Abstract

Primary and secondary needs are considered to form the basis of the luxury concept. Luxury has been viewed as useless and superfluous because it belonged to the realm of desires instead of elementary needs. This definition has often been used to stigmatize the use and demonstration of luxury. The needs-wants dichotomy was severely criticized a few decennia ago. Luxury touches more than the question of necessity in society. We leave the classic concept of luxury in favor of a more sociological approach. The bounds between luxury and some specific product property have been cut through. There is no such thing as a luxury good comparable to categories like ‘cars’ or 'clothes.' Luxury is defined as a specific kind of sign value, used in processes of stratification. Therefore, we differentiate between horizontal and vertical stratification and active and passive luxury goods.

How to Cite:

Mortelmans, D., (1997) “Zien en gezien worden: naar een definitie van luxe-producten”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 18(3), 381–404. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86424