‘INDIVIDUALISM’

As such, it may be possible to identify the extent to which our economic experience is now characterised by what we buy (consumption) than what we make (production). Think for example, about the the extent to which the UK and much of Western Europe has shifted from manufacturing economies to consuming economies – ie we are structured around consuming things more than making things.

In other words, there is an argument that postmodern culture is a consumer culture, where the emphasis on style eclipses the emphasis on utility or need. So that ultimately there is no real value to postmodern culture other than the need for consumption. If this is the case, then it is possible to link postmodernist cultural expression with broader shifts in society, specifically around economics and politics.

consumption by its very nature bolsters a self-centred individualism which is the basis for stable and secure identities

Strinati (238)

The demand to create desire (to encourage more consumption)

Another characteristic of POSTMODERNISM is the creation, development and concentration of high consumption, with a displacement of both consumption and production that has radically altered the nature of societies and individuals living in them. This approach in terms of postmodernism is associated with Fredric Jameson‘s 1984 essay, and subsequently 1991 book; Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism which located postmodern culture (for example, music videos) in the expression of a new phase of capitalism, one which was aggressively consumerist, rampantly commodifying all of society as potential new markets for INDIVIDUALISED, ISOLATED, PERSONAL PLEASURE AND GAIN.

Think, for example, about new communications technologies, such as mobile telephony, which has created new (digital) worlds connected across time and space in ways which were completely unimaginable to previous generations. Often these are acts of individualised and personal consumption, where we are more likely to consume what we want, when we want, where we want and how we want.

The desire to consume just for the sake of consumption (ie there is no real need to consume more) creates a society that focusses on surface and/or style over substance.

Putting it very simply, the transition from substance to style is linked to a transition from production to consumption.

STRINATI (235)