The Cosmology of Consumption in households: The change of taste and beauty and the emotion of Thai middle class family in 1980s-2000s

Abstract

This article aims at explaining the change in middle-class families about activities and the relationship among family members. This paper focuses on the household consumption and argues that after the Cold War era the Thai government excluded politics from the society and redefined home and family to be the smallest social unit that the State could control. Home was also the “Emotional Refuge” from everyday life problems for many people. As the economy grew remarkably in the 1980s, the number of middle-class families grew as well. These people were the targets of the marketing and advertisement business which moved in the rapid stream of information. Television program, books, and print media were the significant media that provided information as well as new experience about beauty and aesthetics through visual culture and consumption. The products that they purchased including luxury goods which determined the taste and aesthetics of middle-class families. Under this circumstance, the middle-class aesthetics would create a network of taste regardless of where they are-whether in Bangkok (the capital of consumption), or in the provincial cities.