Consumer Culture and Environmental Futures - Report Example

Running Header: Consumer Culture, Environment Futures Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date Cultural capital was developed in the 1960s by Pierre Bourdieu and his colleague. It was aimed at addressing the empirical problem that economic obstacles are not enough to explain disparity in the level of education attained by children from different social classes. He argued that cultural habits together with dispositions passed over successive generations are very important to success in school. He was of the opinion that culture shares many traits with economic capital. This was in sharp contrast with the traditional sociologist’s view that culture is a means of collective expression or as an origin of shared values together with norms. Bourdieu insisted that habits and dispositions from culture make up a resource that can make profits (Weininger, 2010). Culture capital is a component of any society. It is used to describe the possessions required by an individual person to gain access and hold a position in areas such as social circles and organizations (Bourdieu, 1978). For one to be able to conform to the culture one exhibits some tastes and preferences. Those high up in the social class are more demanding in terms of quality. This is because they can be able to afford. Those in the lower class are more concerned with the price. For them quality is not that important hence companies tend to comprise it in order to lower the price. Cultural capital as a concept has proven to be very much of use in analyzing aesthetic tastes together with preferences. In connection with this, association existing between social position and taste has been evaluated by sociologists. It has been shown that there exists a cultural taste between the different classes. This has dictated what the people in the particular class prefer in terms of the genres of music, type of food, clothes among others (Peterson & Kern, 1996). This concept has been adopted in the world of business by individual companies. For a company to be able to launch a product successfully it must first understand its target market. This is because the society is structured in terms of classes. Different social classes have their tastes and preferences. The kind of products that is targeted to the different social class has to be of the right quality. However due to the disparity in economic power sometimes some companies targeting the lower class have to compromise quality in order to make their products affordable to their target market. Also due to the stiff competition in the market many companies have been forced to come up with products that are unique. The changing tastes and preferences have seen many companies change their way of making products. For example in the recent past human race has been faced with unpredictable weather conditions due to climate change. This has been attributed to man industrial activities which continue to affect the environment negatively. More so the resources required in these industries are gotten from the environment. The rate at which these raw materials are taken from nature is very high making it unsustainable. This results to massive degradation of the environment hence the climatic change. This has in turn affected people preference to choose products that seem to favor environment protection. This has especially been observed mainly in the upper and middle classes. These groups comprises of the most informed members of the society. This has made many companies adopted the theme “going green” hence the name green business. Green Business In the recent past the world has witnessed an accelerated change in terms of climate. Man increased activities in the last few centuries have led to adverse effects in the environment. More land has been cleared for cultivation as the world population increases. Industrial wastes have continuously been released in the environment. All this and many others have contributed to global warming. This had several effects such as the unpredictable weather conditions, rising sea levels among others. We will try to look at examples of companies who have adopted ways to mitigate future effects on the environment as they try to address the change in the consumer’s tastes and preferences. Information technology has changed how people are able to access information. There is also easier flow of information making the world to become a global village. This has made people to become more informed. In today’s world more people are aware of how their daily activities are related to what is happening around them. For instance people have known that the things they do to their environment have a great impact on the climate in the future. This has had a great effect on the culture of the consumers. There is now a shift in the kind of products the consumers prefer. This has made many companies to adopt the idea of “going green” in an effort to address this change of preferences. Take the case of Puma for example. Puma is a company based in Germany that produces leather sports footwear. It recently announced that it would soon reduce their dependence of leather for manufacturing their footwear. This was announced by Jochen Zeitz, their Executive chairman. He said that the company will soon give up their use of the leather materials in their athletic shoes because of what he referred as the ecological damage it does to the environment (Ward, 2012). In the recent past the shoemakers have been offering alternatives to the footwear made of leather. This has been largely been dictated by the change in the tastes of consumers. More people nowadays are not only concerned with how comfortable the shoes are but also the design and the type of materials that has been used. It is only in the recent past that this trend has hit the footwear. The need for a sustainable brand by the younger generation has made the company look beyond leather. Puma has also produced suede sneakers which are made from recycled material. The materials making the outside sole has been developed from rice husks. The traditional methods of producing footwear are becoming more expensive by the day. This is because today’s generation is having higher expectations concerning sustainability. This has made the company to look for more creative ways of looking for alternatives. Nike has entered in this race of sustainable footwear. It recently launched footwear completely made of yarn. This footwear is a light weight athletic shoe. This shoe has multiple sustainable features. It has an added benefit in terms environment sustainability in that it reduces waste. It achieves this because it has only a single material on the one-piece upper as opposed to the traditional manufacture of the sports footwear which uses two. Although these companies have made these seemingly huge trends in trying making “environment friendly” modifications to their shoes their impact is yet to be ascertained. This is because the source of the materials is not the only contributor of environment degradation. For the materials to be turned into the final product several processes are carried out. All these processes require some form of energy which is again sourced from the environment. Transportation of the raw materials and the finished product is also required. These waste products in the process of manufacturing are then released in the environment. Hence the big question is how environment sustainable are the production of these shoes. When making these kinds of shoes these companies use the tag “going green shoes” in an effort to appeal to their target customers. By doing this they dupe the consumer into believing in wearing their shoes that they are indeed conserving their environment. The environment sustainability of the production of this kind of shoes is in doubt. For example the claim that the footwear produced by Nike reduces waste is in doubt. This is because the use of less material in making the shoe does not mean that less fuel used in the transportation of these shoes. There is also the use of dyes. Most of these dyes used are synthetic hence non-biodegradable. These dyes are made in factories. Most of these factories find it cheaper to release the water containing the dye after dying the fabric. The water containing dye finds itself in the rivers leading to environment degradation (Brit, 2012). In conclusion, the world has in the recent past seen a change of the culture of the consumers. The easier access to information has made the consumers to become more informed. The need to conserve the environment has made today’s consumers more demanding in terms of the kind of products they are using. This has also been necessitated by the need to focus on the effects of the future environment. This has made companies to come up with innovative ways to produce the kind of products that do not negatively affect the environment. However more need to be done by these companies that have adopted this theme of going green. This is because although they claim to use materials which are environmentally sustainable there is still a lot of invisible manufacturing process which remain unsustainable. References Brit, K. (2012) Green Cotton. Synthetic Dyes: A Look at Environment & Human Risks. Retrieved July 18, 2012 from http://greencotton.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/synthetic-dyes-a-look-at-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Bourdieu, P. (1978). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, M.A. Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C (1979) The inheritors: French Students and their Relations to Culture. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Peterson, R.A. & Kern, R. M.(1996) Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore. American Sociological Review, 61, 900-907. Ward, J. (2012). Puma Runs away From Leather In Pursuit Of Smaller Footprint. Retrieved July 11, 2012 from http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/10/puma-runs-away-leather-pursuit-smaller-footprint?page=0%2C2 Weininger, E. B. & Lareau, A. (2010) Cultural Capital. America Sociological Review 57, 201-245. Read More

