Leisure Class Research Articles

A interpretação marginalista do consumo conspícuo: inconsistências e limitações da síntese neoclássica da Teoria da Classe Ociosa

Resumo A teoria do consumo conspícuo é um elemento da construção teórica Vebleniana elaborada originalmente em seu primeiro livro A Teoria da Classe Ociosa. O termo é entendido como o padrão de consumo (especialmente) da classe ociosa usado como símbolo de status, demonstração de prestígio individual e de distinção social. Assim sendo, apresenta um importante componente cultural em que as preferências são formadas endogenamente, sendo emulado pelas outras classes, tornando-se, portanto, um comportamento socializado. Em meados do século XX, esta ideia geral de que classes mais ricas procuram demonstrar riqueza através do consumo de bens de luxo foi absorvida pela microeconomia convencional. O objetivo deste artigo é examinar as características gerais do conceito Vebleniano e demonstrar as inconsistências e limitações de sua “neoclassização”. Conclui-se que sua interpretação neoclássica implicou em determinadas abstrações que viesaram a proposta original do autor institucionalista.

Veblen, Veblenian Social Practices, and Prosperity Theology

:At the turn of the twentieth century (1910), Veblen published an essay which explored the relationship between Christianity and capitalism by focusing on the interaction between the two institutions as they evolved. Veblen’s analysis begins by detailing the evolution of Christianity prior to the age of industrialized capitalism, after which he explores the evolutionary interplay between the two. Just over ten years prior to the publication of this essay (1899), Veblen published the Theory of the Leisure Class while over ten years after the publication of the essay (1923), Veblen dissected the sales efforts of Christianity in a note titled “Salesmanship and the Churches.” Nearly 100 years later, these three works together explain a modern and distinctly American religious movement—Prosperity Theology. This research argues that Prosperity Theology as practiced in the United States over the past nearly half century embodies and integrates all three of these works by Veblen and proposes the conceptual term “Veblenian Social Practice.”

George Mortimer Pullman, nineteenth century marketer

PurposeGeorge Mortimer Pullman (1831-1897), nineteenth century US luxury rail car entrepreneur, divides opinion. Some commemorate Pullman as a brilliant industrialist, innovator and self-made man. Others view him as a loathsome robber baron, union buster, racist and affront to democracy. This paper aims to demonstrate Pullman’s significant contribution to marketing.Design/methodology/approachHistorical accounts of Pullman are re-examined to highlight his company’s unique adaptation of numerous marketing techniques (consumer research, brand strategy, public relations, product launch, fashion cycle, advertising, product placement and customer service marketing).FindingsPullman’s distinct flair for understanding his market enabled him to develop marketing strategies intertwined with broader cultural changes in ideals and practices. Pullman’s construction of destination tourism met an expanding white middle class desire for recreation and escape from the economic and racial inequality of the city. Pullman’s creed that beauty acted as a civilizing agent spoke to the social norms of leisure class femininity. Constant release of ever-grander rail cars shaped a fashion cycle around which wealthy men’s status competition turned. Pullman pioneered the leasing of luxury to control his best asset: the service of black Porters’.Originality/valueFirst, this paper provides a new perspective on George Pullman, a significant figure in US history. Second, it addresses a common bias in nineteenth century historical accounts that privilege the contribution of men, industrial labor and production and shadow the role of consumption, women and leisure. Third, it challenges the idea of a clean divide between industrial and post-industrial economies by tracing contemporary consumer culture practices to their nineteenth century roots (marketing, destination tourism, brand stories, democratization of fashion, tipping and service with a smile).

국내⋅외 액티브에이징 정책 비교와 리듬운동의 실현

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the maturity of Korean senior welfare policy by investigating on senior’s life status and social expenditure on senior’s welfare, and comparing it with the practice of active ageing policy over other countries in two aspects, governmental support for old-age employment and social activities. The research method is literature reviews on the precedent studies and the reports issued by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Ministry of Health and Welfare in Korea, WHO, EU, UN and OECD. The result of this study is that Korean senior health and welfare policy for active and healthy senior life reflects many important criteria of the active ageing policy, and that Korea is already a worldly recognized country of well-founded senior welfare policy with old-age employment project by Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the aged and nation-wide life-long education centers and leisure class. Some suggestions for further development of Korean senior welfare policy are to hold campaigns for perception improvement on old-age employment and to adopt company’s incentive policy for hiring seniors like European countries as well as to launch more rhythm exercise programs through life-long education centers.

