Abstract:

The capitalist economic system is fed by the ideology of increasing consumption and maintaining this situation. Lifestyles, identities and cultural practices are constantly reproduced on the axis of this ideology. Today, individuals live in a daily life space where they are addicted to fashion and what is constantly renewed. Consumption practices, guided by the symbolic values of consumption objects, have been a means of class mobility for individuals in different income groups as a status indicator. Certain types of consumption practices have become the means and purpose of creating a lifestyle, ensuring its continuity, and creating differences by making use of the artificial attractiveness of consumption objects. The motivation to be different from the other has become possible with consumption practices that are reproduced, valued and given meaning, which have the potential to indicate the social position, class position and prestige of the individual. In this article, the dynamics and dimensions of differentiation and separation forms embodied by consumption practices are discussed through the concept of the new middle class. In this study, the development of consumer culture, how consumption affects our daily life, its relationship with class differentiation, are discussed in the axis of consumption practices of the new middle classes. Today, consumption that comes to the fore with its symbolic dimension, has been discussed with the concepts of identity, class, separation and differentiation. In this context, firstly the concept of the new middle class and secondly, the theoretical discussions on the consumption culture and the development of the consumer society are discussed in the study. It has been discussed how consumption shapes the daily life of individuals and how it is positioned in a central place in the individual's self-perception and relations with others.

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