This has in turn affected people preference to choose products that seem to favor environment protection. This has especially been observed mainly in the upper and middle classes. These groups comprises of the most informed members of the society. This has made many companies adopted the theme “going green” hence the name green business. Green Business In the recent past the world has witnessed an accelerated change in terms of climate. Man increased activities in the last few centuries have led to adverse effects in the environment.

More land has been cleared for cultivation as the world population increases. Industrial wastes have continuously been released in the environment. All this and many others have contributed to global warming. This had several effects such as the unpredictable weather conditions, rising sea levels among others. We will try to look at examples of companies who have adopted ways to mitigate future effects on the environment as they try to address the change in the consumer’s tastes and preferences.

Information technology has changed how people are able to access information. There is also easier flow of information making the world to become a global village. This has made people to become more informed. In today’s world more people are aware of how their daily activities are related to what is happening around them. For instance people have known that the things they do to their environment have a great impact on the climate in the future. This has had a great effect on the culture of the consumers.

There is now a shift in the kind of products the consumers prefer. This has made many companies to adopt the idea of “going green” in an effort to address this change of preferences. Take the case of Puma for example. Puma is a company based in Germany that produces leather sports footwear. It recently announced that it would soon reduce their dependence of leather for manufacturing their footwear. This was announced by Jochen Zeitz, their Executive chairman. He said that the company will soon give up their use of the leather materials in their athletic shoes because of what he referred as the ecological damage it does to the environment (Ward, 2012).

In the recent past the shoemakers have been offering alternatives to the footwear made of leather. This has been largely been dictated by the change in the tastes of consumers. More people nowadays are not only concerned with how comfortable the shoes are but also the design and the type of materials that has been used. It is only in the recent past that this trend has hit the footwear. The need for a sustainable brand by the younger generation has made the company look beyond leather. Puma has also produced suede sneakers which are made from recycled material.

The materials making the outside sole has been developed from rice husks. The traditional methods of producing footwear are becoming more expensive by the day. This is because today’s generation is having higher expectations concerning sustainability. This has made the company to look for more creative ways of looking for alternatives. Nike has entered in this race of sustainable footwear. It recently launched footwear completely made of yarn. This footwear is a light weight athletic shoe. This shoe has multiple sustainable features.

It has an added benefit in terms environment sustainability in that it reduces waste. It achieves this because it has only a single material on the one-piece upper as opposed to the traditional manufacture of the sports footwear which uses two. Although these companies have made these seemingly huge trends in trying making “environment friendly” modifications to their shoes their impact is yet to be ascertained. This is because the source of the materials is not the only contributor of environment degradation.

For the materials to be turned into the final product several processes are carried out. All these processes require some form of energy which is again sourced from the environment.

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