Consumption Culture and Consumption of Catfish - Essay Example

? Consumer Culture In some cases, people have the different preferences of the commodities they can use as products for their foods and those that they can use for other purposes. In this respect, people have different perspectives of looking at the foods they use and derive different perception on the commodity because of their social and economic perspectives. Consumption of fish has many things that can explain the different circumstances under which the foods are consumed and the different explanation that have economic connotations that people have on fish. The kind of fish that is available for consumers is equally important in explaining the different perspectives from which fish is consumed either locally or far away from the place of its production. Catfish is one of the types of fish that people consume, which differentiate the consumers along different lines of the economy, society and political differences. Through this differentiation, people have different perspectives of looking at the catfish both from the perspective they may have from the influence they have from their culture and social ties. The analysis of production and consumption of catfish will help in explaining the various reasons that make it a consumer product of a specific group of people within a society, which may mean a lot of structure formulation within a society. The analysis focuses on the sources of catfish and the places in which it is a common form of food while in some others; it could be a rare commodity (Tucker and Hargreaves, 2004, p.27). Catfish are popularly produced in different places in the world as one of the small-fish that people consume as food for their own and which they sell to a few people around their environment. However, research shows that production of small-fish in sector of fishing is an aquaculture that usually target different people who fall in the low economic classes in the society. In the economy, consumption of these small-fish is therefore, related to specific people in the country who could be a having similar general characteristic (Tucker and Hargreaves, 2004, p.39). Catfish is mostly common among the Vietnamese who invest in production of the organisms for food in different place in both large-scale and small-scale levels of the economy. This production is facilitated by the demand that is raised for the food that that has some contents of fish and the different levels of production of catfish through the aquaculture technology implies the different demanding issues that surround food fish production within the society. In this respect, when food fish demand increases, people have adopted various ways through which they can improve the amount of products they obtain from their investment. In the Vietnamese culture, fish are highly regarded and therefore, people adopt aquaculture in order to meet the local demands as well as the needs of others that are away from the country. In the aquaculture for production of the catfish species of the fish, there are different factors that favour the production in the area, which motivate people to invest in the production as a mode of subsistence or as a commercial activity. In order to produce, people depend on different opportunities that the environment offers, which help people to exploit it for their benefit. In this respect, people have different ways through which they produce the catfish to the different market in Vietnam or away from the country. The most common factors that are important in determining the production of the catfish include the sources of water where the fish will grow, the availability of fingerlings that grow to be the mature catfish and the space that is available for people in to establish their production and the aquaculture. In most cases, people who invest in aquaculture try to establish their production by varying the conditions in the condition of the environment to allow the production even in places that are not very favourable for production. This aquaculture in different places is regulated according the sizes of the pieces of land that are available and in which they establish the feature. For instance, all have different focus on varying markets, which have ability to influence a large group of people who participate in aquaculture. In Vietnam, there are different factors that influence the aquaculture that causes it to produce various kinds of consumer commodities even in different situations of production and at different stages of the process. This has offered insight in the production of catfish in different parts of the world, as a source of food to a small group of people. On the other hand, the production of catfish in different places in Vietnam offers insight in to the forms of production. The analysis of the population of the people that carries out production as well as those who consume the products, helps in explanation of the different sociological and economic perspectives in consumption of them (Tucker and Hargreaves, 2004, p.41). Consumption of catfish depends on different things that vary from the choice and preferences, prices of the commodity and availability of the specific types of the fish in the market. Catfish in this case becomes an alternative for some people who want to eat fish, which have different in terms of the various aspects of the commodity they have in the market. In most cases in the production and consumption of small fish in the world, those who invest in the aquaculture for small fish are people of low class in the society (Tucker and Hargreaves, 2004, p.57). This means socially, consumption of catfish extends the existing social structures and distinctions because production of it associates with people that are distinct and specific according to the social stratifications of a society. For instance, while fish food is on high demand in the