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Capitalism is a social order that evolves over time. While market exchange, private property, and the profit motive are generic features of capitalist systems, studies of contemporary capitalism aim to highlight what is specific about capitalism today. In this article, we develop the concept of monetary sabotage to pinpoint a phenomenon that has become more pronounced in recent decades, but which has not been sufficiently elaborated so far. Monetary sabotage refers to the utilization and, eventually, manipulation of the monetary infrastructure for private profit, creating instability and perpetuating inequality. Drawing on old institutionalism, with its emphasis on law, and articulating it with contemporary theories of credit and insights from the sociology of money, our analysis highlights the evolution of incorporate and intangible property as premises for financial profit-making at the expense of the public. This institutionalist approach adds new insights to the prevailing financialization literature and complements other critical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unequal distribution of economic rewards under capitalism requires institutions that perpetuate "enabling myths" which justify the distribution as fair or natural. In this article, we argue that the rise in popularity of sports betting in the United States reflects an increasing reliance of neoliberal capitalism on one particular enabling myth: the belief in luck. Thorstein Veblen's writing in The Theory of the Leisure Class suggests the belief in luck as a "minor myth" that helps sustain the grand marginalist myth at the heart of neoliberal capitalism: the myth of meritocracy. The belief in luck provides an alternative rationalization for unfavorable economic outcomes when meritocracy breaks down. Rather than resulting from systemic or individual failures incompatible with meritocratic logic, the belief in luck ascribes negative economic outcomes to an otherwise teleological or supernatural force. Gambling in general—and sports betting in particular—constitutes a Veblenian social practice that serves to inculcate the belief in luck, thereby aiding in the naturalization and justification of economic inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional macroeconomics cannot be the basis for a pragmatic understanding of the behavior of the financial model of capitalism in which we live and for drawing practical economic policies. Its most important problem is the relegation of key monetary and financial institutions, which entrap the analysis into a self-regulated markets illusion. This article argues that Thorstein Veblen's post-Darwinian cultural and processual analysis of the business enterprise system provides ideas, principles and foundations that can leverage a contribution to an evolutionary recontextualization of macroeconomics. The analysis focuses attention only on the role that the evolution of pecuniary habits of mind and routines have in episodes of unsustainable balance sheets, liquidity crunches and debt-deflation processes and marks out the cultural foundations of financial fragility and instability and of the principle of effective demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El consumo de bienes superfluos e innecesarios es una forma en que la élite busca destacarse y sentirse diferente al resto de la sociedad en la que vive. Tanto factores internos como externos son fundamentales para comprender por qué esta minoría puede influir en aquellos menos afortunados, incitándolos a imitar sus patrones de consumo. Este artículo pretende analizar, basándose en las teorías de Veblen y otros autores, cómo el consumo conspicuo ejerce una influencia presente y poderosa en la sociedad. La primera parte ofrece una definición del consumo conspicuo, seguida en la segunda parte por estudios contemporáneos sobre los hábitos de gasto de las personas. Finalmente, la última sección analiza cómo la pandemia ha aumentado el gasto improductivo de las élites.

In this article, I identify a list of authors and publications that were edited in Ibero-America and that have contributed to the expansion of the ideas of the social economist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929). Moreover, I have identified publications exploring Veblen´s ideas and Spanish translation on Veblen´s work since 1944. There, I observe that there is a consistent list of publications on Veblen, with a larger share after the decade 1990´s and whose more original contributions in the region is related on economic development and on the analysis of some socio cultural phenomena, as well as a significant cluster of researchers in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The emphasis on self-interest and competition in relation to human nature has occupied a central position in both the social and natural sciences for centuries, intensifying particularly with capitalism. In the natural sciences, the emphasis on the purely competitive and selfish aspect of human nature in the narrow sense of evolution has led to the assumption that this is a law of nature, while in the social sciences, human nature has been dealt with in a way that is detached from its social context, acting on the impulse of self-interest and competition. More specifically in mainstream economics, in terms of the functioning of the capitalist system, human beings have been conceptualized along abstractive and deductive methods and have been transformed into a competitive actor concerned only with their own self-interest, free from the motives of mutual aid and solidarity. However, such a depiction oversimplifies the complex nature of human interactions, neglecting the importance of mutual aid and solidarity. Therefore, the aim of this study is to utilize the possibilities of a more advanced understanding of social evolution to encourage a rethinking of the tendencies of mutual aid and solidarity inherent in human nature within the social sciences. In this context, using a more sophisticated understanding of social evolution proposed