Consumption patterns and lifeworlds using the example of convenience food

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Sociology - Consumption and Advertising, grade: 1,0, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano , language: English, abstract: In this Bachelor-thesis the consumption of convenience food of German households is

analysed from the perspective of sociology of consumption. At first three theoretical

conceptions are presented and discussed which serve as a basis for the empirical analysis that

is undertaken later.

The first conception is made up by Pierre Bourdieüs analysis of consumption behaviour of

the French society in the 1960s. His book, Distinction: A Social Critique of Taste, shall be

seen as the methodological starting point for the later empirical research. Following

Bourdieüs findings, this led to the question whether substantial class differences in the

consumption of convenience food are detectable in German society. George Ritzer¿s thesis,

The McDonaldization of Society, and its key terms Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability,

and Control further argue in favour for the choice of convenience food. The third theoretical

pillar is the conception of lifeworld and its development in the field of philosophy and

sociology. The empirical part uses an arrangement of German households in family lifeworlds,

as it is also done by the German Society for Consumer Research. The analysed empirical data

on purchasing behaviour was provided by the market research study Typology of Desires

2010.

After analysis based on standing in society, phase of life, and household composition,

¿Students/ Apprentices¿ and ¿Unemployed/ Working Poor¿ resulted as the lifeworlds with the

strongest consumption of convenience food. The initial question in the direction of a social

determination of consumption of convenience food must be negated. Instead can be argued

that consumption is strongly determined by the phase of life, and partially by social status in

society and household composition.