INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION

Author(s): Alan Warde

Source: Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 1 (February 1990), pp. 1-4
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
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SOCIOLOGY Vol. 24 No. 1 February1990
001-004

INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF

CONSUMPTION

Alan Warde

Historically,sociologistshave never paid a great deal of attentionto con-

sumption.When not consideredthe mere reflectionof productionit has been
treatedas a derivativeof distribution,a matterof the availabilityof resources
ratherthan of who consumes what. When attentionwas devoted to actual
consumptionbehaviour, it was most oftenas a branch of social pathology,
concernedwith social problemsof insufficient nutritiousfood, excess alcohol,
inadequate health care, too many cigarettes.Only rarelydid the sociological
classics examineconsumptionforits own sake. But recentlythis has changed,
hence the opportunityto compile a special edition containingarticles that
representthe rangeof new scholarshipin the area.
There are many reasons for the developinginterestin consumption,some
social and political, some sociological. Class dealignmentand low levels of
workingclass electoralsupportforthe Labour Partyin Britainhave prompted
examinationof alternativesocial divisions. Some politicalpundits have attri-
buted changing workingclass behaviour to the absorption of consumerist
motivations- facilitatingthe second comingof the embourgeoisementthesis.
Anotherprominentvisionhas been of 'the end of work',of westernsocietiesin
which the significanceof labour, or at least paid work,is much reduced as a
determinant of everydaylifewithconsequentlyincreasedscope forleisure.The
quite differentscenario of the emergenceof post-Fordism anticipates that
flexible production will coincide with a shift from mass consumption to
specialised niche consumermarkets,a tendencyfed by postmodernistsensi-
bilities. Certainly an increasingnumber of products and services for sale
expandsopportunitiesforconsumption.'Yuppies', popularlycharacterisedby
theirprodigiousspendingpower and distinctivelife-style, standas a motifof a
decade fascinatedby consumercultureand sophisticatedadvertising.The same
decade has, by contrast,seen theprivatisationand re-commodification ofpublic
services,withpotentiallymomentouseffects.A crisisof the welfarestateis also
a crisisof consumption.
In response,sociologicalanalysisof consumptionhas concentratedin two,as
yet largelyunconnected,fields. The firstis a revival in the study of con-
sumerism,whichraisesissues of theformation oftaste,thepursuitof statusand
aspectsof the experienceof personalgratification. It lends itselfto the analysis

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2 ALAN WARDE

of the productionof consumergoods and services,to historicaland semiotic

analysisof popular cultureand style,to theorisingabout consumers,as well as
to quantitativeworkon consumptionpatterns.The stateof theartof theorising
about consumerculture is dissected in Featherstone'spaper in this volume,
where he identifiesthree, apparentlyincommensurable,approaches to the
question of what determinesthe characterof, and differences,in consumer
practices.He stressesthe importanceof consideringpleasure, fantasy,desire
and emotion as part of the experienceof consumption.These elements are
furtherexploredboth by Urryon contemporary tourismand by Zukin in her
examinationof Disneyland and gentrification as proto-typesof consumer
experience.Both argue thatan integratedenvironmentforpleasurableexperi-
ences is of increasingimportancefor the enjoymentof goods and services.
Places package pleasure.
The second area of inquiryarose from'thenew urbansociology'ofthe 1970s,
the central concept of which was 'collective consumption'. This concept
emerged from Castells' work on the ways in which the state intervenesto
reproducelabour power throughhousingprovision,healthcare, transport,etc.
(e.g. 1977). The modernstate in these ways furnishesits citizenswith a great
many use-values. This notion was takenup, in the U.K. at least, in termsof
'consumptionsectorcleavages', concerningthe social advantagesto be derived
fromhavingaccess to privateas opposed to stateprovisionof services.As such
it addressesmanycontemporarypoliticalissues, includingones of distributive
justice and the quality of service provision.It is the quality of services that
Saunders and Harris are concernedwith. They examine in an abstractway
what conditionsgive consumerspower, relativeto producers,asking in what
structuralcircumstancesconsumerscan obtain what will give them greatest
pleasureor satisfaction.(This was the basis of Saunders' earlierinfluentialcall
to replace urban sociology with a sociology of consumption(1986).) Their
positiongoes beyonda simplestate/market dichotomy,shownboth by Busfield
and Savage, Watt and Arber, to be a limitedbasis for understandingsocial
divisionsand politicalsolidarities.Busfieldshows thatdifferences in treatment
betweenprivateand public medical care are relativelyminorand an unlikely
basis for political mobilisation.Savage et al. reach similarconclusionsabout
housing tenure: the rate of mobilitybetween tenure positions is such that
interestsare unlikelyto coalesce into long-termpolitical solidarities.Con-
sumptionsector argumentsare found wantingmethodologicallyand empiri-
cally.By contrast,while Saunders and Harrisdeem it of majorimportancethai
stateallocationis replacedby marketmechanisms,theymaintainthatthatalone
is insufficientto alter the power relationsbetweenproducersand consumers,
They hence get some way towards tryingto understand the relationship
betweenpersonaland collectiveconsumption.
One furtherarea, concerninghouseholds,is of major significance,thoughil
has not been developed explicitlyin terms of consumption.This is partly
because feministscholarshave rightlycriticisedtheconceptof consumptionfoi

