Cultural turn

The renaissance of consumption studies in the 70s and 80s

The first wave of the sociological study of consumption can be associated with the work of Thorstein Veblen, Max Weber and Georg Simmel’s works on the turn of 19th and 20th century. However, after this first wave up until the seventies, consumption was a largely neglected topic of social and historical analysis. This article that the paradigm shift that became know as the cultural turn in the eighties, that involved the reassessment of Max Weber’s interpretative approach and action theory, played a significant role in the that the renaissance of consumption studies. Through the discussion of the translations published in this volume—by Marshall Sahlins, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel de Certeau and Jackson Lears—the trace the influence of the culture turn on consumption studies and show how the rediscovery of consumption contributed to novel ways of integrating culture into social science analysis.

Released: Replika 72, 7–16.