The relevant reading is Lichtenberg s Consuming Because Others Consume , in which she cleverly shows that all consumption is a social act. Many sociologists believe social class is the most important division in society. There are two readings assigned for this topic. The Significance of Style describes how the preparation and consumption of food is used to mark class boundaries . Use this chapter to learn why the cost of food is not necessarily the main determinant of why people buy it.
Many sociologists believe gender is the most important division in society.
In a consumer society life revolves around commodities. Lecture 10 . Nothing is naturally a commodity. In this section we focus on an aspect of commodification crucial to modern marketing and the survival of modern capitalist economies - branding. If branding is all about image , then business competition takes place over images.