Consumer Culture
Since Karl Marx argued the fetichization of goods and services made by the capitalistic economy,[1] consumer culture has often been accused of surrounding people with commodities and attracting them to identify with the objects they consume. They have been described as the over-worked and over-shaped consumers with no engagement in the civic life. Unlike this conventional criticism against the consumer culture and according to Michel de Certea, it can be said that the consumers do take part in the creation of social and cultural meanings by giving the commodities other meanings and using them in other way defined or thought by their producers. According to Michel de Certeat, “In a society that is increasingly written, organized by the power of modifying things and of reforming structures on the basis of scriptural models (whether scientific, economic, or political), transformed little by little into combined "texts" (be they administrative, urban, industrial, etc.), the binominal set production—consumption can often be replaced by its general equivalent and indicator, the binominal set writing—reading.”[2] That’s to say, the system of artefact (as a disordered text) will be given meaning by the reader (consumer), who fills his/her interpretation, and “creates something unknown in the space organized by their capacity for allowing an indefinite plurality of meanings.”[3] Thus, our world of consumer culture looks like a new novel (nouveau roman), a new cinema (nouveau cinéma) or a form of art with an open interpretation, which requires the active participation of the readers (consumers) to rewrite and reconceptualise it. The result will be a new work, which embodies a different meaning, transforming the consumer into an active producer-writer of social and cultural text.
1- http://archiv.sicetnon.org/artikel/historie/fetishism.htm
2- De Certeau, Michel. (1984) the Practice of Everyday Life. P.168.
3-- Ibid,P.170.
