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changing contexts

consumer culture

Western culture is not only a network society, but it is also a consumer

culture. Where previous generations found their identity in what they

produced, we now find our identity in what we consume. We have moved

from a society that shaped its members primarily as producers   those who

believed in progress and in producing something that contributed to the

better life that was certain to come through education and hard work   to 

a society that shapes its members first and foremost by the need to play

the role of consumer.

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Where once Westerners might have found their identity, their social

togetherness and the ongoing life of their society in the area of

production, these are today increasingly found through consumption. 

It's not that companies are producing less, or that people no longer

work. Rather the meaning of these activities has altered. We are what

we buy. We relate to others who consume the same way that we do.

And the overarching system of capitalism is fuelled by consumption, 

and geared to stimulating consumption.

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The core value of society has moved from `progress' to `choice'   the

absolute right of freedom to choose. `Choice lies at the centre of

consumerism, both as its emblem and as its core value.'

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In this society

everyone becomes a consumer.

The amount of money available to individuals for consumption varies

enormously, but virtually everyone today is a consumer to some degree.

The poor have fewer resources than the rich, most ethnic and racial

minority groups have much less to spend than members of the majority,

children have fewer means than adults, and so on, but all are

enmeshed in the consumer culture. Even those who live on the streets

survive off the discards and charity of that wildly affluent culture.

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Furthermore, everything becomes a consumer choice. Central to the future

is the idea of `personalized scale'   `it must fit me exactly'.

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The world will

be organized around giving people the sense, or perhaps the illusion, that

they can have whatever they want. In the future, this approach to life will

not just apply to consumer goods   it will be applied to all aspects of life. 

It is predicted that by 2020 personalized scale will also apply to health

care, educational provision, patterns of work, of association and

relationships, and of course to religion.

The sweeping changes in society . . . mean that we are more mobile,

more urban, more individualistic and more critical than previous

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