The civilizing brand

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical framework bridging Norbert Elias' theory of the civilizing process with historical debates on the growth of consumption in capitalist societies. Elias' theory of the civilizing process, and its extension into an informalizing process, is figured together with historical accounts of the rise of mass-market consumerism and its turn to lifestyle consumerism, particularly as the latter is mediated by lifestyle branding. Attention is paid to the role of the body as an object of shame, and the ways in which shame thresholds are lowered (applied with less tolerance) under the civilizing influences of mass consumerism and raised again (applied with more tolerance) under the informalizing influences of lifestyle brands. Illustrative cases are cited from historical scholarship on the history of consumerism and contemporary advertising.