"I shop therefore I am." The Person of Capitalism Cover Image

„Vásárolok, tehát vagyok.” A személy a kapitalizmusban
"I shop therefore I am." The Person of Capitalism

Author(s): Manfred Prisching
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Psychology, Sociology
Published by: Fordulat
Keywords: peronality;subject and capitalism;subject formation;

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of the essay is to shed light on how consumption, identity and capitalism relate to each other. According to the premise of the writing, nowadays individuals can be described with the concept of animal consumers, because after the decreasing importance of the great narratives and the ideologies in the second half of the 20th century, it has been consumption, which became the core element on which identifies are constructed. This epoch – second modernity – is characterized by individualization: identity construction mainly revolves around the construction of the uniqueness, distinctiveness and authenticity of the individual. In this context consumption becomes a way of communication: one of the main functions of buying and consuming is to represent individual identities. On the one hand, the second part of the writing focuses on how values change due to the changing role of consumption. On the other hand, it analyzes the social conditions, which are required for the reproduction of such identityconsumption relations. The author uses the notion of „two-dimensional society”, in order to describe contemporary consumer capitalism, where the main motive is conformist individualism.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 72-96
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Hungarian