Article begins with a detailed analysis of the evolution of the
concepts of lifestyle and of the research approaches to it,
starting from the classics of sociology Marx, Weber and Veblen, and
going on to authors like Chapin, Sewell, Barber, Sobel, Tumin,
Myers, Gutman, Chaney, Zablocki, Kanter, Crompton, Warde,
Longhurst, Savage, Lazer, Levy, Moore, Plummer, McCracken and
others; special attention is devoted to the views of Bourdieu and
Featherstone. The author argues that, despite the close proximity
between the concepts of lifestyle and way
of life, the two are not synonymous.
Unlike 'way of life', 'lifestyle' emphasizes the activeness
of the agent and the choices he/she makes
among the various options at his/her disposal. Lifestyle is a
characteristic and distinctive way of life. Since social-group
formations are active in their lifestyle and can choose it,
lifestyle is a significant indicator of their status. In modern
societies it is a result of their activity; through it they delimit
themselves from some social-structure formations and draw closer to
others. The way of life, unlike lifestyle, is determined by
the social-group status of individuals and groups, and is
a result of that status.
According to the author's view, some of the phenomena pertaining
to lifestyle are: the complete set of typical and distinctive
particularities and characteristics of activities other than paid
labor, activities that can be freely chosen or done out of
necessity but in ways specific to the individual or group, as well
as all the subjective assessments, attitudes and feelings
of satisfaction related to those activities. Lifestyle,
although at first glance a product of individual choice,
goes beyond individual distinctiveness; through it
individuals can express themselves and their preferences, but it
remains, nevertheless, something pertaining to the
social-group and is a form of collective
identity. Lifestyle creates social bonds
between people and significantly delimits,
distinguishes social-formations from one another.
Lifestyle is defined as a
synthesis, a unity stabilized through the social-group, a unity of
specific, typical and distinguishable consumption patterns, leisure
patterns of individuals, of various distinctive activities, apart
from paid labor, as well as the evaluations, attitudes and
satisfaction related to them. Lifestyle (similar in this respect to
consumption patterns and leisure patterns) is
structure-defining for social subjects and is
among the key indicators of social-group status in
postmodern society.
Lifestyle acquires the characteristics describe above at a
definite stage of social-historical development, more precisely, in
postmodern society. Analyzed in the article are the basic concepts
regarding the postmodern and postmodernism as presented in the
works of authors C. Wright Mills, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Lash,
Jameson, Mandel, Featherstone, Inglehart, Clarke, Giddens, Chaney,
Savage, Barlow, Fielding, Beck, Bauman, and others. The conclusion
is that postmodern society essentially shows a change not only in
values and cultural practices, but also in the mechanisms of social
structuring. It is based on a new type of social
structuring, in which lifestyle plays an important and
decisive role, the middle strata are markers of
the particularities and development of the society, and
local communities have an increasingly important
presence and role in public life in general. Owing to these
characteristics, postmodern society is qualitatively
different from modern society, and its emergence is
brought about by important changes in the social organization of
production and labor, by the development of science, education,
information and communication technologies, mass production and
mass consumption. The process of important social-economic,
structural, cultural, political and value changes through which
society passes to its postmodern stage, is designated by the term
'post modernization'. The latter took place in the developed
Western societies and Japan in the 1970s, while in Bulgaria and the
other societies of Central and Eastern Europe, it has become
evident since the mid 1990s.
Key words: lifestyle, postmodern society,
postmodernization