Consumerism as an Attribute of Neutralization of Social Relations and Political Activity
Acknowledgments
The work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science (state assignment)
How to Cite
Ilin A.N. 2016. Consumerism as an Attribute of Neutralization of Social Relations and Political Activity — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. No. 4. P. 5-18.
Abstract
The consumer culture created in post-Soviet Russian society has a negative impact on many aspects of sociocultural life of the individual and society as a whole. Consumer society is a set of relations with dominated symbolism of material objects being a life purpose, which causes consumers to purchase things, thus creating its high status position. Consumerism is the support of marks production included in every act of purchase and total semiotization of reality. The article examines such issues specific to Russian modernity as the weakening of social relations, individualism, political apathy, and refocusing of mass interest from serious political, economic and environmental topics to personal aspects. It is shown that these issues are directly related to the tendencies of consumer culture. Consumer culture suggests calls to an individual activity, but also to social inaction. Deconsolidation is a feature of voluntary marginalization typical of consumer society. When it becomes wide-scale, a paradoxical phenomenon should be observed as the “social exclusion of the majority”. An existing, permanent revolution of individualism expressed in the relevant changes of culture and value orientations eliminates political activity and displaces the political discourse of the mass consciousness. Insensitivity to issues concerning society, nation and the world is one of metaproblems and social meta-menaces typical of the era of consumption. The theories of consumption sociology and social philosophy are used as the theoretical and methodological basis for this research. Hypertrophy of consumption values in extreme cases leads society to a loss of its foundation, namely sociality.
Keywords:
culture of consumption, deconsolidation, depoliticization, consumer society, political passivity, individualism, solidarity, atomization
References
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Semenov E. V., Prokop’eva M. Ju. Patriotizm i potreblenie. [Patriotism and consumption]. J. Real’nost’. Chelovek. Kul’tura: transformacija bytija cheloveka v obshhestve potreblenija. VI Orehovskie chtenija: materialy Vseros. nauch. konf. (Omsk, 24 oktjabrja 2014 g.). Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2014. S. 133 – 137. (In Russ.).
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Shihardin N. V. Anri Lefevr o bjurokraticheskom obshhestve, kontroliruemom kons’jumerizmom. [Henri Lefebvre on the bureaucratic society of controlled consumerism]. J. Real’nost’. Chelovek. Kul’tura: transformacija bytija cheloveka v obshhestve potreblenija. VI Orehovskie chtenija: materialy Vseros. nauch. konf. (Omsk, 24 oktjabrja 2014 g.). Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2014. S. 173 – 17. (In Russ.)
Zizek S. Against Human Rights // New Left Review, 34, July-August 2005. P. 115 –131.
Bauman Z. Individualizirovannoe obshhestvo. [The individualized society] / Per. s angl. pod red. V. L. Inozemceva. M.: Logos, 2005. – 390 s. (In Russ.).
Bauman Z. Rasskazannye zhizni i prozhitye istorii. [The narrated life and lived history]. J. Sociologicheskie issledovanija. 2004. № 1. S. 5 – 14. (In Russ.).
Bauman Z. Tekuchaja sovremennost’. [Fluid modernity] / Per. s angl. pod red. Ju.V. Asochakova. SPb.: Piter, 2008. – 240 s. (In Russ.).
Vizgin V. P. Russkaja filosofija segodnja (Razmyshlenija o seminare i knige). [Russian philosophy today (Reflections on the seminar and the book)]. J. Voprosy filosofii. 2014. № 12. S. 118 – 129. (In Russ.).
Votinceva N. N., Il’in A. N. Kul’tura potreblenija i reklama: monografija. [The culture of consumption and advertising]. Perm’: PIJeF, 2014. – 132 s. (In Russ.).
Gorshkov M. K., Petuhov V. V., Krumm R. Dvadcat’ let reform glazami rossijan (opyt mnogoletnih sociologicheskih zamerov). [Twenty years of reforms by eyes of Russians (the experience of sociological measurements)]. M.:Ves’ Mir, 2011. – 328 s. (In Russ.).
Danilova E. N., Jadov V. A. Nestabil’naja social’naja identichnost’ kak norma sovremennyh obshhestv. [Unstable social identity as a norm of modern societies]. J. Sociologicheskie issledovanija. 2004. № 10. S. 27 – 30. (In Russ.).
Debor G. Obshhestvo spektaklja. [The society of the spectacle] / Per. s fr. C. Ofertasa i M. Jakubovich. M.: «Logos», 1999. – 224 s. (In Russ.).
Deviantnost’ v obshhestve potreblenija: Kollektivnaja monografija. [Deviance in consumer society] / Pod red. Ja.I. Gilinskogo i T. V. Shipunovoj. SPb.: Izdatel’skij Dom «Alef-Press», 2012. (In Russ.).
