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The Summary of the Founding Conference of Research Committee of Sociology of Consumption
On December 27 and 28, 2015, the Symposium of Sociology of Consumption and the Founding Conference of Research Committee on Sociology of Consumption of the Chinese Sociological Association was held in Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, organized by Consumption and Development Research Center of Sun Yat-sen University and School of Sociology and Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University. Nearly forty scholars joined this conference, coming from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Jinhua, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. This conference accepted nearly thirty papers. After six keynote speeches, the two afternoon sessions consist of Consumption and Politics, Consumption and Culture aroused heated discusses and debates. The scholars also communicated about the teaching, course arrangement and textbook compilation of sociology of consumption.
This conference focused on several topics, such as consumption stratification and consumption inequity, distinction of consumption between urban and rural area, consumption and social welfare, consumption and affection/emotion, consumption and body. Their main ideasare introduced as follows.
The “Political Sociology Turn” in consumption study
Huamin Peng (Nanjing University) in her keynote speech“The Study of Sociology of Consumption in the Perspectives of Institution and Rights”reviews the development of sociology of consumption in China, a history from few scholars’ pioneering work toa full blossom. Characterizedby independent basic concept, theory and knowledge system, sociology of consumptionhas become a matured research area in China.For the study of sociology of consumption, she introducesthe institution and rightsperspectives. The former is to analyze consumption behavior and consumption issue through institution analysis method.The latter is to study from civil rights and social rights, and the decommdification of public service.
Consumption not merely occurs in economic area and not restricted toprivate area only. XiaoshanLin (Zhejiang Normal University) in his paper “Return to Consumption Politics”proposes that from 21st century, one visible trend in consumption study isthe ongoing political turn. The consumption inequality in the globalization erabrings the scholars back to politics.The meaning of consumption politics includes: from the perspective of consumers, consumers take consumption as a tool of political practice and political expression; from the perspective of state, the fight for political legitimation in modern democratic statehas moved from production area to consumption area.To understand consumption politics, it is not only the necessary step for knowledge production to respond to the real life, but also the moral obligation and sense of calling of sociologywhich discipline need to extricatefrom its crisis and care about the understratum.
Consumption stratification and consumption inequity
Consumption stratification and consumption inequityis a core issue in sociology of consumption which attractsattention from many scholars.At this conference, scholars provide new perspectives.
Firstly, from the perspective of consumption taste. Jianping Wang (South China Agricultural University) in his paper “Consumption Culture, Middle Class Taste and Cultural Turn of Social Stratification”, analyzes the consumption change and its sociological meaning. One of the result of consumption change is modern consumption begins to develop symbolic meanings, such as differentiation, distinction and representation, from simple economic meaning in previous shortage time, and gradually with more social and cultural meaning. Taste becomes an indicator of consumption stratification. The studies about the taste of middle class find that consumption stratification has become an important demandinsocialstratification. Middle class has formulated its distinctivetaste in consumption.
Secondly, from the perspectiveof collective consumption. Weihua Zhao (Beijing University of Technology) in her paper “Institution Change of Collective Consumption, Identity Regimeand Social Inequity”, through the analysis of process and result of institution change of collective consumption, respondsto the debate of market transition theory, that is whether the advantage of redistribution of previous elites is still persistentduringmarket transition. Based on the system of work unit (Danwei), the gradual transition of collective consumption provides the utmost possibility to maintain the interest of previous elites. In market transition, the mechanism for the persistence of the advantage of previous elites includes two processes and two institutions.The first process is through “privilege of collective consumption”, gain higher return than market; the second one is through equivalent exchange in the “market price of privilege”, which turn the redistribution advantage into market advantage. These processes are facilitated by the improvement of two institutions. The first is the institution of property rights. The private property rights are protected in market economyand hence the capital accumulation of individual can be realized. The second is market exchange through which the capital (economic capital, social capital and cultural capital) of previous elites can be easily exchanged in market. Through these process, the advantage of previous elites changes from identity privilege in planned economy to money privilege in market economy.
