Rute Feliciano Macave

Consumption and Individualism in Gilles Lipovetsky Rute Feliciano Macave

In this book we try to reflect around consumption and individualism in Lipovetsky. According to Lipovetsky, consumption went through three phases, namely the birth of mass markets, consumer society and the era of hyper-consumption. In the course of this evolution consumption ceased to be elitized and became accessible to all social classes and consumer goods ceased to be primarily family and became individual goods. The consumer is concerned with material well-being and immediate pleasures. Consumption causes personal failures, buying fever, degradation of the ecosphere. In individualism we have two antinomic logics: responsible individualism (concerned with laws, the present and the future) and irresponsible individualism (concerned with immediate pleasures and without appreciation of moral values). For Lipovetsky, consumption and individualism do not annihilate sociability, moral values and affective values. However, there is a need for the individual to reverse the current stage of consumption and individualism through the ethics of responsibility and care.