Considering the consumption as a set of sociocultural processes in which the appropriation and the uses of the products take place, this article proposes a historical analysis of the main theories about this topic, emphasizing the analysis that examined the effects of subjectivity on the "consumer society". It presents and analyzes the first contributions for this discussion in Marx and in some authors from the Frankfurt School; it discusses the theoretical developments that borrow from Semiology a support for the understanding of the consumption behavior and it concludes with the presentation and analysis of some theories that consider the topic in the global context. The paper concludes with an exam of the importance of further studies about consumption, considering its multiple interfaces, economical, political, historical, social, cultural and psychological, and that raise, in the empiric exam, the concrete aspect of specific social spaces.
Consumption; Subjectivity; Culture; Globalization