ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to investigate sociological perspectives and issues related to consumption practice and consumer culture. It looks at consumption using a dialectical approach—that is, seeing consumption both as a key practice in relation to individual constructions of self and other, and also as a product of various social structural changes that prioritise these identity-constructing processes. The chapter provides an introduction to key terms, concepts, and issues in studies of consumption and lifestyles. There are major theoretical traditions in the study of consumption within sociology and cultural theory. The first tradition, Marxism, originates in the work of Karl Marx, and was developed further in the work of Frankfurt School scholars, who came to be known in the middle and latter parts of the twentieth century as practising ‘critical theory’. The chapter considers three domains of consumption and lifestyle: fashion, the home, and shopping.
