Rhetoric in the economy: consumption and audience

Abstract Consumption is rhetorical. The argument is based on an analogy between discourse in economics and the actual economy. Any chosen bundle of consumption makes a statement. The understanding of the statement requires a rhetorical inquiry into the speaker, audience, and speech situation (e.g., history, language). To understand consumption behavior, I propose to shift attention away from the logic of choice and focus instead on the rhetoric of choice (which includes the logic of choice as a part).

[1]  D. Lavoie.  Hermeneutics, Subjectivity, and the Lester/Machlup Debate: Toward a More Anthropological Approach to Empirical Economics , 1990 .

[2]  Edi Karni,et al.  FIXED PREFERENCES AND CHANGING TASTES , 1990 .

[3]  H. Leibenstein.  Bandwagon, Snob, and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumers' Demand , 1950 .

[4]  F. Hayek.  The economic nature of the firm: The use of knowledge in society , 1945 .

[5]  R. Hall,et al.  Occupational Mobility and the Distribution of Occupational Success among Young Men , 1976 .

[6]  A. Hirschman.  Against Parsimony: Three Easy Ways of Complicating some Categories of Economic Discourse , 1984, Economics and Philosophy.

[7]  R. Belk.  Possessions and the Extended Self , 1988 .

[8]  E. Hirschman.  The Ideology of Consumption: A Structural-Syntactical Analysis of "Dallas" and "Dynasty." , 1988 .

[9]  M. Mcpherson.  5. Want Formation, Morality, and Some Interpretive Aspects of Economic Inquiry , 1983 .

[10]  R. Deshpandé,et al.  Situational Ethnicity and Consumer Behavior , 1989 .

[11]  Hiroaki Hayakawa,et al.  Consumer Interdependence via Reference Groups , 1977, Journal of Political Economy.

[12]  A. Sen,et al.  Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory , 1977 .

[13]  George J. Stigler,et al.  De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum , 2010 .

[14]  Grant Mccracken.  Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods , 1986 .

[15]  T. Kuran.  Private and Public Preferences , 1990, Economics and Philosophy.

[16]  A. Sen,et al.  The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal , 1970, Journal of Political Economy.

[17]  D. Mick,et al.  Consumer Research and Semiotics: Exploring the Morphology of Signs, Symbols, and Significance , 1986 .

[18]  Roland Soong,et al.  Threshold models of interpersonal effects in consumer demand , 1986 .

[19]  L. Iannaccone,et al.  Bandwagons and the threat of chaos: Interpersonal effects revisited☆ , 1989 .