Konsumpcja jako komunikacja? W poszukiwaniu socjologicznego paradygmatu w analizie konsumpcji
Consumption as communication? In search of sociological paradigm in the analysis of consumption

Summary/Abstract: A common theme of many studies of consumption is a claim that this is more fundamental than any idea of simply fulfilling a concrete needs by rational, self-interested actors. Instead, consumption may be seen as a social and cultural process involving cultural signs and symbols and as an area of creating, maintaining and altering of social relations, not simply as an economic, utilitarian process. The aim of the article is to scrutinize this so called “communicative act paradigm” by putting questions about premises and circumstances under which consumption may be treated as a form of communication. To this end, the article outlines an understanding of communication and signification from the point of view of semiotic theory arguing that, after all, all cultural items are system of signs. Then it considers the concept of habitus and practices to show that individuals thoughts and actions are built upon the symbolic structures of knowledge which enable and constrain the agents to interpret the world and to behave in certain ways. Thus these theories lay emphasis on this part of culture which is embodied, tacit, largely unconscious composed of cognitive-affective structures that play a key role in everyday decisions. Consumption seen from this angle is a largely routine, ordinary, collective and conventional phenomenon. It should be treated not as a unified and coherent activity or an integrated practice but as a moment in almost every practice.

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