ДУАЛЬНОСТЬ СТРУКТУР ИНДИВИДУАЛЬНОГО ПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ДИНАМИКЕ: ОТ СОВЕТСКОГО К ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМУ ОБЩЕСТВУ
DUALITY OF STRUCTURES OF INDIVIDUAL CONSUMPTION IN HISTORICAL DYNAMICS: FROM SOVIET TO POST-SOVIET SOCIETY

Summary/Abstract: The article studies consumption in Soviet and post-Soviet society in the context of its dual structure. The analysis is based on the assumption that consumption always occurs in the context of existing culture and ideology and is a part of social reproduction. Every type of social reproduction features particular type of individuality. Ideally, a person with such a type of individuality is a function of a social system, i.e. an ideal consumer. However, in reality people are reluctant to turn into the ideal consumers who ensure the interests of the existing system and powerful groups who control social reproduction. Activity of these reluctant consumers results in various resistance practices and consumer culture that corresponds to them. As a result, the structures acquire the dual character and serve as a sustainable form of consumer behavior of those citizens who freely materialize their needs within an available amount of resources. This is, however, not an organized protest, but rather an individual form of resistance that the sociologists call “the art of the weak”.

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