Consumption patterns and lifeworlds: using the example of convenience food

Chapter 2,The Social Construction of Taste:
The question if taste is learnt independently of the social class of origin, or whether the adherence to the higher or lower class determines taste and life-style, had been one guiding question in Pierre Bourdieu s analysis of the French society in the 1960s and in later years. In 1963 and 1967-68 Bourdieu conducted a survey on 1217 individuals. Bourdieu s questionnaires and analysis aimed at revealing consumption patterns of French households, i.e. to determine how the cultivated disposition and cultural competence vary according to the category of agents and the area to which they applied (Bourdieu, 1984, p.13). At the beginning of the formation of taste, there is socialization. In order to know whether for example a child does not like to go to the theatre because his or her parents do not like to go, or whether a child s habits are developed independently of its parents preferences, one needs to take a closer look at the process of socialization. With regard to Elkin (1960) socialization is the process by which someone learns the ways of a given society or social group so that he can function within it (Elkin, 1960, p.4). During the process of socialization, Elkin (1960) further argues, behavioural patterns, values and feelings are learnt and internalized. From the example given above, the child learns the stance to take towards a visit of a theatre.
Which holds for a visit of a theatre can be broadened to nearly every good and practice. Between the final consumption of a good/service and socialization, Bourdieu (1986) inserts the concept of habitus. Whereas, socialization is determined by the social environment the individual lives in, habitus, among other things, is determined by socialization. More explicitly, habitus shall be seen as a kind of transmitter between the capacities to practice, to produce, to work and the capacity of taste, to the ability to make judgements of other individuals practices, one s own

Florian Schleicher, MSc, was born in 1983 in Weingarten Germany. In August 2011, he successfully graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from the Free University of Bolzano. There he studied Economy and Social Sciences. In August 2013 he successfully graduated from the Technical University of Munich and the Wageningen University. His field of study was Consumer science. While studying the author used his theoretical knowledge to collect practical experience in market research. In this field of the economy he is also currently employed and well acknowledged.