Organization Theory and Consumption in a Post-Modern Era

Abstract

In recent years, social theory has become increasingly concerned with consump tion and the changing nature of consumer society. By contrast, students of organizations have given only limited attention to the implications of consump tion and consumerism for the analysis of their subject matter. In the light of this, the paper considers the contribution that the sociology of organizations can and should make to discussions of consumption and associated debates concerning contemporary consumer society. Our argument is that since in contemporary societies, consumption is achieved through the mediation of organizations it fol lows that an adequate study of consumption can only be developed in conjunction with the sociology of organizations. However, it is also the case that the analysis of organizations must change if it is to take the issue of consumption seriously. By placing consumption more centrally in our analysis, the study of organizations is, in our view, forced to address current theoretical and empirical questions about the nature of modern (or is it post-modern?) society, a task that is sometimes ignored by organizational analysts but is implicit in the tradition of study deriving from Weber. The paper seeks to show how these changes open up fruitful new areas for the study of organizations and consumption and, in particular. questions concerning the nature of power and identity in modern societies.