Pericles in the Jazz Age

Abstract Compromised by an abstruse plot circling around a specious bet involving far too many characters, “Six of One—” has been traditionally dismissed as an imperfect and flimsy story and has only rarely attracted the attention of literary critics. Yet a closer look at the variegated references to ancient Greek art and history F. Scott Fitzgerald has cleverly strewn across the story may yet reveal a more coherent and sophisticated project. This article considers the apparently casual reference that one character makes to the Periclean Age, that is, when Athens reached its peak, the starting point of a subtle itinerary that allows us to read “Six of One—” as both a commentary on the assumed softness of the Jazz Age generation and an indictment of the ever-immoral leisure class. The final section of the article discusses Fitzgerald's allusions in the story to Theodore Roosevelt's belief in the educational benefits of athletic brutality—football and rough games—as a definitive test of manhood for the “ornamental” youths of the 1920s.

Branding: A Prosthesis of Identity

This article investigates the prosthesis of identity through the process of branding. It examines cross-cultural manifestations of this phenomena from sixth millennium BCE Syria to twelfth century Japan and Britain. From the Neolithic Era, humanity has sort to extend their identities using pictorial signs that were characteristically simple. Designed to be distinctive and instantly recognisable, the totemic symbols served to signal the origin of the bearer. Subsequently, the development of branding coincided with periods of increased in mobility both in respect to geography and social strata. This includes fifth millennium Mesopotamia, nineteenth century Britain, and America during the 1920s. There are fewer articles of greater influence on contemporary culture than A Theory of Human Motivation written by Abraham Maslow in 1943. Nearly seventy-five years later, his theories about the societal need for “belongingness” and “esteem” remain a mainstay of advertising campaigns (Maslow). Although the principles are used to sell a broad range of products from shampoo to breakfast cereal they are epitomised by apparel. This is with refence to garments and accessories bearing corporation logos. Whereas other purchased items, imbued with abstract products, are intended for personal consumption the public display of these symbols may be interpreted as a form of signalling. The intention of the wearers is to literally seek the fulfilment of the aforementioned social needs.

Reshaping the Future of Nepal’s Economy

Nepal’s economy has not been of any great success and satisfactory. Nepal has encountered inherent development constraint, which includes poverty; widening income inequality; unemployment and underemployment; rise in leisure class; decrease in production and productivity, capital flight; extensive corruption; absence of rule of law and order; institutionalized crime, BOP deficit, environmental degradation etc. The failures in economy have been more than the achievements and the problems created have been more than the problems solved, so ordinary people are unable to get the fruit of development. In these years every one use to feel development works do not seem satisfactory related to rapid increase in the economic problem normally day by day plus especially after the pandemic. However, it does not mean Nepal’s economy is heading towards wrong direction and we should abandon the path of economy. But the pace of heading is slow. So, for the reshaping the economy the Government need to be more liberal as well as strict where production, income and employment can be increased and be more watchful in disciplining both private and public sector and use of PPPs model for improving its efficiency especially in agriculture sector.

“Little Theater” in Twenty-First-Century China

This article provides an overview of China’s little theater since the turn of the millennium, arguing that present changes must substantially be considered in terms of responses of troupes and playwrights to the present commercial challenges faced by spoken theater troupes. By and large these shifts can be identified as part of popularization or fashionability. Specific strategies include attracting white-collar audiences with plots focused on romantic and extramarital embroilments, the challenges of technology, and an emphasis on the styles and trends of the leisure class. Formal experimentation is combined with genre plurality and a fragmentation of consciousness that is drawn from web culture. Highlighted cases include the Beijing Youth Theatre Festival and the little theater productions of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre.

