socio-cultural context, but psychological factors, including habits, should also be taken into account. When studying consumer behavior, it is impossible to ignore the economic component, since personal consumption is part of the economic subsystem of society and the totality of its economic relations. Most researchers somehow recognize that consumer behavior is generally autonomous, decisions are made by an individual independently, but at the same time the action of a huge number of factors is involved.

Consumer behavior is a complex complex of analysis by the subject of the information available to him about goods or services, actions to search for them, purchase, use, resale and disposal, his own reaction to the purchase and evaluation of such reactions from a significant social environment or reference groups, as well as the formation of a stable opinion about future purchases. For more than a century, a significant number of theoretical and methodological concepts have been created that are necessary for the study of consumer behavior and consumer society, in the field of sociology, cultural studies, psychology, economics, marketing, as well as in other scientific branches and practical fields of activity. There are a large number of factors of consumer socialization and the formation of consumer behavior, which differ significantly in the scale and nature of their influence on the acting subject. These factors need to be studied in order to be used in the activities of both commercial enterprises and public administration.

Classical concepts of the phenomenon of consumption and consumer behavior appeared even before the emergence of this concept itself, as well as consumer society in general and marketing as a science or field of practical activity. Consumption within the framework of this stage was considered most often as a derivative of class or estate, and its most prominent representatives were K.Marx (consumption as belonging to a class), M.Weber (consumption as belonging to a class), T. Geiger (synthesis of the ideas of K.Marx and M.Weber), T. Veblen (theory of prestigious consumption), G.Simmel (fashion theory), V.Sombart (luxury theory). Further studies of consumer behavior began to be conducted mainly within the framework of economic theory, behavioral economics and marketing at the beginning of the XX century. The Marxist idea of "commodity fetishism" was continued in the writings of J.Baudrillard (critique of consumer society), and the concept of M. Weber – in the so-called "class factions" of P. Bourdieu (the second half of the XX century.), and the ideas and J.Baudrillard (symbolic consumption), and P. Bourdieu (habitus as an "acquired system of generative schemes") are quite popular today in sociological, socio-cultural and socio-philosophical concepts of human behavior in general and consumer behavior in particular. The "new" theory of consumption was proposed by G. Becker, K. Lancaster and J.Stigler, and M. Friedman and J.Duzenberry formulated the concepts of permanent income and sustainable consumer practices, respectively, to explain "advanced consumption".

You can simply select and copy link from below text field.