Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste: Thorsten Veblens Theory of the Leisure Class
- Author:
- Professor Deborah Posel
- Subject:
- Social Sciences
- Institution Name:
- University of Cape Town
- Collection:
- University of Cape Town
- Grade Level:
- Post-secondary
- Abstract:
One of South Africa's most prominent sociologists, Professor Deborah Posel, gave this Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Questions lecture, discussing "Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste". Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class' conspicuous consumption of keeping up with the Joneses' describes the purchase of goods to show status or display wealt. Once more apparent within the nouveau riche or upper-income groups, recent research has indicated how conspicuous consumption is common in emerging economies where people buy to combat the impression that they are poor. Posel's lecture looks at the life and writings of the man who coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption' and the controversies he provoked as an intellectual and social maverick. Writing in the late nineteenth century, Veblen was an economist whose version of economics was unrecognizable to many of his peers, not least because he produced an account of the origins of conspicuous consumption lodged in the intersections of human instinct, culture gender and war. Deborah Posel is the founding Director of UCT's Institute for Humanities in Africa.
- Languages:
- English
- Material Type:
- Audio Lectures
- Media Format:
- Audio
- Conditions of Use:
- Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
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