ABSTRACT
The idea is that consumption has become the principal site of social transformation and has replaced labour, work and action as the dominant mode of relating to the world. This chapter examines how Hannah Arendt's critique of consumerism is closely tied to her ontological theory of human activity. This frames her opinions on the increasing disposability of use-objects and the colonization of culture by entertainment, which has concerned sociological thinking in this area. But, as the examples of Bauman and Pierre Bourdieu make clear, sociology is often led astray by a refusal to make distinctions at the ontological level that would complement and enrich their analyses. The meaning of play in relation to labour and action is a key theme that derives from Martin Heidegger's thinking and which influenced both Arendt and Herbert Marcuse. But Marcuse's reflections falls into the Marxist trap of reaffirming ontology based entirely on labour.
