ABSTRACT
Originally published in 1899, Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class is probably the rst major sociological explanation of leisure, and certainly among the rst works to examine the function of consumption in everyday life. As a point of departure, Veblen assumed that people strive for status and to elevate their social position in the eyes of others. Veblen used the term pecuniary emulation to describe a ‘pervading trait of human nature’ by
which people seek favourable comparisons with others. Emulation is what drives people to grade themselves and others in terms of worth; this results in their avoiding individuals judged to be inferior in social stature, and mimicking the attitudes and behaviors of individuals thought to be respectable or prestigious. Although Veblen’s work is largely a criticism of the leisure class of nineteenth-century America, he recognized that emulation was practised across all socio-economic levels: ‘Members of each stratum accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum, and bend their energies to live up to that ideal’ (p. 84).
