The Ideology of Consumption and Consumerism
Consumption, as based on an ideological ground, is argued in various disciplines in the contemporary time. It is an ideology penetrating most of the social mechanisms in 21st century. According to Odabaşi (1999), ideology of today’s world is what the concept of consumption indicates. It is an ideology based on a wealthier life; as a consequence of more production and more consumption. Thus taking consumption as the preliminary trait and occupation of individuals, consumerism is an attribute of the society1. Bocock (1993) indicates that consumption is an active ideology within which life finds different meanings; an ideology spread over modern capitalism. This ideology serves the legitimization of capitalism and also everyday lives of many people; motivating them to be consumers in both fantasy and reality .
Concepts such as meaning of life are in a tight relationship withculture . In other words, culture is a medium through which social groups bond in their everyday life and find connection and social identity where meaning of life can be found. Jameson (1979) considers culture as the very element of consumer society; indicating that societies have never been saturated with signs and images as this society. In his writings on postmodern culture he suggests to expand the culture prodigiously through the social realm instead of keeping the semi-autonomous cultural sphere, so that everything can be addressed to as cultural (Jameson, 1984a). As the wealthier life becomes vital for the culture or the ideology of consumption, image becomes fundamental in portraying wealth among individuals and groups. The ideology of consumption, becoming a tool for accumulation of the capital, conducts societies towards a cycle of production- consumption. Yet, Daniel Bell (1976) argues that production comes with discipline and hard work, while consumption generates an act of irresponsibly pursuing pleasure .
A wealthier life that exists in both reality and imagination, or fantasy, is occupying the consumer’s view of the world. This world includes both physical and mental realms2. The mental dream world of the consumer society will need to be realized as a vision towards a ‘being in the world’3. Thus, there are different sides to the relations between the consumers, ideology, culture and the world. Following Jameson’s earlier mentioned statement, as everything becomes cultural in the contemporary society, the act of consumption becomes cultural. Featherstone in his book ‘Consumer culture and postmodernism’ (2007) brings three main perspectives on consumer culture:
  1. Expansion of capitalist mode of production created the consumer culture, which has led to an immense accumulation of material culture, mediated by consumer commodities and sites for purchase and consumption. As a result, leisure and consumption activities have grown prominently in Western societies.
  2. A more sociological view that focuses on various ways in which people use commodities to get socially close or distinct; with the idea that there is a relationship between the satisfaction derived from goods and their socially structured descending game. Thus, satisfaction and status depend on exhibiting and sustaining the differences within conditions of increase.
  3. A view including questions of consumption’s emotionalpleasures , dreams and desires . Features that are celebrated in consumer cultural imagery and specific consumption sites, which diversely generate straight physical excitementsand aesthetic pleasures .
The ideology of consumption works with those who afford goods and those who dream of them; it opens the ‘dream world’ to the whole society. Consumerism enters the practice of everyday life through advertisements, media and so on; and to the social practice through the production of spaces. It creates culture and habits or lifestyle; it provides this lifestyle with spaces within which consumption occurs due to giving pleasure to the consumers. Spaces are qualified for the contemporary use by making images and creating sites for leisure. This combination becomes reality in the contemporary urban practice and production of spaces. Thus, producing spaces as mediums through which the act of consumption can sustain turns into an ultimate goal for the consumer society4.
Creating such mediums reflects in the city. Urban practice in the society of consumers becomes partially a constant production of images that activate the ideology of consumption in a greater scale. Exposition of social space is more about the outlook rather than its content; and accordingly urban practice, taken as social production, comes parallel to making of images.