Vietnamese culture, the type of fish that different people invest in production and those, which certain people buy for consumption, depend on the individual in the market (Schor, 2007, p.18). In use and production of catfish, some characters of the people display themselves in that those who invest in production and consumption are the people who are little spenders. In this case, it shows that the people who rely on catfish have low economic power to engage the fish market at different levels and at different situations because those who depend on it a low-income earners. In this case, people classify themselves by the simple fact that they use catfish for food or they invest in production for them for commercial purposes. This is because that the venture to invest in aquaculture for production of catfish is lower than other types of fish, which are bigger in size because they need a lot of investments to obtain fingerlings and provide food for them (Slater, 1969, p. 183). According to the different aspects of the humans, people use a certain consumer product to show to others that they belong to a specific social class that is highly privileged. In some cases, however, people who do not have economic power to obtain things that are reserved for high class opt for the low price commodities. This implies that consumption of any consumer product has a social connotation because those choose a specific commodity have experience with it according to rigorous processes of socialisation, which makes a person to adopt various values and habits towards specific products. In many cases, the cultures of specific classes in the society may not favour a person to produce or consume a specific product; however, to identify with the people of the same class, people choose the product that fit their class. Catfish are generally highly consumed by different people from the low class of economy and this means that high-class individuals cannot consume the product (Featherstone, 2007, p. 43). In some cases, the products that individuals consume imply their social stability and economic ability as not all the people can be able to sustain a culture of buying a certain commodity consistently. In this case, it means that people identify themselves with products they buy regularly from the market because it shows that they can sustain themselves in the same production in the market (Probyn, 1969, p.59). Those who are poor and earn little money cannot buy continuously highly priced fish but are likely to sustain themselves in buying and consuming catfish, which is lowly prices and may not constrain them in the market. This implies that by the simple fact of consistently buying the catfish or engaging in aquaculture for catfish, a person will be associated with a low class, which is generally as predetermined by social definitions for what is high class or low class. It means that consumption is one of the aspects of life that can be used to determine the class identity of the individual who purchase and consume specific commodity from the market (Slater, 1969, p.176). Even in production and consumption of various commodities in the market, the issues of power and dominance are common in the context of production. This implies that those people who have the ability to buy products of high quality and are regarded by others rank themselves higher with respect to those who cannot afford them. The companies that produce and sell to the market devise different ways through which they can attract customers to buy the products that they offer in the market. The preferences they could use include varying the taste, quality and quantity of the products they offer to the market for consumers and these factors become the bases for segmentation in the market (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2008, p.409). Through this, producers know that the specific people will purchase specific product they have in the market and this will inform their methods of production to ensure sustainability (Hennion, 2007, p.99). In production of consumer products, there are things that producers factor in to ensure that consumers buy their products. These factors help them to classify the market according to the social specification and other economic classification that determine the buying ability of individual in the market. Quality and quantity of the product are not the few factors that consumers in a market may focus on but the social perspective from which people look at the products they have become an important consideration in choosing the segment they can focus on. Through the analysis of the social, economic and quality of the products, producers are able to price them in ways that are able to give them adequate returns as well as ensure that the business they establish is sustainable. However much people will try to refuse the relationship between the consumption and the sociological factors, different factors indicate its existence. References Featherstone, M., (2007). Consumer culture and postmodernism. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Hennion, A., (2007). Those Things That Hold Us Together: Taste and Sociology. Cultural Sociology Volume 1 Number 1. Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2008). Foundations of business. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub. Probyn, E., (1969). The Commonwealth of Australia: In the Interest of Taste and Place: Economies of Attachment. Sydney, University of Sydney. Slater, D., (1969). The Commonwealth of Australia: The sociology of Consumption and Lifestyle. Sydney, University of Sydney. Schor, J.B., (2007). In Defence of Consumer Critique: Revisiting the Consumption Debate of the Twentieth Century. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Tucker, C. S., & Hargreaves, J. A. (2004). Biology and culture of channel catfish. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Read More