Conspicuous leisure

Concept

Idleness, by John William Godward, c. 1900 Part of a series on

Anti-consumerism

Theories and ideas

* Asceticism
* Affluenza
* Alternative culture
* Anti-capitalism
* Autonomous building
* Billboard hacking
* Buyer's remorse
* Bioeconomics
* Buddhist economics
* Buy Nothing Day
* Collaborative consumption
* Collapsology
* Commodification
* Commodity fetishism
* Commune
* Compulsive buying disorder
* Conspicuous consumption
* Consumer capitalism
* Consumerism
* Conviviality
* Criticism of advertising
* Culture jamming
* Do it yourself
* Downshifting
* Durable good
* Earth Overshoot Day
* Ecological economics
* Ecovillage
* Ethical consumerism
* Feminist political ecology
* Food loss and waste
* Freeganism
* Gift economy
* Green consumption
* Hyperconsumerism
* Laconophilia
* Local food
* Microgeneration
* Non-possession
* Overconsumption
* Planned obsolescence
* Right to repair
* Political ecology
* Post-consumerism
* Simple living
* Slow Food
* Steady-state economy
* Subvertising
* Sustainable consumer behaviour
* Sustainable consumption

Notable works

* Walden
* The Theory of the Leisure Class
* Brave New World
* The Affluent Society
* One-Dimensional Man
* The Society of the Spectacle (book, film)
* The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures [fr]
* Steal This Book
* Small Is Beautiful
* To Have or to Be?
* Future Primitive and Other Essays
* Fight Club (novel, film)
* Escape from Affluenza
* No Logo
* Profit over People: Neoliberalism
and Global Order

* The Cultural Creatives
* Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
* Evasion
* The Corporation
* Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers
* So, What's Your Price?
* What Would Jesus Buy?

Organizations and groups

* Adbusters
* Crass
* CrimethInc.
* Deep Green Resistance
* Democracy Now!
* Earth Liberation Front
* Fifth Estate
* Freecycle
* Green Anarchy
* Institute for Social Ecology
* Monthly Review
* Rage Against the Machine
* Reverend Billy
* The Venus Project
* The Yes Men
* 350.org

People

* Mauro Bonaiuti
* Noam Chomsky
* Erich Fromm
* Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
* Edward Goldsmith
* Paul Goodman
* André Gorz
* Ivan Illich
* Serge Latouche
* Donella Meadows
* Pierre Rabhi
* John Ruskin
* E. F. Schumacher
* Bernard Stiegler
* Henry David Thoreau

Related social movements

* Alter-globalization
* Amateurism
* Anarcho-communism
* Anarcho-primitivism
* Anarcho-punk
* Anti-capitalism
* Anti-corporate activism
* Anti-globalization movement
* Communism
* Diggers (theater)
* Ecofeminism
* Eco-socialism
* Environmentalism
* Food Not Bombs
* Fossil fuel phase-out
* Green anarchism
* Green left
* Green politics
* Hippie
* Libertarian socialism
* Neo-Luddism
* New Left
* Occupy Wall Street
* Postmodernism
* Punk
* Situationists
* Slow movement
* Social anarchism
* Social ecology

See also

* Advanced capitalism
* Advertising
* Barter
* Consumer behaviour
* Consumption (economics)
* Consumption (sociology)
* Cooperative
* Counterculture
* Disneyfication
* Ecological economics
* Economic materialism
* Economic problems
* Frugality
* Green economy
* Gross National Happiness
* Heterodox economics
* HospEx
* Illth
* Influence of mass media
* Informal sector
* Intentional community
* Left-wing politics
* McDonaldization
* Mutual aid
* Natural resource economics
* Non-monetary economy
* Permaculture
* Post-materialism
* Productivism
* Shopping
* Subsistence economy
* Sustainability
* Sweatshops
* Veblen good
* Workaholic

