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Definition: consumption from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

In economics, the purchase of goods and services for final use, as opposed to providing for future production.

Two types of consumption are measured: consumers' expenditure (spending by household) and government consumption.

Consumption

From The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
The ultimate utilization of goods and services by consumers, excluding the products used in the production of other goods (i.e., the machinery used to make the goods). The term is derived from the Latin consumere , to use up, generally referring to food, which, in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, constituted commodity consumption for most people. While the majority of one's income was spent on food in the 16th century, by the 18th century more of the population had become consumers in the modern sense of the word. Consumption has evolved to include the use of products or goods for one's satisfaction beyond immediate needs. This subjective view is associated foremost with the economist and political philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Consumption, primarily determined by income and price, is closely linked to production and the wholesale and retail trades, thus creating the foundation of a modern capitalist society. While manufacturers seek to increase consumption through…
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'The packaging and display of commodities is a...
Consumption has emerged as one of the key concepts in the social sciences over the last two decades, spawning a vast literature and research agenda, and crossing disciplinary boundaries from sociology to economics, psychology to anthropology. Geographers have contributed to this debate in two main…
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Full text Article Consumption

From Key Concepts in Sports Studies
(see also Capitalism ; Postmodernism ) Closely associated with the development of forms of consumer capitalism (the consumer society), the issue of consumption became an important area of sociological analysis during the 1960s ( Burns, 1966 ). However, it is in the last decades of the twentieth…
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From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Consumption is the meaningful use people make of the objects that are associated with them. The use can be mental or material; the objects can be things, ideas or relationships; the association can range from ownership to contemplation. This definition is broad and vague because anthropologists have…
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Full text Article consumption

From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
A somewhat nebulous concept which has only recently been used extensively by sociologists, it remains primarily a topic of interdisciplinary attention, with the related concept “consumer” more widely deployed, especially in economics, psychology, and marketing. Its growing importance arose from…
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Full text Article CONSUMPTION

From Poverty: An International Glossary
Much of the discussion on poverty and standards of living in the industrialized countries has focused, particularly in the 1980s and 1990’s, on using income (amended in various ways) to measure living standards (Saunders 1996). However, Atkinson (1990) has argued that what determines people’s…
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Full text Article Consumption

From The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies
To consume suggests to use or to ingest. Thus the process of cultural consumption in capitalist societies concerns the use to which the commodities that circulate in the market place are put. In particular, consumption in the context of cultural studies is centred on the generation of meanings in…
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From Collins Dictionary of Sociology
the process in which goods or services are used to satisfy economic needs. In comparison with production, sociologists have paid less attention to consumption. Often it has been viewed as a ‘mere reflection of production (see UNDERCONSUMPTION AND OVERPRODUCTION ).When attention has focused on…
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From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in economics, direct utilization of goods and services by consumers, not including the use of means of production, such as machinery and factories (see capital ). Consumption can be divided into public and private sectors. Consumption is also viewed as a basically subjective phenomenon, with…
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From International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Glossary Actor-network theory (ANT) A body of theory associated with science studies and, in particular, the work of Bruno Latour, John Law, and Michel Callon. ANT involves a material-semiotic method. The aim is to understand how people, ideas, technologies, …
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From Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
Consumption—the using up of goods and services by consumers—is considered to be the final step in the production process and the ultimate purpose of production. While the term “consumption” can include both capital consumption and nonproductive consumption, it generally is restricted to mean…
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