ABSTRACT
CO N S U M E R G O O D S M A Y serve to fulfil a wide range of personal and socialfunctions. Fairly obviously, they commonly serve to satisfy needs or indulge wants and desires. In addition they may serve to compensate the individual for feelings of inferiority, insecurity or loss, or to symbolise achievement, success or power. They also commonly serve to communicate social distinctions or reinforce relationships of superiority and inferiority between individuals or groups. They can also, on some occasions, express attitudes or states of mind, or communicate specific messages from one person to another. Finally they may be instrumental in creating or confirming an individual’s sense of self or personal identity. All these possibilities have been canvassed in the wide variety of theories that can be said to have a bearing on consumption. Yet it is noticeable that in contemporary sociological discussions not all these perspectives are equally represented. Generally we may say that special emphasis tends to be placed on those theories that relate consumption to issues of identity and, within this, to those that represent consumption as an activity which conveys information about the consumer’s identity to those who witness it. Indeed, we can be more specific still and identify theories that represent the consumer as actually preoccupied with conveying specific ‘meanings’ or ‘messages’ about his or her identity (or ‘lifestyle’) to others, as those currently predominant within the discipline.