Thirdly, from the perspective of distinction between urban and rural area. As the long persistent of urban-rural dual structure, there are different consumption characteristics between urban and rural. Chunling Li (Chinese Academy of Social Science) in her keynote speech “The Changing Trend of the Consumption Distinction between Urban and Rural Area”, asks how will the consumption distinction change as the income gap between urban and rural area is narrowing.From the national sampling data of 2001 and 2011, the paper compares the owning rate and purchase intention of durable goods of urban and rural residents in these two years. It finds that the consumption distinction of durable goods is narrowing, not only in the current available goods, but also in future consumption of durable goods. This indicates the consumption distinction between urban and rural area is narrowing and will be narrowing further.
Jingbo Xu (Zhengzhou University of Light Industry) in“The Normalization of Consumption Space and theIndividualizationTrend of Peasant Consumption”, focuses on the rise of new consumption space in rural area. The change of consumption space (supermarket, franchise store, online shopping and agricultural specialized market)exerts a tremendous influence on peasants’ consumption behavior. The newconsumption space is the extension of modern urban consumption space in rural area. It is not only the transplantation of urban consumption space, but also the import of urban consumption habits and consumption ideas into rural area through space transplantation.
Faxiang Yang (East China University of Science and Technology)in “Consumption Identity of New Generation Peasant-workers”argues the identity of new generation peasant-workers has to be confronted witha process of adapting to the new environmentand constructing new goals, and gradually the generation change based on consumption identity has been formed. As an efficient mechanism of identity construction, consumption identity has become a basic dimension of identity for new generation peasant-workers.
Consumption, Politics and Public Policy
Consumption and politics is interdependent. Hanlong Lu (Shanghai Academy of Social Science) in the keynote speech “The Public Policy in Consumer Society”proposes that we should understand the consumption issue from the collective level. The solution is state intervention. However, in market economy, the state intervention is no longer the unequal distribution of the privilege in the redistribution system, but with anidea of public goods and public service. Three objectives of social policy are: the assurance of result fairness, resource allocation fairness and equality of social relations. As the consumer rights play an increasing important role in promoting the economy, the relation between investment and consumption is not mutually exclusive. Investment canalso be studied as a consumption phenomenon.Besides, the charitable donation has become avalue “investment” and a lifestyle of “consumption”. In consumption area, the rights and obligation shall be equal and the individual and society shall be in harmony.
Yefu Zheng (Peking University) in the keynote speech “VIP and Consumerism”, through the elaboration of the relationship between VIP and consumerism, reveals an important social problem. VIP refers to the very important person in political area and economic area. VIPs do not use the public service, which leads to the lacking of impetus to improve the public service. VIPs strive for the display of wealth, which are imitated by the medium or low stratum that degrades the social atmosphere. Hence, the first step to restrict consumerism is to change the VIPs’ pattern of consumption.
Di Zhu (Chinese Academy of Social Science) in “The Policy Mechanism of Sustainable Consumption”elaborates the origin and its change of the concept of sustainable consumption and proposes the perspective of “consumer welfare”. The objective of consumption is to improve the welfare of the consumers. She advocates the promotion of sustainable consumption through the improvement of the subjective and objective welfare of consumers.
Ying Fang (Guangzhou University) in her paper “Organization System for the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interestsunder the Co-governance of ‘state and society’”, elaborates the organization system for the protection of consumers’ rights and interestswhich is formed together by law-makers, administrative body, Consumers’ Association and self-organization of consumers, whichthe latter play an important role within this organization system.The self-organization of consumerswill contribute to the consumer education, third-party monitor and assessment, agent for the protection of consumers’ rights and interests, participation of product design, and advocation of responsible sustainable consumption.
Yulei Wang (Editor of “Academic Research”) in his paper “Institution Gift”focuses on the implementation of state poverty alleviation project in rural area. Although the policy maker tries to allocate the production goods to the grass-roots through a rational top-down design and project,once the distribution reach the grass-roots, the developmentalism will become welfarism, project assistance will become gift distribution, production goods will be regarded as consumption goods and the efficient logic of development will be replaced by the logic of gift sharing. Through the study of distribution of poverty alleviation materials, he proposes a new concept of “Institution Gift”.