* v
* t
* e

Conspicuous leisure is a concept introduced by the American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Conspicuous or visible leisure is engaged in for the sake of displaying and attaining social status.[1]

The concept comprises those forms of leisure that seem to be fully motivated by social factors, such as taking long vacations to exotic places and bringing souvenirs back.[1] Conspicuous leisure is observed in all societies where stratification exists. Conspicuous leisure contributes to the glorification of non-productivity, thus validating the behavior of the most powerful classes and leading the lower classes to admire rather than revile the leisure class. This aids the leisure class in retaining their status and material position. Veblen's more well-known concept of "conspicuous consumption" is employed when non-productivity can be more effectively demonstrated through lavish spending.[2]

Veblen argued that conspicuous leisure had deep historical roots reaching back into prehistory, and that it "evolved" into different forms as time passed. One example he gave was how, during the Middle Ages, the nobility was exempted from manual labor, which was reserved for serfs.[3] Like owning land, abstaining from labor is a typical display of wealth and one that becomes more problematic as society develops into an industrial one.[4] With the emergence of individual ownership, the leisure class completely stops contributing to the wellbeing of their community. They no longer perform honor-positions, thus totally negating their usefulness to the society. And as society moves away from hunting and agriculture, and towards industrialization, the leisure class can no longer simply take resources from others. This is where Veblen offers us an image of the decaying Lord or Lady who has lost his or her fortune but is unable to engage in labor in order to live.[5] These wealthy elite see labor as menial and vulgar, yet once they can no longer live their worthy life of leisure they suffer from an inability to preserve themselves.[citation needed]

Veblen defines leisure as the non-productive consumption of time. The wealthy consume time unproductively due to a disgust of menial labor but also as evidence of their pecuniary ability to live idle lives. But there are moments when even the noble is not viewed publicly and then he must give a satisfactory account of his use of time.[6][7] Often his account will manifest through the appearance of servants or some sort of craftsmen. A material proof of leisure is another way that the noble demonstrates his wealth even when he is out of the public's eye. Objects or trophies or knowledge that has no real-world application are all examples of the things that the wealthy use to demonstrate their wealth and their leisure. Also, wearing high fashion garments is an example of display of consumption.[8] Displaying rules of etiquette and breeding, and formal and ceremonial observances are other demonstrations of unproductive (and therefore leisurely) uses of time.[9]

It is also not enough for the leisure class to live a life of idleness; their servants must also engage in the performance of leisure despite their position as hired help. They are given uniforms, spacious quarters and other material items that signal the wealth of their employer: the more lavish the servants' dress and quarters, the more money the master has to spend freely. This is an example of "conspicuous consumption", a form of conspicuous leisure.[9] House servants give the illusion of "pecuniary decency" to the household, despite the physical discomfort that the leisure class feels at the sight of servants, who produce labor.

## See also

[edit]

* Affluenza
* Celebrity culture
* Internet celebrity

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Scott, David (2016), "Conspicuous Leisure", The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, American Cancer Society, pp. 1–2, doi:10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos0704, ISBN 978-1-4051-6551-8
2. ^ "What does conspicuous leisure look like nowadays? | The Artifice". 17 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
3. ^ "Thorsten Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class: Chapter 3: Conspicuous Leisure". brocku.ca. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
4. ^ Gross, Daniel (2009-07-01). "No Rest for the Wealthy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
5. ^ "Leona Toker - Conspicuous Leisure and Invidious Sexuality in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park". Connotations. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
6. ^ "The Heavens: a photographic exploration of tax havens". 13 August 2015. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
7. ^ Bronner, Fred; de Hoog, Robert (2019-11-13). "Conspicuous leisure: The social visibility of cultural experiences". International Journal of Market Research. 63 (3): 300–316\. doi:10.1177/1470785319880715. ISSN 1470-7853.
8. ^ Carter, Michael. "Thorstein Veblen". LoveToKnow. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
9. ^ a b "The Hipster Labor of Conspicuous Leisure". politicsandculture.org. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved 2020-04-20.