Ivanov P. V. Potreblenie kak agent ljogkoj social’nosti v gorodskom prostranstve. [Consumption as an agent of light sociality in urban space]. J. Zhurnal sociologii i social’noj antropologii. 2011. Tom XIV. № 5 (58). S. 142 – 147. (In Russ.).
Ivanova V. A., Shubkin V. N. Massovaja trevozhnost’ rossijan kak prepjatstvie integracii obshhestva. [Mass anxiety of Russians as an obstacle to the integration of society]. J. Sociologicheskie issledovanija. 2005. № 2. S. 22 – 28. (In Russ.).
Il’in A. N. Dekonsolidacija i depolitizacija, harakternye dlja obshhestva potreblenija. [The consolidation and de-politicization characteristic of the consumer society]. J. Sociologicheskij zhurnal. 2014a. № 3. S. 101 – 115. (In Russ.).
Il’in A. N. Kul’tura, stremjashhajasja v nikuda: kriticheskij analiz potrebitel’skih tendencij: monografija. [Culture, aspiring to nowhere: a critical analysis of consumer trends]. Nauch. red. D. M. Fedjaev. Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2012. – 266 s. (In Russ.).
Il’in A. N. Kul’tura obshhestva massovogo potreblenija: kriticheskoe osmyslenie: monografija. [The culture of a society of mass consumption: critical thinking]. Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2014b. – 208 s. (In Russ.).
Il’in A. N. Social’naja dekonsolidacija i depolitizacija v jepohu potreblenija. [Social de-consolidation and de-politicization in the era of consumption]. J. Uchjonye zapiski Komsomol’skogo-na-Amure gosudarstvennogo tehnicheskogo universiteta. Nauki o cheloveke, obshhestve i kul’ture. 2014v. T. 2. № 1(17). S. 71 – 77. (In Russ.).
Kaminskaja I. Kak nam ne razrushit’ Rossiju, kotoruju my ne poterjali. [How can we not destroy the Russia we lost]. [Jelektronnyj resurs]. YBURLAN Sistemno-vektornaja psihologija Jurija Burlana URL: http:// www.yburlan.ru/biblioteka/kak-nam-nerazrushit-rossiyu-kotoruyu-my-ne-poteryali (Data obrashhenija: 17.11.2014). (In Russ.).
Kara-Murza S. G. Matrica «Rossija». [Matrix of Russia]. M.: Jeksmo: Algoritm, 2010. – 256 s. (In Russ.).
Lipovecki Zh. Jera pustoty. [The era of emptiness]. SPb.: «Vladimir Dal’», 2001. – 332 s. (In Russ.).
Nosov D. M. Hanna Arendt – filosof? [Hannah Arendt – philosopher?]. J. Voprosy filosofii. 2014. № 4. S. 25 – 31. (In Russ.).
Reutov E. V, Kolpina L. V., Reutova M. N., Bojarinova I. V. Jeffektivnost’ social’nyh setej v regional’nom soobshhestve. [The effectiveness of social networks in regional community]. J. Sociologicheskie issledovanija. 2011. № 1. S. 79 – 88. (In Russ.).
Sanina A. G. Informacionnoe obshhestvo i gosudarstvennaja identichnost’. [Information society and state identity]. J. Informacionnoe obshhestvo. 2013. № 6. S. 9 – 15. (In Russ.).
Semenov E. V., Prokop’eva M. Ju. Patriotizm i potreblenie. [Patriotism and consumption]. J. Real’nost’. Chelovek. Kul’tura: transformacija bytija cheloveka v obshhestve potreblenija. VI Orehovskie chtenija: materialy Vseros. nauch. konf. (Omsk, 24 oktjabrja 2014 g.). Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2014. S. 133 – 137. (In Russ.).
Tabachkov A. S. Informacionnoe obshhestvo v kontekste istorii. [Which insured the society in the context of history]. J. Voprosy filosofii. 2014. № 10. S. 37 – 45. (In Russ.).
Shihardin N. V. Anri Lefevr o bjurokraticheskom obshhestve, kontroliruemom kons’jumerizmom. [Henri Lefebvre on the bureaucratic society of controlled consumerism]. J. Real’nost’. Chelovek. Kul’tura: transformacija bytija cheloveka v obshhestve potreblenija. VI Orehovskie chtenija: materialy Vseros. nauch. konf. (Omsk, 24 oktjabrja 2014 g.). Omsk: Izd-vo OmGPU, 2014. S. 173 – 17. (In Russ.)
Zizek S. Against Human Rights // New Left Review, 34, July-August 2005. P. 115 –131.
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Ilin, A. N. (2016) ’Consumerism as an Attribute of Neutralization of Social Relations and Political Activity’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, (4), pp. 5-18. Available at: https://www.socnp.ru/index.php/snsp/article/view/3224 (Accessed: 18May2024).
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