Conspicuous Consumption as Routine Expenditure and its Place in the Social Provisioning Process

Abstract

The article utilizes the framework of social provisioning to argue that conspicuous consumption is an essential process of capitalism, and should be explored as a routine practice rather than an exceptional behavior. The objectives are: 1) to discuss conspicuous consumption as a process within a heterodox social provisioning framework; and 2) to emphasize the need for formulating theoretical concepts and discussions that are consistent with heterodox frameworks such as social provisioning.

A interpretação marginalista do consumo conspícuo: inconsistências e limitações da síntese neoclássica da Teoria da Classe Ociosa

“…Ainda com relação às limitações e inconsistências que surgem ao tratar o consumo conspícuo sem considerar a importância do componente social e cultural, Todorova (2013Todorova ( , p. 1999) aponta mais alguns aspectos importantes da proposta Vebleniana. Segundo ela, o debate institucionalista sobre consumo envolve rotinas e a formação de hábitos, portanto está necessariamente articulado com a estrutura social.…”

Political-Economic Coalition among Entrepreneurs, Professionals, and Cadres in Guangdong, China

“…Such a middle tier is not a middle class in the conventional, materialist sense, which precludes entrepreneurs because of their possession of capital (Ebert and Zavarzadeh 2008). Chinese entrepreneurs, as well as cadres and professionals, albeit powerful economically and politically, are not powerful enough to make them the ruling class (Todorova 2013). Notably, the cadres form bureaucratic factions within an authoritarian structure to appropriate their particular privileges (Paltemaa 2007).…”

“…One possibility is for the middle tier to disfavor the democratic political reform in order to preserve the interests of the constituents (Y. Guo 2012; Todorova 2013). Another, contradictory possibility is for the middle tier to activate the political reform in order to upgrade status, power, and benefits for the constituents (H. Li 2006; F. Shi 2014).…”