* v
* t
* e

Institutional economics

Institutional economists|

* Werner Abelshauser
* Clarence Edwin Ayres
* Joe S. Bain
* Shimshon Bichler
* Robert A. Brady
* Daniel Bromley
* Ha-Joon Chang
* John Maurice Clark
* John R. Commons
* Richard T. Ely
* Robert H. Frank
* John Kenneth Galbraith
* Walton Hale Hamilton
* Orris C. Herfindahl
* Albert O. Hirschman
* Geoffrey Hodgson
* János Kornai
* Simon Kuznets
* Hunter Lewis
* Jesse W. Markham
* Wesley Clair Mitchell
* Gunnar Myrdal
* Jonathan Nitzan
* Warren Samuels
* François Simiand
* Herbert A. Simon
* Frank Stilwell
* George W. Stocking Sr.
* Lars Pålsson Syll
* Thorstein Veblen
* Edward Lawrence Wheelwright
* Erich Zimmermann

New institutional economists|

* Daron Acemoglu
* Armen Alchian
* Masahiko Aoki
* Steven N. S. Cheung
* Ronald Coase
* Harold Demsetz
* Avner Greif
* Claude Ménard
* Douglass North
* Mancur Olson
* Elinor Ostrom (Bloomington school)
* Oliver E. Williamson

Behavioral economists|

* George Ainslie
* Dan Ariely
* Nava Ashraf
* Ofer Azar
* Douglas Bernheim
* Samuel Bowles
* Sarah Brosnan
* Colin Camerer
* David Cesarini
* Kay-Yut Chen
* Rachel Croson
* Werner De Bondt
* Paul Dolan
* Stephen Duneier
* Catherine C. Eckel
* Armin Falk
* Urs Fischbacher
* Herbert Gintis
* Uri Gneezy
* David Halpern
* Charles A. Holt
* David Ryan Just
* Daniel Kahneman
* Djuradj Caranovic
* Ariel Kalil
* George Katona
* Jeffrey R. Kling
* George Loewenstein
* Graham Loomes
* Brigitte C. Madrian
* Gary McClelland
* Matteo Motterlini
* Sendhil Mullainathan
* Michael Norton
* Matthew Rabin
* Howard Rachlin
* Klaus M. Schmidt
* Eldar Shafir
* Hersh Shefrin
* Robert J. Shiller
* Uwe Sunde
* Richard Thaler
* Amos Tversky
* Robert W. Vishny
* Georg Weizsäcker

Economic sociologists|

* Jens Beckert
* Fred L. Block
* James S. Coleman
* Paul DiMaggio
* Paula England
* Mark Granovetter
* Donald Angus MacKenzie
* Joel M. Podolny
* Lynette Spillman
* Richard Swedberg
* Laurent Thévenot
* Carlo Trigilia
* Harrison White
* Viviana Zelizer

Key concepts and ideas|

* Accelerator effect
* Administered prices
* Barriers to entry
* Bounded rationality
* Conspicuous consumption
* Conspicuous leisure
* Conventional wisdom
* Countervailing power
* Effective competition
* Herfindahl index
* Hiding hand principle
* Hirschman cycle
* Instrumentalism
* Kuznets cycles
* Market concentration
* Market power
* Market structure
* Penalty of taking the lead
* Satisficing
* Shortage economy
* Structure–conduct–performance paradigm
* Technostructure
* Theory of two-level planning
* Veblen goods
* Veblenian dichotomy

Related fields|

* Cultural economics
* Development economics
* English historical school of economics
* Evolutionary economics
* Evolutionary psychology
* French historical school
* Historical school of economics
* Legal realism
* Microeconomics
* Post-Keynesian economics

* v
* t
* e

Thorstein Veblen

Books|

* The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
* The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904)
* The Engineers and the Price System (1921)

