SUPERMARKET JAKO PRZESTRZEŃ ZNACZENIOWA. PRÓBA REKONSTRUKCJI PRZEKAZU IDEOLOGICZNEGO
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Date
1998
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Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM
Title alternative
SUPERMARKET AS SEMANTIC FIELD
Abstract
The article attempts to apply such a perspective o f viewing a life of a society the central point
of which is an assumption on double status of most phenomenons taking place in it. On the one
hand the phenomenons are instrumental ways enabling effective activity of individuals and groups
and, on the other - they are compound systems of symbols and in the same time - media of
transmitting ideologies and knowledge of proper modes of action what does legitimise certam
types o f organisation of a society. An example o f using such a perspective is the analysis of a supermarket
(done in the article) which here is considered first o f all as specific semantic field. Withm
Polish context a supermarket is above all a symbol of social change operated during several last
years; it is too a projection of ideal target points of this change and, by the same, it assumes a role
of an instrument of socialisation which is supposed to inculcate in the individuals some new rules
of game within reality. Organisation itself o f a supermarket, a way of displaying and exponing
wares, its location within the urban area, some favourite types o f behaviour of visitors-buyers - all
this does prove that in contemporary Poland a consumption became central kind of activity, and
further - that many from hitherto existing distinctive features of individuals or groups have definitely
lost their significance and are now replaced with new distinctions and inegalities; this all
proves as well that the price paid for increased effectiveness of human activity and of its rationalisation
is finally also an increase o f control over all of us. A supermarket seems also to suggest that
ancient systems of values have already lost their regulative power and are nowadays replaced
with new secular religion - doing shopping and consumption. The analysed semantic space is
additionally such a context in which satisfying of instrumental needs is synonymous with putting
new normative obligations on the individuals, obligations which play a role of an authorisation for
these types of social organisations that have become the effect of transformation of the society. So,
a supermarket not only permits to effectively satisfy needs but is also modelling them, it designates
new aspirations and creates such a vision of the world which is becoming the only one authorised
or qualified interpretation of our contemporary reality.
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Citation
Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny 60, 1998, z. 3-4, s. 397-417