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Consumption Patterns and Middles Strata: Bulgaria and Japan PECOB’S VOLUMES ISBN: 978-88-96951-07-1 Consumption patterns and middles strata: Bulgaria and Japan Maya Keliyan Portal on Central Eastern and Balkan Europe University of Bologna - Forlì Campus www.pecob.eu Consumption patterns and middle strata: Bulgarian and Japan 2 3 Table of Contents Abstract................................................................7 Keywords..............................................................8 Introduction..........................................................9 Chapter one: consuption patterns and social strati- fication ................................................................18 Consumption patterns and middle strata: 1. Consumption patterns: a new postmodern “key” for under- standing contemporary societies....................................18 Bulgaria and Japan 2. Consumption: the Development and Typology of Meth- ods and Approaches to the Study of Consumption ...........26 3. Consumption and Lifestyle : Consumption patterns......36 4. The middle strata and contemporary consumption ....50 MAYA KELIYAN Chapter two: consumption patterns, social - structur- 2012 al..........................................................................62 Transformations, and middle strata patterns of develop- ment in Bulgaria ..........................................................62 1. Consumption and social structuring in bulgaria during communism..................................................................63 2. Consumption patterns in post-communist Bulgaria and the importance of the middle strata as consumers..........71 | (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ www.pecob.eu | PECOB’s volumes Consumption patterns and middle strata: Bulgarian and Japan 4 5 3. The middle strata in the formation of bulgarian consumer society..........................................................................95 Chapter three: the middle strata in Japanese con- sumer society. ....................................................117 Abstract 1. Japanese consumption patterns: basic characteristics, stages, defining trends, and the role of the middle stra- ta...............................................................................117 The goal of the dissertation is by studying consumption patterns, to establish the general and specific characteristics and trends of Bulgarian and Japanese society, the place and role of their middle strata in these two consumer societies. 2. Development, establishment, and particularities of the Consumption is accepted as a key to understanding our day societies and their Japanese middle strata consumption patterns: the consum- social structures, peculiarities and transformations. Despite the obvious differences, er universe of the department store...............................139 there are also important common points between Bulgaria and Japan. There have been processes of “late” and “state-conducted” modernizations similar in nature, orientation, and objectives, in the third quarter of the 19th century and again after 1945. Also similar 3. The Japanese middle strata.......................................147 are the trends in social structuring during these historical periods and the models of recruitment and development of the different social strata. Japanese consumption 4. Changes in Japanese society and in the consumption pat- patterns are exemplary for postmodern lifestyle and Bulgarian consumption patterns terns of the middle strata in the late 20th and early 21st centu- are very descriptive for post-communist socio-structural changes. ry...............................................................................161 In the text use is made of a new and specific methodological approach to the consumption patterns, which lies in the research field of social stratification theories. Consumption patterns are seen as leading indicator of social status and position of CONCLUSION....................................................175 different social groups and strata in contemporary societies. They are used as a research tool for comparative study of contemporary societies situated at various stages of development. Middle classes, due to their particular position and importance in REFERENCES......................................................180 contemporary world, have asserted themselves as social groups formation that perform an innovative, active, and stabilizing role in contemporary societies with respect to the All web resources were accessed in the end of April, lifestyle. 2013...................................................................197 The study traces the Bulgarian and Japanese socio-structural changes after WWII, focusing on post-communist and postmodern consumption and lifestyle peculiarities. Consumption patterns of various social groups, categories and strata in Bulgaria and Web resources:............................................................197 Japan are investigated, paying special attention to middle strata and to their lifestyle. The dissertation ends with conclusion that in post-communist Bulgaria, like in postmodern Japan, consumption patterns are becoming an increasingly important indicator of social stratification. The Bulgarian middle classes are clearly becoming the main bearers of trends that draw us closer to lifestyle in Japan with their orientation to information technologies, leisure, communication and a healthy way of life. The rich statistical information, as well as the results of numerous empirical sociological surveys conducted in Bulgaria and Japan, some of them by the author, have been analyzed in the work. The data are presented in various figures, tables and | (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ www.pecob.eu | PECOB’s volumes Consumption patterns and middle strata: Bulgarian and Japan 6 7 graphs. Introduction Keywords Consumption plays a leading and decisive role in today’s global world: by their very nature, developed societies are consumer societies. After a certain level of Consumption, Consumption Patterns, Middle Strata, Lifestyle, Postmodern society, material and economic prosperity is attained, and with the transition from modern Bulgaria, Japan. to postmodern, societies enter a new historical era, in which new dependencies prevail: among these, consumption plays a significant role for “economic freedom”, for growth, and for our understanding of the nature of the society. That is why the new importance attached to the factor of consumption is linked to the birth of postmodern society. Since consumption did not play this structure-determining role before the emergence of this new type of society, it should be stressed that it now has a new social significance that it did not, and could not, previously have. Among the leading structure-determining characteristics of postmodern society are its large middle strata, firmly present in society, which are emblematic and specially important for modern consumption. Without their active, innovative role as consumers, no consumer society would be possible. Moreover, the birth and development of this society are linked to the growth and stabilization of the middle strata. But what is the role of consumption in post-communist Bulgarian society, what is its significance here, where the phenomenon we are discussing has not yet acquired the typical characteristics it possesses in highly developed societies, and where the middle strata have not attained breadth and stability? Are the trends observable since the late 1960s in developed market societies, in force in Bulgaria as well? After 1989 Bulgaria underwent major changes. The country became a member of NATO in 2004 and of the European Union in 2007, and it is becoming increasingly global and open to the world. Consumption in Bulgaria is obviously marked by restrictions and poverty, by wide social inequalities and difference. But other trends are present that are identical to those in the most developed societies. For instance, information technologies are coming in strong, digitalization is spreading, and environmentalist values and lifestyle are slowly but perceptibly winning a place in society. The middle strata consumers are increasingly visible in public space – and these are the social groups among which the above-mentioned consumer trends are most clearly evident. The consumer centers1 of the leisure class2 can also be seen appearing here, and certain social groups explicitly 1 Such as luxury hotels or spa complexes, gated neighborhoods, luxury cars, boutiques of world de- 2 signer firms, malls, luxury goods exhibits, etc. | (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ www.pecob.eu | PECOB’s volumes Thorstein Veblen, 1899/1994. Consumption patterns and middle strata: Bulgarian and Japan 8 9 profess consumer values and maintain a lifestyle dominated by those values. Hence and the main trends of development of each of these societies, leading to conclusions the challenge to social scientists is to ask, and seek to answer, the question as to how about their general similarities and differences. similar consumption in present-day Bulgarian society is to consumption in developed 5. To reveal the particularities of the consumer behavior, consumer status, and postmodern societies. Reasoning on this question would draw attention to the integrative consumer culture of the middle strata as compared with those of other social-structural role of consumption in the world of today. It not only differentiates individuals, groups,
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