Poly-scientific essence of the “consumption” category through the prism of its safety

Abstract

The transformation of economy and society of Ukraine especially in conditions of European integration makes goods and services consumption safety to become one of the prerequisites of state economic security. This is due to the intensification of intra-systemic threats from socio-economic and political crisis, the low purchasing power of the population, the saturation of the internal market with dangerous goods and services and their negative impact on the environment. In this case, the theoretical and methodological basis of consumption safety is imperfect. It is necessary to investigate the change of the essence of the concept of “consumption” in time and space and its relationship with safety category. The aim of research is to determine the features of ensuring safety of consumption as an object of study of various sciences. Methodology: theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the fundamental basics of security studies, economics, global science, philosophy, ecology, political science, consumption. To ensure the conceptual integrity of the study, the following methods have been used: theoretical generalization, comparison, dialectics, analysis and systematization; institutional analysis; brainstorming, office research. The scientific importance of the work is that the essential characteristics of the “consumption safety” category have been determined as: the structure, needs, nature of their satisfaction and interests, rationality and value orientation, connection with production and its purpose in economic terms; motivational factors, behavioral patterns, social conditions, mass culture and culture of consumption in sociological terms; features of consumer behavior, their individual selection criteria, form and models of consumption, methods of evaluation of goods in psychological terms; “green consumption”, “balance between man and nature”, “survival of man as a species” in ecological terms; the concept of “philosophy of security of consumption”, the society of consumption and consumerism, as its extreme form, which opposes the society of development in philosophical terms; the need to improve the institutional framework in political and legal terms. The value of the research is that it is increasingly necessary to overcome the threats of consumption safety as for individuals, so for states in sustainable development terms. JEL Classification: A13, E21, H56.