O CONSUMO DE LUXO. MAMÃ, HERMÉS E EU - UMA IDENTIDADE SOCIAL?

Abstract

The relevance of an investigation into Luxury Consumption is related to the realization of Social Distinction that conceives cultural differences. Starting from this point, this study aims to reflect on social actors and what leads them to seek a prestigious social status; an identity and image that this consumption of ostentation grants them, subjective cultures, lifestyles as external signs of class and projects that express narratives of meaning. This study is of unavoidable interest to anyone who wants to approach and understand the reproduction of class inequalities, the Tastes and Identity of social actors. Using dissimilar concepts such as habitus and class trajectories, it focuses on the symbolic elaboration of subjectivities, the structuring of lifestyles and their configurations of distinction. It is an approach focused on the upper classes of Portuguese society. An analysis in which socio-cultural and economic aspects are articulated. In a society that not only favors consumption over production, but also gives it an unbridled prominence as an element of social differentiation, consumption has become centered on the social meaning of goods. This is how individuals mark their positions in the social structure and make up their identities and lifestyles. This establishes a conditioning relationship between the amount of capital an individual has and their tastes. The consumer society is characterized by the paradox that it promises to satisfy human desires like no other society has been able to do, and that the seductive power of this promise only lasts if the subject is not completely satisfied.