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Henri Lefebvre's Criticism of Symbol Consumption Alienation in the Context of Everyday Life

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Henri Lefebvre's Criticism of Symbol Consumption Alienation in the Context of Everyday Life Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 152 International Conference on Social science, Education and Humanities Research (ICSEHR 2017) Henri Lefebvre’s Criticism of Symbol Consumption Alienation in the Context of Everyday Life Xiaying Lv School of Marxism, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China e-mail: [email protected] Abstract—Lefebvre believes that the phenomenons of society of controlled consumption” refers to the capitalist alienation are not disappeared in modern times, but develops bureaucratic society which is enslaved and controlled by the more new patterns. Capitalism is a comprehensive alienation bourgeoisie through the everyday life platform to control of life, which is most vividly reflected in the consumption field. people's daily living consumption and to use the symbol as a At the same time, consumption alienation has transcended means. In “the bureaucratic society of controlled labor alienation and become the main performance of consumption”, people cannot make their own consumption alienation in the modern world. The critique of consumption behavior, because the bourgeoisie in the capitalist society alienation based on the context of everyday life opens up a will use the mass media to regulate the consumption of critical perspective of the symbolic consumption alienation, people. thus creating a new perspective for the criticism of II. THE REALISTIC FIELD OF CONSUMPTION ALIENATION: consumption alienation. Faced with the social reality of EVERYDAY LIFE AND ITS “SUB-SYSTEM” controlled consumption by the symbol, Lefebvre seeks to change through cultural revolution, but he arbitrarily In “the bureaucratic society of controlled consumption”, abandoned the classical Marxist criticism of capitalist social the everyday life is simplified as the symbolic consumption and economic politics, and finally the transformation of world without characteristic; the symbolic consumption everyday life can only be reduced to a fantasy. becomes the leading part of everyday life. Everyday life and its “sub-system” become the platform of the bourgeoisie to Keywords-Lefebvre; Consumption Alienation; Everyday Life; control the masses through symbolic consumption. The Symbolic Consumption criticism of “the bureaucratic society of controlled consumption” is the criticism of everyday life, and the I. INTRODUCTION everyday life criticism is to criticize the alienation Henri Lefebvre (1901 - 1991), "father of the critical phenomenon in everyday life, especially the consumption theory of everyday life ", was also the first philosopher to alienation. [2] “The bureaucratic society of controlled introduce Marxism to France. In the grasp of the capitalist consumption” dominates the society through the symbolic society after World War II, Lefebvre believes that industrial consumption in everyday life. society, technological society, leisure society and even the “The bureaucratic society of controlled consumption” consumer society cannot accurately define the basic consolidates its rule by firmly controlling the consumption characteristics of modern society, but only the definition of in everyday life, and turns the everyday life dominated by “the bureaucratic society of controlled consumption”[1] is consumption into a key platform for rule. The consumption the most scientific and accurate one. “The bureaucratic in the everyday life needs specific consumption path, which Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. 220 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 152 means that there is not a complete everyday life system in consumption alienation. He believes that consumption the consumption, and there is only a series of parallel service, alienation is manifested in consumption not in order to known as the “sub-systems” [1] for people to realize their obtain specific physical goods, but in order to consume the different kinds of consumption needs. The consumption symbolic cultural significance of goods. Symbolic alienation in everyday life is not dominated and controlled consumption means the phenomenon that people are by the unified system, but through the specialization of committed to consumption in order to obtain the social and varies of “sub-systems”. People can choose to consume in cultural symbolic meaning of specific consumer goods. In different systems. “Sub-systems” reveals the mechanism and the symbol consumption system, the functional differences specific channels of consumption alienation in everyday life. between commodities are no longer important, and the Through “sub-systems”, we can focus on the specific scenes symbolic meaning represented by commodities becomes the of consumption alienation. The existence of “sub-systems" primary factor of the differences between commodities. shows that the consumption in everyday life is not People consume commodity is not only to obtain its use monolithic, but presents a fragmented consumption state. value, but for the value of the social difference represented “Sub-systems” have a lot of kinds, such as television, by its symbol. Symbol carries the social and cultural advertising, cars, networks, fashion, leisure, tourism and so information, so the symbolic consumption will spread on. When we consume by the “sub-system”, we can see that symbol meanings among people, so as to radiate to the the symbolic consumption lies within. The unique symbol whole society. consumption system in every “sub-systems” is the By judging the commodities that a person can afford, we embodiment of the whole social symbol consumption can easily classify him or her into certain social class. system. The “sub-system” is like the “isotope” [1] in the Through consumption, people establish their identity and social space, attracts or repel. “Sub-systems” are the find their own class ownership. When consumption becomes symbolic function system of consumption. Each specific the standard of dividing class, the standard of entering a “sub-systems” has independent symbol coding and certain class is relatively lower, because as long as the goods consumption strategy. For example, automobile industry is a that one can consume belongs to certain class, oneself can symbolic consumption “sub-system”. The car is not only a produce the illusory sense of actually belonging to that class kind of technical advantages; it also has the social and stratum. Compared with other class stratum qualification by economic significance. We can interpret the owner through birth, work and other standards, it is much easier to enter the his car’s performance, cost and other comprehensive corresponding class through consumption. Therefore, in representation of his social class. Automobile is the status order to try to integrate into the higher class, people can let symbol of social class; it is consumed as a symbol of power, themselves consume more like that class. That is by happiness, comfort and speed. And the consumption of pursuing more and more luxurious consumption to meet different brand cars often becomes the symbol of different their vanity and imagination. The era of embody identity social status and identity. That is to say, the “sub-system” of through consumption has come. the car has formed its own system of complete symbolic Symbolic consumption has the function of reflecting communication system. social class. Through symbolic consumption, the abstract social class can be visualization through the symbol, and III. THE CONSEQUENCE OF SYMBOLIC CONSUMPTION: intuitively show the social status and identity of certain NEW SOCIAL CLASS DIVISION STANDARD human. “Every object and product has a double existence, Before Lefebvre, consumption alienation is regarded as perceptible and false existence; All that can be consumed the consumption of the physical goods. But Lefebvre ( goods ) is a symbol of consumption, and consumers rely on initiates the critique of the symbol perspective of this symbol, on the symbol of dexterity and wealth, living on 221 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 152 the symbol of happiness and love; Symbols and meanings revolution is to “make everyday life a work of art” [1], and replace reality, and this substitution and transfer is but a kind let the means of technology become a tool for the of vertigo - distorting illusion, which is beyond its transformation of everyday life. The ultimate purpose of art meaning.”[1] The symbolic value implied by the consumer revival is not only for art, but to reshape the experience of divides people into different identities, status and grades. By culture, and to transform the everyday life of culture. “The observing the symbolic value of the goods purchased by the direct fear of natural rule and violent rule has disappeared in individual, we can easily locate the person to a certain class the former industrial society, but people today live in an era and understand his status. The function of symbolic of institutionalized abstraction that you cannot escape, in an consumption creates a false world, which makes people era of functional abstraction, an era of function, and a understand and communicate with each other through universal era of terror. Because of this, Lefebvre has always symbols. The real reason and emotional communication insisted that today's social liberation must be overall between people are covered by symbols,
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