by thinkers like Veblen and Kropotkin, it aims to critique the emphasis on self-interest and competition in established economics, and to re-evaluate the concepts of mutual aid and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how a country's promotion of its culture affects another country's consumption patterns. We collected primary data from Malaysians about their exposure to Korean drama and consumption of Korean cosmetics in order to test whether the imaging of Korean cultural richness through the international marketing strategy termed Hallyu (entailing the use of Korean TV drama to image South Korea as a celebrated country) instigates conspicuous consumption in Malaysia. Respondents with higher levels of education but lower income watched Korean drama more intensively, and the intensity of watching Korean drama was positively associated with the consumption of Korean cosmetics. Our results highlight the ability to affect trade between countries by advertising through mass culture and exploiting the need for conspicuous consumption by those individuals experiencing perceived relative deprivation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are unprofitable gig work platforms so highly valued? Recent scholarship argues that gig platforms configure their data and computational infrastructure as financial assets, and that this speculative valuation offsets monetary losses on ride-hailing and food-delivery services. At the root of this valuation, however, is a narrative of efficiency and optimization that has little bearing on platforms' on-the-ground operations. In practice, gig work platforms are remarkably inefficient. I build on Veblen's work on the business enterprise to argue that platforms' financial exceptionalism owes to their unique capacity to strategically insert inefficiencies within and beyond the market encounters they broker, a pattern that I call 'platform sabotage.' The paper offers five vignettes of platform sabotage at work, illustrating how platforms target their strategic inefficiencies across various constituencies of market actors. The paper concludes with discussion of sabotage as a modality of platformization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts an evolutionary institutionalist approach to explain the persistent popularity of sports in the USA. Veblen's writing in Theory of the Leisure Class suggests two cultural and economic functions of modern sports: as a mode of preservation of leisure class values and as a means of conspicuous waste. Our analysis emphasises the role of sports as an institution for the preservation of leisure class values in general, and what Veblen terms 'predatory prowess' in particular. We identify several contemporary examples of Veblenian cultural traits that explain the affinity for sports in America and illustrate the continued applicability of Veblen's analysis. Finally, we offer support for the Veblenian view by expanding the scope of our argument to the broader evolutionary institutionalist literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alfred Marshall is often depicted as a pioneer of neoclassical economics almost as if this is a label he embraces and promotes. Yet neoclassical economics is not a category Marshall deploys but a term Thorstein Veblen introduces in characterising Marshall. Veblen coins the term neoclassical to identify an ontological discrepancy in the work of a specific group of his contemporaries, a prominent figure among whom is Marshall. Veblen's view is that Marshall and other neoclassicals discern features of social reality that suggest a tentative recognition of a causal processual social ontology of the type Veblen associates with modern evolutionary approaches and yet also remain staunchly committed to a taxonomic conception of science underpinned by a quite different set of ontological presuppositions. Veblen's assessment of Marshall is brief and assertive. In this paper it is argued that the ontological discrepancy interpretation of Marshall, that Veblen first sketched, can convincingly be filled out, has substantial merit and is of importance in developing an adequate appreciation of Marshall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian wine consumers show a progressive shift in favor of organic wine. Sustainability is an important driver for the emerging consumers who tend to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, avoiding food waste and respecting the environment. In this scenario, it is of interest to understand the profile of organic wine consumer, the cues that are used in the process and their impact on purchasing choice. The results from a regression on data from a sample survey showed that price is an important factor driving perceptions of organic wine quality. We found an asymmetry in the impact of price as a quality cue: while high prices may be in fact able to elicit a positive perception, low prices do not lead to non-positive perception necessarily. In addition, consumers who value sustainable consumption, have a vegan lifestyle, purchase their wine directly from wineries are more likely to have a positive perception of organic wine. Similarly, elder, educated consumers could have a higher probability to exhibit a positive perception of organic wine. This research shows that the Veblen effect can also exists for food markets in particular with the product with the greatest evocative charge, such as in the wine market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Explanations for slow global growth (secular stagnation) correctly focus on income inequality and wage formation but are incomplete. They ignore the source of wages and fail to ask why a rising profit share has not produced more investment. Older but essential insights on stagnation from Keynes, Schumpeter and Veblen complement orthodox and post-Keynesian analyses to generate a more robust explanation based on the distributional conflict over profit among firms. These thinkers highlight the importance of corporate profit strategy and organizational structure for investment behavior. A politically