Abstract
A survey of current academic research into consumption reveals various publications with either more genuine scientific or stronger commercial interests. Additionally, we find research dealing with different topics relating to consumption from a historical perspective. Within the orchestra of different research tracks in the social sciences, consumption research has always been carried out but—compared to other topics—it has always been a bit weak. Principles of societal production and wealth generation dominated while questions relating to the division of consumption were obviously not of great interest. It was assumed that answers to those questions are evident: a king lives like a king and a blue-collar worker lives and consumes like a blue-collar worker. The degree and variance of social inequality were of prime interest since this was regarded as the principle conflict of modern societies.
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Bögenhold, D., Naz, F. (2018). Consumption Within the History of Economic and Social Thought. In: Consumption and Life-Styles. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06203-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06203-3_3
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