When do high prices lead to purchase intention? Testing two layers of moderation effects

Purpose Most marketing practices assume that consumers will buy when prices are low. This assumption, however, may not always hold true. Employing equity theory and Veblen’s theory of the leisure class, this study tested two moderating effects to ascertain the relationship between perceived price and purchase intention. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the relationship between perceived price and willingness to purchase; second, to discover the effects of two moderators (perceived price fairness and vanity) on this relationship; and third, to compare how these moderating effects differ by consumers’ brand familiarity. Design/methodology/approach A total of 287 usable data sets were collected from college students in the southeastern region of the USA. Findings The findings showed no negative relationship between perceived price and willingness to purchase. Only perceived price fairness was found to moderate the perceived price–purchase intention relationship. Furthermore, the moderating effect of price fairness was only confirmed in the high brand familiarity group, while the moderating effect of vanity was only confirmed in the low brand familiarity group. Research limitations/implications Generalization of the findings is cautioned because findings may vary by demographic backgrounds. Practical implications Since purchase intention increases when price is fair even though price is high, marketers should put efforts into promoting and creating the perception of fair price of their products and brands. Originality/value This study extends price perception research by incorporating two theories (equity theory and Veblen’s theory of the leisure class) that help further elaborate the relationship between perceived price and willingness to purchase.

The theory of the leisure class: an economic study of institutions

As a holistic approach to economic theory, Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class was one of the most thorough. Originally published in 1899, the book was unlike much of the economic li...

Dissent Dressing: The Colour and Fabric of Political Rage

Dissent Dressing: The Colour and Fabric of Political Rage

Of the Unit Ideas in the Sociology of Leisure

Robert Nisbet, in The Sociological Tradition (1966), used the concept of unit-ideas in analyzing the sociological thought of the past and present. Unit-ideas are focal social concerns that generated and continue to invite conflicting interpretations, giving sociological thought its continuity and coherence. As examples of unit-ideas in the 19th century sociology, Nisbet listed alienation, the role of the community, relationship between the sacred and the secular. Several criteria need to be met, according to Nisbet, to qualify as unit-ideas. These ideas must have generality, be relevant to the present and the past, and be discernable in the works of the towering minds of an age. As well, unit-ideas must be specific for the given area of study and combine insight with observation (p. 5). In this article, an attempt will be made to apply Nisbet’s notion of unit-ideas to the historical study of leisure and labor, the two concepts that, in Bennett Berger’s words, “have sociological meaning only vis-à-vis each other.” (p. 28)Analysis of issues dominating the study of leisure and labor shows that discussion involving these phenomena centered historically upon several key and controversial issues such as: (1) the role of leisure and labor in forming human identity; (2) leisure and labor as stimuli of social change; (3) leisure’s and play’s role as sources of social stability; (4) leisure’s impact on the deepening or toning down of social inequalities; (5) division of labor and its alienating effects on leisure (spillover or compensation?); (6) future trends in the allocation of leisure time (will we live in a ‘society of leisure’ or of the ‘harried leisure class”?), and (7) leisure’s and labor’s contribution to subjective well-being (swb). While most of these issues fall predominantly into the domain of sociological inquiry, the interest in the relationship between leisure and swb is shared by sociology and social psychology.The first three unit-ideas (leisure as a source of human identity, social stability and a stimulus of change), have been examined in the literature mostly from the historical and anthropological perspectives. The conflicting views about the alienating effects of labor, the stratification implications of leisure, the direction of leisure trends, and the well-being corelates of leisure have been subject of conceptual discourse as well as empirical examination.My motivation for examining work-leisure relationships from the unit-ideas perspective is two-fold. I intend to show that these relationships are multifaceted and change with historical circumstances. I will refrain from the role of an arbiter, while discussing controversies surrounding the unit-ideas of leisure,’ and will leave their overall assessment to the concluding part of the article, showing there how these ideas reflect the “l’esprit du temps” (Zeitgeist), as well as ideological positioning of individual authors within it. In the concluding part, I will also address my second concern - the ‘partisan” or ‘lobbying’ position with regard to leisure often taken by leisure researchers. Leisure, to me, is a formidable challenge, but not necessarily a universal cure. The dividing line of the pros and the cons does not run between leisure and labor but within them. This is what this article will try to demonstrate.