mediated process of strategic interaction has transformed the old Fordist dual industrial structure into a tripartite structure composed of high profit volume firms with monopolies based on intellectual property rights (IPRs), physical capital-intensive firms protected by an investment barrier to entry, and low profit volume labor-intensive firms. Profit data from Compustat and Orbis show that IPR-based firms have a lower marginal propensity to invest. Other firms with smaller profit volumes forego investment from fear of creating excess capacity in a slow growth environment. High profit firms also tend to pay higher wages, creating income inequality. Changes in antitrust, employment and intellectual property law can remedy this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciências Sociais - Brazil is the property of Revista de Ciencias Socias do Universidade Federal do Ceara and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Continuous-mass production technology, widely adopted in the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries, enabled businesses to vastly increase output. Thorstein Veblen was among the first to observe the business response: how to prevent production from exceeding what the market could profitably absorb? How to prevent losses? How to increase profits? Continuous-mass production introduced consumer capitalism, applying the technology to consumer goods, creating the necessity of increasing consumer demand, making imperative adopting the corporate form of business enterprise. Continuous-mass production has accentuated a number of paradoxes, some of which were addressed by Veblen, Polanyi, and Keynes. Those paradoxes include the prospect of depression, the rise of dynastic ambitions channeling the increased output into militarism, financial innovations involving identifying and liquefying consumer assets to provide credit and expand demand, laying the foundation for the financialization of the economy. Financialization culminated in the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), requiring massive government intervention. The GFC gave rise to Modern Monetary theory, overcoming the limits of the market economy. And the environmental crisis resulting from the commodification of everything, accentuated by applying continuous mass production to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, combined with a belief in infinite growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-review of Teoria della classe disagiata (Minimum Fax, 2017)

Gösterişçi tüketim, tüketici davranışlarının en eski konularından bir tanesidir. Veblen’den günümüze araştırmacılar; kişilerin, arzuladıkları kimliklere ve karakterlere seçtikleri ürünlerle ulaştıklarını söylemektedir. Bu çalışmada; tüketicilerin gösterişçi tüketimleri, Veblen’in Aylak Sınıfın Teorisi bağlamında ele alınarak, kuşaklar arası bir kıyasa gidilmiştir Araştırmanın amacı, gösterişçi tüketimin temel motivasyonlarını ve bu motivasyonlar arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya çıkarmak, bu yapının kuşaklara göre değişimini anlamaktır. Araştırma kapsamında; online ve yüz yüze anket yöntemleri ile 20 Temmuz- 15 Ekim 2019 tarihleri arasında 477 kişiden anket toplanmıştır. Elde edilen veriler; kikare analizi, frekans analizi, bağımsız t-testi, MANOVA testi, keşfedici faktör analizi, doğrulayıcı faktör analizi ve yol analizleri kullanılarak, SPSS ve AMOS paket programları yardımıyla analiz edilmiştir. Yapısal eşitlik modellemesi ile tüketicilerin sosyal kabul ihtiyacının ve statü arayışının gösterişçi tüketimlerini pozitif yönde etkilediği; prestij duyarlılıklarının ise gösterişçi tüketimlerini negatif yönde etkilediği belirlenmiştir. Gösterişçi tüketim eğiliminde tüketicilerin cinsiyeti ve gelirine göre anlamlı bir farklılık görülmezken yaş değişkenine ilişkin anlamlı sonuçlar elde edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonuçları, ulaşılan bulgular çerçevesinde tartışılmış, araştırmacılara ve uygulamacılara birtakım öneriler sunulmuştur.

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In fact, this paper is following to present the work of Thorstein Bunde Veblen unifying the two other terms, as an early brick to the economic theory, influencing the becoming of the economic theory and practice. Starting from Veblen's key idea and special approach of teleology, in economics particularly, we've chosen as example of a final and determined thing/aspect the act of consumption. That is in the Veblenian sense, of conspicuous consumption, and the consumption as general human and economic activity. Using synthesis of all theoretical and practical sources, the result of the paper is that one of consumption, even luxury, which takes into account the constraints of nowadays phenomena and activities around the world. Furthermore, the economic theory must be tacticized, based exactly on these challenges and influences both from interior of economic and social systems and from the external environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As capitalism unfolds, continual technological advance in combination with the relentless accumulation imperative serves to amplify material progress. The institutionalization of the market fundamentally changes the structure of society and the institutional structure through which individuals are socialized; the socialization process becomes increasingly accommodating to the intensifying marketplace. The social dislocation generated by the intensification of the market, prompts Polanyi’s protective response. Despite this intensification of the market setting, the existence of the economic surplus fund undermines the syllogistics of market determined pricing. Evidence of the economic surplus and that the competitive law of value is not operable within monopoly capitalism is found in the thriving lobby industry and generous campaign contributions. This research seeks to connect explicitly the concepts of Polanyi’s protective response with Veblenian waste and the economic surplus in order to better understand how the irrational system of neoliberalism continues to evolve.