Zhe Sun (Shanghai Jiaotong University)in his paper “House-Renting and Residence Rights of Tenants: Begin by the Urban Governance of ‘’Manage the Population by House”, from the perspectives of sociology of consumption and public administration, illustrates that house-renting does not bring a stable residence right for the tenants. The instable state of the tenants is the reason why people are unwilling to rent a house. However, as the implementation of the governance of “Manage the Population by House”and public rental housing, and the incorporation of the rental market into the urban governance system, the residence rights derive from house-renting will be guarantee.
Consumer Decision
Ordinarily, the economists take the consumptionbehavior as rational decision of the individual. However, the sociologists have different perspectives. Consumption decision also reflects the social relation and family relation. Jinhai Wu (East China Normal University) in his paper “Vertical Consumption”, through the interviews for the Shanghai residents’ consumption, finds that the consumers’ expenditure on their children has become dominated in the consumption life. A new phenomenon has arisen that some consumers stick to the rational consumption themselves, but keepmost of the consumption on their children, which is named “Consumption without Caring for Themselves”. Based on these interviews, this paper explores the dynamic mechanism behind this phenomenon.
Sheng Chen (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies) in “Payment Methods and the Consumption of UniversityStudents”investigates the payment methods of consumers and discusses the mental accounting based on the payment methods. It finds that the mental accounting is characterized by the non-alternative preference, amortization preference, convenient preference and irrational preference. Different payment methodswill cause different consumption behaviors. Compared with cash payment, credit card payment, mobile phone payment and amortization payment will lead to the increase of expenditure.
Dunfu Zhang (Shanghai University) in “From Frugality to the Sustainable”, studies food consumption and related waste in the mega-city Shanghai. Engaging with social practice theory as a theoretical framework and drawing from informal interviews in Shanghai, Zhang finds that most people do not like to waste food, particularly people with experiences or memories of the food shortages. Making use of leftovers is tied to moral issues in this respect, but also caring for family members and other relations of intimacy. It demonstrates how sharing leftovers is a demonstration of loving relations. Among a younger population, there is also a growing discourse around environmental concerns related to food waste. Zhang engages with the moral dimension of food waste, drawing attention to the distinction between frugality and thrift towards sustainable pathways. He argues that, over time, health aspects and notions of altruism, such as caring for family and for others, could be further reinforced. Through these two themes, people in Shanghai and possibly in other urban contexts in China could transition from thrifty consumers to consumer-citizens, towards more sustainable lifestyles.
Culture, emotion and body
Jun Wen (East China Normal University) in his keynote speech, from the perspective of sociology of consumption, analyzes why public intellectuals fall into the stigma. The essence is that it reflects the consumption value as cultural product has been negated by the masses. The promotion of internet media not only enhances the erosion of previous cultural production and consumption field by the media, but also provides a place for the stigma of public intellectuals. It brings enormous damage to the consumption value of the public intellectuals in individual and group level. This stigma not only deepens the chaosof thought in China, but also reflects the further scarcity of social trust.
Boqing Cheng (Nanjing University) in his keynote speech “Manage, Experience and Performance”, from the perspective of sociology of emotions, classifies three emotional regimes: the managerial regime in production field, the experience regime in consumption field and the performance in interaction field.
Weiyu Zhu (Tongji University) in her paper “The Rise and Fall of Middle Huaihai Road in Shanghai”, from the perspective of comparative history, reveals the rise and fall of Middle Huaihai Road. Once the origin of consumer culture in China, Middle Huaihai Road possessed various business modes which was the basis of its prosperity. However, as the entrance of large shopping malls such as K11 and lapm, the local society with specific history and culture has been uprooted. Homogenous and single space has replaced the local society.
