Cultural, materialist, and critical theory approaches to consumption critique: Explorations toward an empirical project*

I thank an anonymous reviewer for drawing my attention to Bourdieu's work, for clarifying the distinction between cultural and materialist approaches, and for numerous other helpful comments. Her/his knowledgeable, civil, careful, and encouraging contributions showed the role of the invisible colleague at its best.

Abstract

Sociologists from Veblen (1899) through contemporary critical theorists have produced considerable theoretical work about consumption, but a comparable flow of empirical work does not exist. This essay reviews three theoretical approaches (cultural, materialist, and critical theory) to consumption critique and extracts from them a set of suggestions for empirical research.

Notes

I thank an anonymous reviewer for drawing my attention to Bourdieu's work, for clarifying the distinction between cultural and materialist approaches, and for numerous other helpful comments. Her/his knowledgeable, civil, careful, and encouraging contributions showed the role of the invisible colleague at its best.