摘要:两次工业革命以来,进入机械化大生产时代的人们在物质生活上得到了前所未有的改善与提高,人们随即步入消费社会。在消费社会中,一切生活主题都是围绕着消费展开的,奢侈消费更是作为一种看似非理性的消费形式日益受到来自全世界不同领域与立场的人们的共同关注。如今,奢侈消费在国外的热度渐减,而中国的奢侈消费品市场却一再抬头,势如破竹。本文主要通过西方社会学者关于消费社会以及奢侈消费等种种理论洞见,在描述与分析当今奢侈消费狂潮现象的同时,将目光聚焦于对人们迷恋奢侈消费的原因及社会心理动机的探讨。希望借此获得对我国当前奢侈消费热潮现象更深一步的理解与启示。
关键词:奢侈品 消费动机 消费社会学
Abstract:Since the two industrial revolutions, people who entered into the era of mechanization and mass production have gained an unprecedented improvement and enhancement upon their lives. Then, consumption society came. In the consumption society, everything revolves around the theme of consumption and as a seemingly irrational consumption pattern, luxury consumption has especially became a common concern by people with different backgrounds and standpoints day by day. Nowadays, while China's luxury goods market has repeated its booming like gangbusters, luxury consumption abroad is decreasing its heat. The paper is mainly to describe and analyze the phenomenon of today's luxury consumption frenzy and focus on discussing the reasons and sociological motivations which creating people's fascination with luxury goods through Western sociologists’ theoretical insights about consumption society, luxury consumption and so on, hoping to get a deeper understanding and enlightenment upon the phenomenon of China’s luxury consumption boom currently.
Keywords: Luxury goods Consumption motivation Sociology of consumption
本文将奢侈消费的动机细分为宏观、中观和微观三个方面进行理论性的剖析与解读,旨在从多个层面把握这一现象的来龙去脉,尽量避免在分析过程中对重要动机因素的疏漏。另一方面,如此划分可以使文章更有层次,使得文章整体思路更加清晰,方便阅读。但是,本文还存在很多不足,如因为笔者能力有限,对于西方消费社会学领域的理论解读不够深入与透彻,在收集资料方面也存在不够全面等问题。
将消费完全符号化的鲍德里亚认为,不断地追求包含着“差异率令”的消费的人们是永远不能得到满足的,因为将相对性注入消费过程后,消费便是无止境的了,人的欲望也变得没有尽头。即使社会再进步,物质条件再完善,只要存在符号差异并且这些差异被认同,人们便停不下追求的脚步。所以笔者认为,奢侈消费是不会迎来终结的那一天的,它会伴随着人类社会的发展一同进步并转变形式。正如在过去,人们以炫耀财富为荣,而现在,直接性地炫耀财富被认为是低俗的,而炫耀品味才是能够带来尊荣的新方式。需要说明的是,在这篇文章中,笔者的主要目的是探讨奢侈消费的动机与原因并加以社会学理论解释而不倾向于对此行为做价值判断,因而对奢侈消费采取价值中立的立场,认为它既有存在的合理性与功能性,又不免造成诸多负面影响。所以对待奢侈消费,最关键是要掌握好“度”,而不是一味地追随或反抗。