ABSTRACT
In education, as in the social sciences generally, consumption is still a difficult and controversial topic despite the growing volume of scholarly literature on the subject. While it is now accepted that consumption figures importantly in the lives of people from all social strata, critical language still features strongly in accounting for its significance. In various brands of critical theory, the consumer as the dupe of capitalism assumes a central place. Critical theory provides influential paradigms of consumption, such as the Marxist, where consumption is seen as simply a reflex of production, and the Frankfurt School, where it is seen as alienated consciousness, the source of manipulation and passivity. Consumption is signified as ideology, with ideology critique the only appropriate response.