Why Has the Critique of the Leisure Class Run out of Steam? Matters of Fact and Matters of Concern

The article analyzes the conceptual and historical prerequisites for the transition from the classical theory of leisure to modern leisure studies. Its central question is what “matters of fact” and “matters of concern” have had the greatest impact on the formation of the new research agenda. The first part of the article reconstructs Veblen’s conceptualization of the leisure class, which is associated with extensive free time, specific types of leisure, demonstrative consumption of the output from productive work, and the elevated socio-economic status that a particular group attains by following the conventions of a “prestigious” lifestyle. It is argued that the focus on stable, reproducible patterns of behavior in the upper class neglected the distinction between newer leisure practices, as well as the stratified diffusion of leisure time. The author describes three exogenous factors that have undercut the traditional understanding of leisure in the social sciences: the transformation of the temporal structure of work and leisure as a result of the broad penetration of digital technologies; the blurring of the boundaries between workspaces and recreational areas; and the transformation of the resources for economic interactions and of the system for conversion to various types of capital in the labor market. Changes in the basic criteria for a leisure lifestyle have exposed problems with Veblen’s intuitions and have led to the emergence of new disciplinary coalitions. In conclusion, the article deals with the problem of how to describe the modern leisure class. This is a question of whether the emergence of alternative leisure practices provides a sufficient basis for the identification of new leisure groups and of what would constitute a necessary condition for revamping the sociology of leisure.

The Rhetoric of Institutionalism: Thorstein Veblen’s Irony

The article centers on the rhetoric of Thorstein Veblen, who combined economic, sociological and anthropological approaches in an organic way. The paper emphasizes the importance and heuristic significance of Veblen’s use of the trope of irony. An ironic stance buttresses his critique of the status quo and promotes an understanding of the socio-economic structure as complex, controversial and sometimes absurd. The article highlights the examples and themes that Veblen described with recourse to irony. Irony accompanies his criticism of the status quo, and it appears in his account of such phenomena as the leisure class, business culture, higher education, modern Western civilization as epitomized by America, and in his exposure of the postulates and hidden ideologies of mainstream economics.The author shows that Veblen’s followers took his irony as an idiosyncrasy typical for someone descended from Norwegian farmers, while the tropes themselves were usually unfavorably contrasted with serious research, i.e. that side of his heritage was regarded as a caprice that interfered with later recognition of Veblen’s merit. The article intends to demonstrate exactly the opposite by calling attention to irony in the social sciences and showing its significance for them. Irony as a negative and multifaceted characterization of reality better reflects the phenomena themselves with their inherent paradoxes and complexity. Irony assists us in keeping a proper distance from the intensity of a description and in revealing socio-economic processes with all their dynamics and contradictions. It is the ironic that makes Veblen’s heritage relevant after all.

Feasting in a time of famine: The English Premier League, ‘conspicuous consumption’ and the politics of austerity

Since 2010, successive Conservative-led governments have imposed a series of austerity measures in an attempt to curb levels of public spending and bring Britain’s national deficit back ‘under control’. Despite this political imperative, however, there remains within certain areas of economic and social life, a persistence of what Thorstein Veblen famously termed ‘conspicuous consumption’. The English Premier League is, I argue here, one such example, and this article offers a reworking of Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class to explore some of the ways in which England’s elite football clubs have continued to demonstrate a ‘propensity for emulation’ and ‘conspicuous consumption’, specifically, by spending considerable sums acquiring new players and redeveloping their stadiums. Under these conditions of public austerity, the private wealth of English football’s global leisure class has soared, leaving these clubs disembedded from their predominately working-class neighbourhoods, and the self-same communities that have borne the brunt of these government cuts and welfare reforms. Precarity, economic anxiety and acute social vulnerability are now everyday experiences for those living in the shadows of England’s wealthiest clubs. Politically too, however, this is also significant since the sealing-off of this leisure class reveals the limits of austerity itself. Exposing it as an ideological choice rather than ‘economic necessity’, these class relations demonstrate in stark terms that ‘we’ as a nation – let alone ‘a football nation’ – are not ‘all in this together’. Cut adrift from the clubs that they historically sustained, these communities have been left to navigate this latest crisis of capitalism alone.

