Consumer Culture & Postmodernism

Mike Featherstone

The changing nature of consumer culture lies at the heart of claims that contemporary societies are moving in ‘postmodern’ directions. Implicit within claims that society itself is in some sense postmodern is an argument about the priority of consumption as a determinant of everyday life. In this view, mass media advertising and market dynamics lead to a constant search for new fashions, new styles, new sensations and experiences. Life itself becomes redefined as a work of art. Material goods are consumed as ‘communicators’ rather than as simple utilities; they are valued as signifiers of taste and of lifestyle.

To what extent is this picture of contemporary society viable? What are the roots of consumer culture; how is it defined and differentiated; to what extent does it represent the arrival of a ‘postmodern’ world? In this book Mike Featherstone examines the theories of consumption and postmodernism among contemporary social theorists such as Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Lyotard and Jameson. He relates these to the actual nature of contemporary consumer culture. Mike Featherstone is Reader in Social Studies at Teesside Polytechnic.