Resistance to consumerism on the example
of the discourse on school uniforms and communion
costumes
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1
Wyższa Szkoła Gospodarki Euroregionalnej
im. Alcie De Gasperi w Józefowie
2
Akademia Humanistyczna im. Aleksandra Gieysztora
Publication date: 2015-06-30
JoMS 2015;25(2):65-85
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Th is article is a part of a critical perspective analysis of modern society.
Th e author is convinced that such choice of the research problem: discourse
about school costumes and fi rst communion costumes, may help
to understand the processes of social change taking place in Poland for
at least twenty-fi ve years. Th e article is an attempt to show the symptoms
of anti-consumerist attitudes in the Polish society on the examples of the
discourse about school costumes and fi rst communion costumes. Th e
theoretical frames in which the author puts his analysis are composed by
notions created by Rolandes Barthes and Pierre Bourdieu. By implementing
a discourse analysis in some texts chosen from Internet, the author
shows three types of arguments used by opponents and followers of uniform
costumes: utility, aesthetic and ideological. Th e author claims that
some of the analyzed statement of followers of uniform costumes could
be interpreted as an element of opposition, although they don’t use the
term “consumerism”. All arguments referring to redundancy of rich and
varied costume which are available only for more wealthy families suggest
a connection of such discourse with resistance against consumerism.