Mill’s closet: J.S. Mill on solitude and the imperfect democracy

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the role solitude played in John Stuart Mill’s political thought. By doing so, it challenges contemporary appropriations of Mill’s thought by participatory, deliberative and epistemic theories of democracy. Mill considered solitude to be contrary to political participation and public debate, but nonetheless regarded it as essential for democracy and for intellectual progress. Since the early 1830s Mill began developing an idea of solitude while simultaneously forming a particular kind of a democratic model which I refer to as ‘imperfect democracy’. According to this model, democracy is restrained by non-democratic elements which offer a contrary spirit and are not incorporated by democracy. At first Mill believed the ‘leisured class’ would fulfil this task, but later considered solitude as a possible solution. This paper follows the way in which these ideas were crystallised in Mill’s thought, and by doing so offers a novel interpretation of Mill’s political thought and his nuanced understanding of solitude, political participation and democracy.

Consumers’ prestige-seeking behavior in premium food markets: Application of the theory of the leisure class

Premium food markets have emerged as a new form of foodservice establishment. They feature a unique eating and shopping experience that offers a wide variety of high-quality food in a sophisticated environment with distinctive consumer services. Based on the theory of the leisure class, this study explored how consumers’ prestige values influence their behavioral intentions, particularly their customer citizenship behavioral intention and revisit intentions, toward premium food markets. The study sample included customers who have shopped at premium food markets. Using a self-administered survey, 247 valid responses were obtained for analysis. The results showed the positive effects of prestige values on affective commitment and the positive influences of affective commitment on customer citizenship behavioral intention and revisit intention. This study significantly extends prestige-consumption knowledge in the foodservice and hospitality industries.

The Making of The Tourist1

The author reflects on the historical context and intellectual and institutional foundations for his (1976) study The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, especially its connections to classic social and critical theory, and its fit with post structuralism and deconstruction. The influence of Marx, Durkheim, C.S. Peirce, Barthes, Levi-Strauss, Goffman and Derrida are discussed. The method of The Tourist is to follow tourists looking for clues about the shape and direction of human society today. Its approach is antithetical to the domain fragmentation occurring in the university whereby knowledge of society is broken up and distributed across disconnected fields such as women’s studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, communication studies, et cetera. As tourists cross all these domains they open new pathways toward holistic understanding of emergent societal arrangements. The final section addresses misreadings of the author’s concepts of “alienated leisure” and “staged authenticity.”

Ethics and Tourism: In dialogue with Dean MacCannell

For several decades, tourism has mainly been identified as an activity that helps people escape their everyday routines, contributes to understanding between cultures, and promotes economic wellbeing. These assumptions have been questioned in both the public sphere and academic research, however. In this context, tourism research is increasingly drawing on ethical frameworks to support its criticism of tourism. Some of the most outstanding research on this issue is by Dean MacCannell, Emeritus Professor at the University of California at Davis and author of one of the seminal works of the social theory of tourism: The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (1976). MacCannell examines the moral and ethical aspects of tourism in all his writing, but they are the focal point of his book The Ethics of Sightseeing (2011), in which he identifies the tourists’ responsibility to mediate between their understanding of their own pleasure and the ethical repercussions of the late modern imperative, “Enjoy!”. During the Touriscape congress in Malaga, Spain, in February 2018, MacCannell talked about ethics and tourism with José Luis López, who prepared this interview for Recerca.

Cather’s O PIONEERS! and Veblen’s THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS

In 1985, when American Heritage magazine asked critic Jonathan Yardley to name 10 books that shaped the American character, one of his choices was Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class...