Italian wine consumers show a progressive shift in favor of organic wine. Sustainability is an important driver for the emerging consumers who tend to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, avoiding food waste and respecting the environment. In this scenario, it is of interest to understand the profile of organic wine consumer, the cues that are used in the process and their impact on purchasing choice. The results from a regression on data from a sample survey showed that price is an important factor driving perceptions of organic wine quality. We found an asymmetry in the impact of price as a quality cue: while high prices may be in fact able to elicit a positive perception, low prices do not lead to non-positive perception necessarily. In addition, consumers who value sustainable consumption, have a vegan lifestyle, purchase their wine directly from wineries are more likely to have a positive perception of organic wine. Similarly, elder, educated consumers could have a higher probability to exhibit a positive perception of organic wine. This research shows that the Veblen effect can also exists for food markets in particular with the product with the greatest evocative charge, such as in the wine market.

The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock's tail. In this paper, I review the fundamental arguments of the hypothesis that art evolved and serves as a costly Zahavian signal. First, I look into the hypothesis that humans exert mate choice for indirect benefits and argue that the data supports mate choice for direct benefits instead. Second, I argue that art practice may well be a costly signal, however not necessarily related to good genes. Third, I suggest that Thorstein Veblen's original concept of conspicuous signals as social tools to obtain and convey prestige provides a better account than the Zahavian model for the evolution and function of art in society. As a Veblenian signal, art could still have many of the effects suggested for visual art as a Zahavian signal, except not for the indirect benefits of optimal offspring, but for the direct benefits of acquiring and conveying social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years, fashion has been an area of interest in consumer research, but scholars have paid little attention to how political ideology influences fashion. This article examines how Chinese consumers used fashion to seek identity and differentiate themselves during the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, the study connects fashion and consumption and examines how Western fashion theories manifested themselves during this period. Based on my research, in contrast to trickle-down theory, when the lower social class adopted the fashion, the superordinate social class did not distinguish themselves by assuming a new trend. Furthermore, unlike conspicuous consumption theory, instead of showing off their wealth, consumers displayed their poverty during this era. Finally, different from other societies, having high cultural capital was neither popular nor fashionable during the Cultural Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community gardens are fertile fields of complex political, economic and social relations, on both a local and global level. From environmentalism to urban policy and planning, racial and gender studies, transnational migration, commodity chains and food studies, the garden in the city offers an abundance of research opportunities and analytical resources. This article seeks to contribute to the efforts to understand and contest hegemonic forces in the urban environment, forces that are rooted in what Foucault identified as a set of sacred binaries which underpin a host of power relations that are "given" and form the unquestioned framework of a given set of power relations. This is therefore a project which is bent on a "theoretical desanctification of space" by a disordering of one set of several sanctified oppositions which can be found in the space of the community garden. The article de-sanctifies space by exploring the historical context of the community garden in New York and Oakland California and posits that the work of the gardener is co-opted into a value regime by a process I call "conspicuous labor". This process is similar to Veblen's conspicuous consumption except the value generated is not in modeling consumption but rather in emulating class patterns and re-configuring the urban poor as a productive, passive and pastoral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My analysis of the process of digital "platformization" of economies is framed in Thorstein Veblen's theory of economic evolution and John R. Commons' concept of reasonableness. I conclude that digital platformization of economies is rooted in a deliberately decided liberalization of markets. The consequences of liberalization require a fundamental revision of economic policy and socio-economic institutions if one wants to create permanent jobs with good social security provisions, and/or to establish reasonable income/wealth differentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proposta deste texto consiste em retomar a discussão sobre a metodologia organicista em Keynes e em autores pós-keynesianos, procurando estabelecer um link teórico com a relação entre instituições e indivíduos proposta no institucionalismo derivado de Veblen. Assumindo a possibilidade de convergência, o texto demonstra a contribuição das abordagens para o entendimento das decisões humanas, particularmente as associadas ao investimento produtivo. Da proposta de interpretar as ações humanas a partir de uma metodologia organicista e reconhecendo sua dependência institucional, evidencia-se uma agenda de pesquisa que permite melhor entendimento do comportamento econômico dos indivíduos e firmas.

