从生产主义到消费主义:炫耀性消费研究述评

From Productionist to Consumerist:Review of the Theory of Conspicuous Consumption

一部人类历史,从一定程度上讲是一部消费史。然而,作为一种重要的社会事实,消费问题却长期受到社会学家的冷遇。直到19世纪中后期,情况才有所改观。凡勃伦在《有闲阶级论》中对美国刚刚成长起来的暴发户群体的消费行为进行了初步分析,在此基础上,他提出了"炫耀性消费"这一社会科学界内的不朽概念。本文中,笔者对凡勃伦的炫耀性消费思想作了简略的探讨;对生产主义和消费主义视角下的炫耀性消费研究进行系统的回顾;旨在指出过往研究中的不足并提倡开展本土化的炫耀性消费研究。

To some extent,the history of human beings is the history of consumption.Although being an important social fact,consumption had long been ignored by sociologists until the mid and late 19th century.In the Theory of the Leisure Class,Veblen gave a preliminary analysis of the consuming behaviors of the new American nouveaux riches,from which the perpetual sociological term of 'conspicuous consumption' was born.In this paper,the author first presented a brief introduction to Veblen's thoughts on conspicuous consumption.Then,the author gave a systematic review of the literature on conspicuous consumption from the productionist perspective and consumerist perspective,respectively.Finally,the author critiqued the limitations in the previous research and recommended indigenous research on conspicuous consumption.