A Study Of Bauman's Consumer Society Theory

Compared with the huge attention paid to production by the whole society,people's attention is now more focused on the theme of consumption.When it comes to consumption and how to consume to maximize the value of the experience,this has become an urgent issue for everyone.Since the 1980 s,the issues of consumerism and consumer society have attracted the attention of Bauman.In addition to the theoretical foundation of previous people,Bowman has constructed his own criticism of consumer society.Zygmunt Bauman's theory of consumer society reveals the great changes brought by the development of capitalism to the modern society.When the society changes from production type to consumption type,people's production and consumption also enter a new state.Consumption creates power for production and becomes a kind of reproduction.At the consumption level,“consumerism” has swept the world.Under the guidance of market and desire,consumers consume goods and discard wastes rapidly.In terms of production,people have always been proud to work hard under the admonition of work ethics.After entering the consumer society,encouraged by the consumer aesthetics,people's work and life like a game,without rules,only pursuing happiness.This replacement is based on the control of consumption on modern life,and the work ethic gradually loses its original restraint effect.Consumption has become the goal people are striving for.It must be said that consumer aesthetics not only brought ubiquitous crisis,made aesthetics secular under the impetus of commercialization.However,consumer aesthetics has not lost its aesthetic pursuit,and it still adheres to its original artistic pursuit and value theory.Bauman examines the consumer society at two levels: “work” and “consumption”.The consumer society's control of people is affected by the market and presents a “single-view prison” approach;the consumer aesthetics and “single-view” surveillance under the common action,the “new poor”suffers a lot.As the lowest level of production,they do not have enough consumption power to escape the fate of being rejected or even abandoned by modern society.Finally,this paper makes an objective comment on Baumann's theory of consumer society with a critical attitude.From the perspective of Marxist economics,this paper analyzes Bauman's neglect of production and his pessimistic view of consumption.At the same time,this theory provides a new theoretical basis for us to understand the current consumption problem and consumer situation.Bauman enriches the theory of alienation and flow of modernity,and deepens the understanding of the subject status of consumers.Combined with the current situation of consumption in China,Bauman's consumption ethics provides theoretical reference and practical basis for the analysis and interpretation of contemporary social phenomena.