Phenomenon of consumption: From its historic understanding to its social impact

Abstract

El presente artículo muestra una contextualizacio?n histo?rica y sociolo?gica sobre el feno?meno del consumo, atendiendo a sus caracteri?sticas ma?s relevantes: por un lado, ser transversalizado, de distintas maneras, por la poli?tica, la religio?n y la educacio?n; por otro, la situacio?n evidente de haberse masificado en la contemporaneidad, merced a la perpetua bu?squeda del hombre de una individualidad, un factor identitario que lo distinga de todos sus pares. En el primer escenario se concluira? que no solo la publicidad y el mercadeo son responsables del surgimiento del consumo: su ge?nesis se localiza, de hecho, sobre la base de los Estados de Bienestar del modelo keynesiano. En el segundo, que por ma?s que el consumo es un feno?meno que se produce a todo lo largo y ancho del ciclo productivo, tanto el derecho, como la economi?a y el mercadeo, entienden que la relacio?n de consumo se produce solamente al final de dicho ciclo, de modo que su proteccio?n solo se propone a posteriori.

Palabras clave: Consumo, Consumismo, Historia del consumo, Estado de bienestar, Utilitarismo, Individualismo, Identidad.

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of the consumption taken from historical and societal point of view, considering the most relevant features such as: in one side, to be mainstreamed in different ways due to politics, religion and education; in the other hand the masses through the continuous searching for their individuality as an identifying factor that distinguishes themselves among their peers. As a first scenery, it will be concluded that not only advertising and marketing are responsible for the emergence of consumption: In fact, Keynesian model inspired on welfare states is its beginning. In the other hand, although the consumption is a phenomenon that happens along the productive cycle, all of them, the law, economy and marketing understand that the relation of consumption take place at the end of the above mentioned cycle specifically, it is therefore assumed that consumption protection only is proposed a posteriori.

Keywords: Consumption, Consumerism, History of consumption, Welfare state, Individualism, Identity.