socially central? All three of the previously
mentioned approaches would point to quantita-
tive and qualitative shifts over the modern
period. There is massively morematerial culture;
and, at the same time, the elaboration of that
material culture follows a hectic rhythm dictated
by the drive to increased sales and profits. Mod-
ern consumer culture is associated with a desta-
bilization of meanings within consumption and
with the instrumentalization of these meanings
through functionally differentiated market insti-
tutions such as advertising and marketing, mass
media and design.
The most important contemporary accounts of
this transformation address it by way of a con-
trast between traditional and post-traditional
social orders. As noted above, traditional con-
sumption is associated with a stability due to
regulation by tradition and a fixed status order,
often formalized in explicit sumptuary laws. Key
aspects of consumption such as food, housing
and dress are determined not by individual
choice but by custom and ascribed status. Moder-
nity is then associated with something like an
institutionalized identity crisis in status orders;
people’s positions within them and ways of sig-
nifying those positions through lifestyles are all
rendered unstable. Giddens (1991), for example,
points to features such as methodical doubt of all
authority and knowledge, the plurality of life-
worlds that individuals must negotiate in their
daily lives, the increasing mediation of possible
lifestyles as conveyed through public representa-
tions, and the absence of fixed and ascribed iden-
tities. In such conditions, as Giddens puts it,
‘We have no choice but to choose’ (1991: 81).
Indeed, as a requirement of modern social life
we have to forge identities through the
production of ‘reflexive narratives of the self’,
the constitution of coherent identities by all
means available. These include the patterns of
consumption that are provisionally fixed into
relatively stable ‘lifestyles’ and public represen-
tations of lifestyles (by individuals, public
authorities and media representations, including
advertising).
Unsurprisingly, this instability of meaning,
identity and consumption is associated with
heightened anxiety over consumption choices
which – as choices – are both problematic and yet
read as profoundly expressive of a choosing self:
we do not know what choices are ‘right’, but we
know that any choice will be interpreted as a
moral comment on who we think we are (but see
also Warde, 1994a; 1994b). For example, a great
deal of research focuses on what Featherstone(1991) describes as the production of an ‘outer
body’ or appearance through bodily regimes
such as dieting, exercise and cosmetic transfor-
mation, including surgery (see also Finkelstein,
1991). Failure in such disciplinary regimes of
consumption (e.g. being overweight) deeply
implicates the moral and social worth of the self;
and yet diet regimes and ideal body shapes
change rapidly, and conflicting imperatives and
advice coexist. The depth of this identity crisis
and consumption anxiety has often been associ-
ated with deeper social pathologies of the
modern personality ‘type’. Riesman’s (1961)
account of the other-directed self, Lasch’s
(1979) critique of the narcissistic personality,
and Sennett’s (1977) critique of the modern
injunction to ‘be authentic’ under conditions of
constant performance, are all diagnoses of the
modern attachment of the truth of the self to the
consumerist surface of its body, appearance and
style of life. In a related vein, Daniel Bell (1979)
summed up a tradition of reading consumption
as the focal point of a ‘hedonistic ethic’ that
undermines a more traditional and early modern
ethics of the self grounded in character, religion
and work.Status, semiotics and postmodernismThis version of modernity emphasizes the
contrast with traditional order, particularly
around the fixity of individual identity and
status. This is an old theme, often captured by
notions such as ‘status symbol’ and ‘conspicu-
ous consumption’, both terms from Veblen
(1899) who was pointing out the strategic role
of consumption and leisure practices in estab-
lishing social distinction under conditions of
social mobility, mainly within the context of an
ever-rising middle class. For Veblen, the entire
point of a status symbol was that it was a pure
sign: such things as immaculate etiquette or
exquisite taste in antiques served no function
whatsoever but merely indicated that one had
the wealth, and therefore leisure, to do no use-
ful work and to devote oneself to being well
bred. Consumption was the site on which to sig-
nalthis, and was therefore a marker of pure dif-
ference. The dynamic of consumption was
given by a process of emulation and devalua-
tion: rising middle classes attempted to ape
these consumption symbols, which conse-
quently lost their value – and had to be replaced
by new status symbols – as they no longer
signified distinction.154 THE CULTURE OF ECONOMY3029-ch07.qxd 03-10-02 10:46 AM Page 154