The rise of neo-nationalism has posed a serious threat to European nation-states since the 1990s not only because it is reminiscent of nineteenth and twentieth century ethno-nationalism but also because it reinforces, and is symptomatic of, ongoing social, cultural, and economic tensions in Europe. This article argues that the institutional approach developed by Thorstein Veblen to analyze the role of nationalism during World War I offers meaningful insights to the study of European neo-nationalism today. Veblen's contributions are framed within a critical realist approach in order to provide an analysis of the structural incompatibilities which have been exploited by neo-nationalist parties in Europe. Within this institutional framework, the article offers reflections on neo-nationalism's social, economic, cultural, and political impact upon European democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of PRAKSIS is the property of PRAKSIS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay focuses on the conceptual relationship between Veblen and Bourdieu given that several important aspects of their works remain less widely discussed, or even inadequately explored in a comparative manner. First, the two scholars have laid the foundations of a socioeconomic perspective. Evolution and change are the fundamental vehicles of economic life in their respective works. In such a framework, a central point of their analyses is the interdependence between the cultural, social, and economic spheres. Furthermore, an economic sociology is built around the concept of habit formation. Systemic views expressed, focus on the various institutions and other aspects of cultural, social and economic life, where habits are formed and cover diverse fields and notions such as Rationality, Individualism, Institutions, Classes, Power, Struggle, Culture, and even Capitalism. For instance, both acknowledged that society is a field for the exercise of power, where antagonisms emerge giving way to negotiation, struggle, and compromise. Also, both recognized that research and knowledge development is a collective social process. However, from a methodological perspective, their main emphasis is on the emerging dynamic evolution of habits, which is perceived as the interruption of already existing social norms and the conflict between routine and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the institutional economics theory of social costs by way of reviewing The Dark Places of Business Enterprise: Reinstating Social Costs in Institutional-Economics (2019). In particular, the article assesses the proposal to re-root institutional economics in the theoretical synthesis of "Veblen-Kapp-Mirowski" to better understand the social costs of neoliberalism. One of the findings is that while such a synthesis seems justified on the grounds of significant commonalities and the merits of deeper insights, it nevertheless runs into difficulties due to divergent philosophical foundations. One of the conclusions is that further philosophic clarification is needed on how an alternative economy would understand the relationship between "social costs" and Truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Menotyra is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We explore emerging dynamics of social status and distinction in liquid consumption. The new logic of distinction is having the flexibility to embrace and adopt new identity positions, projects, and possibilities and the ability to attract attention. The importance of flexibility and attention as resources emerged from the social sciences literature in the domains of digital, access based, and urban consumption as being the most important for achieving distinction in the contemporary marketplace. We then conceptually reexamine conspicuous consumption and taste and show that status signaling now relies upon inconspicuousness, non-ownership including experiences, and authenticity based on knowledge and craftsmanship, all of which are difficult to emulate. Our contribution lies in integrating disparate literature on social status and consumption within one conceptual space. We also build upon the concept of liquid consumption by outlining exactly how liquidity affects status and distinction, an area which has not been explored to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the turn of the twentieth century (1910), Veblen published an essay which explored the relationship between Christianity and capitalism by focusing on the interaction between the two institutions as they evolved. Veblen's analysis begins by detailing the evolution of Christianity prior to the age of industrialized capitalism, after which he explores the evolutionary interplay between the two. Just over ten years prior to the publication of this essay (1899), Veblen published the Theory of the Leisure Class while over ten years after the publication of the essay (1923), Veblen dissected the sales efforts of Christianity in a note titled "Salesmanship and the Churches." Nearly 100 years later, these three works together explain a modern and distinctly American religious movement—Prosperity Theology. This research argues that Prosperity Theology as practiced in the United States over the past nearly half century embodies and integrates all three of these works by Veblen and proposes the conceptual term "Veblenian Social Practice." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of the sociology of consumption tend to be Western-based and they are embedded in a sociocultural context. This article aims to explore how Veblen's status-seeking model and Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus manifest themselves in post-socialist China. I also provide explanations for these nuances and, building on Eckhardt et al. (2015)'s work, I identify variations of conspicuous consumption in China. Based on my research, the Chinese upper middle class display "conspicuous frugality" and "unostentatious conspicuous consumption" patterns because of Chinese traditional culture. Furthermore, I also adapt ideas from Üstüner and Holt (2010) and explore how cultural capital and habitus work differently in China than in Bourdieu's model. In contrast to Holt (1997), high cultural capital consumers in China do not reject materialism. Additionally, unlike Bourdieu's arguments, Chinese class fractions distinguish themselves from others through conscious calculation rather than habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]