Frankfort School Theory On Consumption Alienation

Consumption is a kind of human basic activity existing in any times. On contemporary, consumption has become the most active phenomenon in social life. Every field of social life is permeated with consumption, cannot run well without it and ever operates toward it. But there are still lots of problem which deserves introspection caused by consumption alienation. It firstly appeared after World War II, while America is the most prosperous country all over the world. Lately, the ghost of consumption alienation spreaded not only in western developed countries, but also in almost every developing country. The ideologists of Frankfurt school criticizes every field in the capitalism society using alienation as an important analyzing tool. They expand the analysis to the consuming field, having an acute insight into the reality of the consumption alienation of capitalism society and starting theoretical research on it. What this thesis is going to explore is the consumption alienation theory of Frankfurt school.This thesis starts with the concept of consumption alienation, reveals the theoretical origin of the consumption alienation theory, expounds its social and historical conditions, mainly discusses the disclosure and critic of the manifestations and hazards of consumption alienation in western industrial society and explores the approaches to sublate consumption alienation. Nowadays, consumption alienation has become an obvious society problem, the hazards it bring have become global issues that threaten the existing and further development of all the humankind. Therefore, on the background of financial crisis, the consumption alienation theory of Frankfurt school is not only being out of date, but also sending out dazzling spark. Especially while all the countries are using stimulating consumption as the main method to fuel economic growth, the consumption alienation theory of Frankfurt school is showing its innegligible theoretical and practical value.