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 INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION 3

too easily obscuring the role of domestic labour. Much economic analysis
naively treatsthe household as the unit of consumption.As a result,what
happens withinhouseholds is usually neglected. As Jan Pähl shows, if the
household is treated as a black box some of the key determinantsof the
distribution ofuse-valuesare totallylost.Powerand controlwithinhouseholds,
whichPähl addressesin termsofcontrolovermoney,is an ineradicableelement
of any satisfactory generalaccountof consumption.
All these aspects of consumption touch on areas of central sociological
importance- stratification, the nature of work,the bases of political action,
social motiviationand contemporaryculturalforms.The papers in this special
editionconfirmthe diversityof subjectsaddressedin the name of consumption
and in passing suggestmany viable avenues of futureresearch.One question
remaining,though,is on whattheoreticalterrainwill thesediverseissues meet?
Is therea basis fora betterdeveloped sociologyofconsumption?I would liketo
proposethe outlineof a conceptualframework to reconcilethe different
senses,
and different foci,of recent inquiries into consumption.
Consumption,as can be seen fromthe essays,is a global termreferringto
several different processes and activities.Development of the theoryof con-
sumptionseems to requirenot onlynew fociof attention(as, forinstance,with
Featherstone'ssuggestionto look morecarefullyat the cultureof consumption)
but also a more meticulous conceptualisationof the various elements that
comprisethe set of activitiescalled consumption.At presenttoo many dis-
crepantactivitiesare denoted by the term. It seems particularlynecessaryto
clarifythe nature of the cycle of productionand consumption.Two general
pointsare worthconsideration.
First,thereare variousdifferent stagesin a cyclebetweentheproductionand
finalenjoymentof a good, serviceor experience.This can be gleaned fromthe
proposal in Beardsworthand Keil's reviewarticlethatwe should examinethe
food chain as a whole. What we eat offour plates typicallypasses througha
numberof productionprocesses (the growing,wholesaling,processing,retail-
ing and domestic preparation) and several exchange transactions(some of
whichare often,misleadingly,called consumption)beforefinalenjoymentas a
meal. Episodes ofproductionand exchangemustbe analysedsequentially,their
specificities
recognised.
If thosedistinctiveepisodes constituteone dimensionofcomplexity,a second
arisesbecause ofthedifferent sortsof social relationsinvolvedin theproduction
and use of goods and services. It is necessaryto distinguishbetween at least
fourelementswithinany cyclefromproductionto finaluse, namelytheprocess
ofproductionor provision,the conditionsofaccess, themannerof deliveryand
the environmentof enjoyment.Consider food again: I can buy a meal in a
restaurant;I mayprepareit myselfor prevailon someoneelse in myhousehold
to cook forme; or, if I could mounta successfulpoliticalcampaign,I mightget
the state to provide it freeor subsidised in public restaurants,as did occur
duringthe Second WorldWar. These are, in principle,alternativeways to met

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4 ALAN WARDE

myneeds. However,the social relationsinvolvedin producinga commodityon

the market,in the public sector and in the domestic sphere are dissimilar.
Moreover, the criteria of access to goods and services provided in these
differentsectors are also analyticallydistinct:purchasingmy meal, availing
myselfof the fruitsof the labour of anotherhousehold memberand being in
receiptof a state-providedserviceentail diverserelationsof access. Typically
these threekinds of processes of provisioningare governed,respectively,by
relationsof marketexchange, familialobligationand citizenshipright. It is
because servicesare produced under distinctiveconditionsand access to them
is regulatedaccordingly,with subsequent consequences for theirenjoyment,
that the shiftingof services between sectors- fromthe state to the market
sector{e.g. medical care), fromthe stateto the household(communitycare), or
out fromthe household(nurseyprovisions)- is so importantpolitically.
Any comprehensiveaccount of a single episode must consider not just
productionand access, but also thenatureof the deliveryand the experienceof
the enjoymentof a service. Again contemplatingmeals, the nature of the
deliveryis an essentialpartof the enjoymentderivedfromeating.The 'service'
offeredby proprietors,spouses or public sector waiters are susceptible to
variationsin quality, variationsnot to be accounted for simply in terms of
relationsof production.Equally, the social environmentin which finalcon-
sumptiontakesplace, forinstancethecompanyat thetableor in the room,is an
integralpartof the experiencebut cannotbe directlyattributedto any otherof
the processesinvolved.Payingproperattentionto the qualityof the experience
of consumptionis one commonmessageof severalessaysin thisvolume.
An episode of consumption,then, might be considered to comprise four
discreteelements,varyingwithrespectto the sectorin whichprovisionoccurs,
the social rules governingdistributionand access, the social circumstancesof
delivery and the social relations surroundingthe experience of final con-
sumption.No completeaccount can affordto ignoreany of theseelements,yet
existingapproaches rarelyentertainmore than two of them. This broader
frameworkmight be a way to integrateanalysis of personal, collective and
domesticmodes of provisionand use.

References
Castells, M. 1977.TheUrbanQuestion: a marxist London:EdwardArnold.
approach.
, secondedition.London:
Saunders,P. 1986. Social Theoryand theUrbanQuestion
Hutchinson.

note: ALAN WARDE is a Lecturer

Biographical in Sociologyat LancasterUniversity
and politicalsociology.Forthcoming
in urban,industrial
withinterests workincludes
theco-authored place,classandgender
book,Restructuring: , (Sage, 1990).

LancasterLAI 4YL.
LancasterUniversity,
Address: SociologyDepartment,

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