ABSTRACT
In the above discussion, it has been argued that the understanding of modern consumption as a game of distinctions and distinction strategies isoften associated with a conception according to which lifestyles and tastes are hierarchically ordered and determined by the social position of their representatives; the lifestyles of the members of a social class are more or less homogeneous. Tastes are class tastes. The legitimate taste of a society is identified with the taste of its ruling class. In a society conceptualized along these lines, social classes are waging a continuous struggle, in which social esteem is at stake, over the determination of the good or legitimate taste. Fashions are class fashions almost always originating in the higher echelons of society.
