Consumer society is usually the object of attacks within the social sciences - sometimes even vicious ones. In this text, a different vision of consumerism is presented. The authors, basing themselves on the concept of Gilles Lipovetsky, argue that consumer culture may be treated as a culture of freedom. They attempt to develop Lipovetsky's thesis, which links consumerism with fashion. The text's aim is thus to turn our attention to the subject of fashion as an important sociological category, particularly in connection with consumer society and freedom. The authors also strive to delineate the various possibilities that result from it, such as the idea that society based on fashion allows us to reformulate the classical opposition of tradition versus modernity.
Sociology as we know it is facing a serious threat. Many natural scientific subdisciplines seek to usurp the rights to certain areas of sociological issues. This is not simply an attempt to reduce many sociological problems to the laws of physics and biology (vide sociobiology or memetics). For example, certain cognitive scientists and researchers on artificial intelligence are interested in purely sociological issues. For this reason, in the next few decades other disciplines may take the place of sociology. In the authors' opinion this leaves two options for sociology. The first is to continue in its current form. The second option is to adopt a model of science based on a synthetic methodology, the use of laboratories and tinkering.
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