#conspicuous compassion

[drjsociology]

Is conspicuous consumption dead? How culture is becoming the new commodity to ‘flash’

USC’s Elizabeth Currid-Halkett argues that the well-off have found new ways to show off — in ways that still hurt society.

a really interesting article, found by one of my students!

[novellearningblog]

Motivated to Appear Generous

Motivated to Appear Generous

One of the big challenges in life is being content with ourselves and our work without needing others to notice the good things we have done. As social creatures we want acknowledgement, praise, and approval from our fellow humans, so simply being good or doing good on our own doesn’t seem to satisfy us in the way we need. We all recognize and understand that we should be content without someone…

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[danieledorazi]

Is CSR the new “conspicuous compassion”?

Conspicuous consumption

“Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power—of the income or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer. To the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means of either attaining or maintaining a given social status.”

That perfectly applies to rappers, Kardashians, football players, et al.

Conspicuous compassion

“The development of Thorstein Veblen's sociology of conspicuous consumption produced the term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of goods that is meant to provoke the envy of other people; and the term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate use of charitable donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the donor, with a display of superior socio-economic status.”

Is this the evolution of conspicuous consumption? Like in the case of many football players and rappers (see Drake and the Florida affair) when they donate or participate in charitable work - they do it because they care, or just because it’s tax return-friendly and to get some points in terms of image? Many brands act like that, too. Gucci, Balenciaga (and other brands from the Kering Group) seem to embrace CSR for two purposes - to look like they care, and as an alternative to sustainability, which is waaaaaay more demanding (and costly), as a business model.

From Wikipedia / “Conspicuous consumption”