Fei Liu (Central China Normal University)in “Social Mobilization, Agenda Contest and Food Taboo”, based on the dispute of Guangxi Yulin Dog Meat Festival, explores how the dog meat taboo of western countries spread into China in an age of globalization and information.Combines the theories of agenda-setting and social mobilization, this paperexplains the evolution of food taboo and its dynamic mechanism. There are four stages of social mobilizationand agenda setting. Finally, it becomes a demonstration of divergentagenda contest and discourse in the social media. “To eat dog meat or not” has evolve into a social agenda from the merely individual choice of local residents.
Xiangyi Li (Sun Yat-sen University) in her paper “From Productive Body to Consumptive body”, based on the body theory and labor study, takes the Fuzhou migrant workers in America as case analysis. It explores how these international migrant workers perform their subjective construction through body practice.As become the migrant workers, they have been constructed as humble and cheap productive body through variousstructural forces. At the same time, they adopt consumption strategy to deal actively with the restrictions on them and try to rebuild a valuable and respectable consumptive body.
Sociology Classics and Contemporary China
Many scholars return to the sociology classics and use them as a source of reference. The first step to return to classics is to understand the classics. Classics is not to be read by own understanding, but to know the context of the classics. Their authors always have different target readers in mind. So we need to know the author and context,figure out the real meaning of the author and grasp the main idea of the classics. After understand the classics, we can use them to analyze the Chinese society and rejuvenate these classics.
Ning Wang’s (Sun Yat-sen University) paper“The Changing Logic of Government’s Commitment toSocial Welfare: A Tocqueville Framework” reflects his persistent historical perspective and depth of thought. Drawing from Tocqueville’s classical theory, he reveals the underlying logic of the change of Chinese government’s commitment to social welfare. The pendulum-like motion between equality preference and freedom preference behind the institution arrangement of collective consumption is the cultural root of the change of mode of urban collective consumption in China.
Yangbo Zhang (Wuhan University) in paper “Leisure Class and Evolutive View of Human Nature: Veblen’s Theory of Leisure Class and its Basis of Methodology”, returns to the classic of sociology of consumption. Thorstein Veblen’s systematic observation and argumentation is closely related to his evolutive view of human nature. The concepts of conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure are all examples under the guidance of his evolutive view. The value of Theory of Leisure Class lies not only in the original concepts it proposed, but also the methodology basis of Veblen to study the society. It is unfair to borrow the concept from Veblen or summary Veblen’s idea as one kind of theoretical perspective or idea, but ignores the context and the comprehensiveness of Veblen’s idea.
This conference announces the founding of Research Committee on Sociology of Consumption of the Chinese Sociological Associationand provides research direction for the further development of sociology of consumption in China. Broaden the research area of sociology of consumption, develop the distinguished concept and theory, combine empirical study and dialogue with economics, other branches of sociology (Social Stratification and Social mobility, economic sociology, cultural sociology and political sociology). In December, 2006, an international Symposium of Sociology of Consumption was held at Sun Yat-sen University. Later, the submitting papers were published as a book titled “An Exploration into the Sociology of Consumption” (edited by Ning Wang, People’s Publishing House, 2010).In the annual meeting of Chinese Sociological Association, from 2010 onwards, a forum of sociology of consumption was held each year. In the research area of sociology of consumption, an active academic community was formed. This conference is a continuation of these activities.
This conference has found and elected Research Committee on Sociology of Consumption. Ning Wang was elected as the president, and Hanlong Lu, Huamin Peng, Dunfu Zhang, Xiaoshan Lin, Jinhai Wu and Weihua Zhao as deputy presidents. Di Zhu was elected as secretary-general of Research Committee and Chao Zhang, Yangbo Zhang and Sheng Chen was elected as deputy secretary-general. Under the guidance and organization of the Research Committee, the sociology of consumption in China will move towards a new development stage.
For more information, please contact Professor Dunfu Zhang: E-mail: dunfuzhang@gmail.com）
(Information provided by drs. Rongxin Wang , Sun Yat-sen University, China, 2016/1/27)