The Sociology Book

247

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■
Colin Campbell 234–35 ■ Theodor W. Adorno 335

WORK AND CONSUMERISM

making us who we are and how
they mediate in our relationships
and interactions with others.

Rethinking the house
Miller gives the example of his
own family home. The architectural
style and physical design, he says,
feed into and shape his identity
in relation to the property, but they
also affect the interactions with
and between family members.
His property retains “many
of the original features,” including
an oak staircase, fireplaces, and
window surrounds. These physical
and aesthetic features frame his
experience of and relationship
to the house, he says. For example,
his predilection for furniture and
design by the popular Swedish
furnishing store IKEA creates
a tension within him: he feels
that his taste for the modern,
clinical, and clean lines that are
characteristic of this brand means
that he has “demeaned” and
betrayed the house, that it deserves
someone with “better taste.” To
resolve this tension, he describes

how ongoing discussions with

family members enable him to

find a compromise with regard

to furnishing and decoration.

Miller claims that he and his

family imagine and relate to the

house as though it were a family

member, with a unique identity

and its own needs. His argument

here is that the materiality of the

house is not necessarily oppressive,

alienating, or divisive; on the

contrary, it not only positively

shapes the relationships of the

family to it, but also facilitates

interaction and increasing

solidarity between family members.

A counterbalance

Miller’s work is designed to provide

an alternative to the accounts of

consumerism given by Frankfurt

School thinkers such as Herbert

Marcuse and Theodor W. Adorno,

who read mass consumer

culture as “symptomatic of a

loss of depth in the world.” At a

time when the global economic

and environmental crises have

cast serious doubt over the

sustainability of a materialistic,

consumer culture, Miller’s work

is thought by many, including

sociologists Fernando Dominguez

Rubio and Elizabeth B. Silva, to

provide a provocative riposte to

views that denigrate material

culture in society. Miller’s ideas are

permeating sociological analysis

and inform part of the increasing

interest in the examination of

material objects (the “materiality

of cultural forms”), spearheaded by

French sociologist Bruno Latour. ■

Stuff... achieves its mastery

of us precisely because we

constantly fail to notice

what it does.

Daniel Miller

The denim phenomenon

Since 2007, British sociologist

Sophie Woodward, in collaboration

with Miller and other sociologists,

has been interested in blue denim

as a phenomenon of consumerism.

She suggests that despite being

available everywhere, denim

garments are often revered as

highly personal items, with which

their owners have an intimate

relationship—a favorite denim

jacket or pair of jeans, for example.

Drawing on ethnographic

studies of denim jeans as fashion

items throughout the world,

Woodward has found that the

appeal of denim is inextricably

bound up with the cultural

mores and frames of meaning

specific to particular locales. In

London, England, for example,

blue jeans are often used by

many different types of people

to resolve anxieties about

what to wear—their anonymity

and ubiquity protect the wearer

from negative judgement. In

Brazil, however, jeans are often

worn by women to emphasize

their sensuality.

Tight blue jeans are popular in

Brazil because they are thought to

enhance the natural curvature of

a woman’s buttocks.