The Social Construction of Cultural Items

The term “social construct” refers to social phenomenon, such as race, gender and childhood, and how society treats these circumstances based on certain ethics determined by mankind. In cultures, there are norms and values that are apparent to everyone because of social construction. Social constructionism works because society creates it and behaves accordingly. For example, oppression of women was a norm in the past. Over time, gender roles have been socially constructed for women to be equated and it is now a social value to treat women as so. Another example is women as a labor force. Many cultures prefer women in assembly to men; however, other cultures have had substandard views about women, such as the Western demeanor towards women, disallowing female participation in labor. Globalization over time has helped to change that view and woman as labor are thriving in most cultures.

Social construction is propelled by globalization. Globalization is a process that includes social, economical, technological, and political advancement towards the goal of international integration and coexistence. One example of how globalization affects social construction is consumerism.

In the late nineteenth century, advertisement advanced a consumer society. Robbins stated, “[world] private and public consumption expenditures [reached] $24 trillion in 1998, twice the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950.” The drastic change in consumerism was caused by social construction. Robbins said, in the late nineteenth century, “People purchased only necessities…there was a major transformation of the meaning of goods and how they were presented and displayed.” Advertisement had become a type of merchandise in itself. “By 1929, advertising was an $11 billion enterprise…Finally by 2006, the United States alone spent $152 billion on advertising” (Robbins). In the early twentieth century, American society embraced consumerism and advertising by incorporating the promotion of consumption in institutions. Business programs were introduced in Universities. Advertisement and business themes were adopted by companies and agencies of all types (Robbins). Once the idea of consumerism was accepted by society, it became part of the culture. That is how social construction works. Society behaves a certain way and as it grows, it is constructed into part of regular life.

Consumerism is only one part of globalization and, also, the culture of capitalism. The culture of capitalism refers to people who live in a capitalist society. A capitalist economy functions with a combination of employment and consumerism resulting in more capital. Capital is all goods produced for exchange into financial wealth.