Concepts|

* Conspicuous consumption
* Conspicuous leisure

Miscellaneous|

* Institutional economics
* Evolutionary economics
* Thorstein Veblen Farmstead
* Veblen-Commons Award
* Veblen good

* v
* t
* e

Extreme wealth

Concepts|

* Capital accumulation
* Overaccumulation
* Economic inequality
* Wealth distribution
* Income distribution
* Consumption distribution
* History of economic inequality
* International inequality
* Elite
* Oligarchy
* Overclass
* Plutocracy
* Plutonomy
* Broligarchy
* Primitive accumulation of capital
* Upper class
* Nouveau riche (new money)
* Vieux riche (old money)
* Luxury goods
* Veblen goods
* Conspicuous consumption
* Conspicuous leisure
* Luxury beliefs

People|

* Billionaire
* Captain of industry
* High-net-worth individual
* UHNWI
* Magnate
* Business
* Millionaire
* Oligarch
* Business
* Russian
* Ukrainian
* Robber baron

Wealth|

* Concentration
* Distribution
* Dynastic
* Effect
* Geography
* Inherited
* Management
* National
* Paper
* Religion
* Tax

Lists|

| People|

* Forbes list of billionaires
* List of centibillionaires
* Female billionaires
* Richest royals
* Wealthiest Americans
* Wealthiest families

|

Organizations|

* Largest companies by revenue
* Largest corporate profits and losses
* Largest corporations by market capitalization
* Largest financial services companies by revenue
* Largest manufacturing companies by revenue
* Largest software companies by revenue
* Largest technology companies by revenue
* Religious organizations
* Charities
* Philanthropists
* Universities
* Endowment size
* Number of billionaire alumni

Other|

* Cities by number of billionaires
* Countries by number of billionaires
* Countries by total wealth
* Countries by wealth inequality
* Wealth inequality in the United States
* Income inequality in the United States
* Most expensive items
* by category
* Wealthiest animals

Related|

* Diseases of affluence
* Affluenza
* Acquired situational narcissism
* Argumentum ad crumenam
* Prosperity theology

Philanthropy|

* Gospel of Wealth
* The Giving Pledge
* Philanthrocapitalism
* Venture philanthropy

Sayings|

* The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
* Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor
* Too big to fail

Media|

* Das Kapital
* Plutus
* Greek god of wealth
* Superclass
* List
* The Theory of the Leisure Class
* Wealth
* The Wealth of Nations

* Category
* by country

* v
* t
* e

Population

Major topics|

* Demographics of the world
* Demographic transition
* Estimates of historical world population
* Population growth
* Population momentum
* Human population projections
* World population

Population
biology

* Population decline
* Population density
* Physiological density
* Population dynamics
* Population model
* Population pyramid

Population
ecology

* Biocapacity
* Carrying capacity
* I = P × A × T
* Kaya identity
* Malthusian growth model
* Overshoot (population)
* World3 model

Society and
population|

* Eugenics
* Dysgenics
* Human overpopulation
* Malthusian catastrophe
* Human population planning
* Compulsory sterilization
* Dependency ratio
* Family planning
* One-child policy
* Two-child policy
* Overconsumption
* Political demography
* Population ethics
* Antinatalism
* Intergenerational equity
* Mere addition paradox
* Natalism
* Non-identity problem
* Reproductive rights
* Sustainable population
* Zero population growth

Publications|

* Population and Environment
* Population and Development Review

Lists|

* Population and housing censuses by country
* Dependency ratio
* Largest cities
* World population milestones
* 6 billion
* 7
* 8
* Population concern organizations

Events and
organizations

* 7 Billion Actions
* Church of Euthanasia
* International Conference on Population and Development
* Population Action International
* Population Connection
* Population Matters
* United Nations Population Fund
* United Nations world population conferences
* Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
* World Population Conference
* World Population Day
* World Population Foundation

Related topics|

* Bennett's law
* Green Revolution
* Human impact on the environment
* Migration
* Net migration rate
* Sustainability

* Commons
* Category

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template