ABSTRACT
Western capitalist social formations contain a majority of people, between two-thirds to
three-quarters of the population, who can afford to buy consumer goods and experiences
in non-recessionary years and who increasingly are hooked into the culture of
consumerism. This means that many people continue to desire to be purchasers,
consumers, even when they cannot afford to buy all the things and pleasurable
experiences which they might wish as a consequence of seeing what is on offer in
advertisements, and in television programmes more generally. In order to develop the
analysis of desires, and how they are linked to the social, cultural and psychological
construction and maintenance of a sense of various kinds of identity, some additional
concepts will be examined in this chapter. In particular, the concept of desire, which can
be located in the theoretical discourse of psychoanalysis, and that of identity as this has
emerged in some kinds of recent sociological writings, will be explored.
