Sociedade de consumo e juventude: uma análise a partir das práticas de consumo e identidade dos jovens vinculados ao Fundo de Financiamento Estudantil - FIES

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between consumer society and youth. The focus was on young people from low-income families, who use student public funding programs as FIES-Student Financing Fund in institution of high education/universities, located in the metropolitan region of Recife-PE. Authors such as Baudrillard, Bauman and Featherstone characterized the current society as a consumer society. The term expresses relationships between individuals, mediated by mass consumption and market, taken as defining keys for identity in Post modernity. The analysis of the consumer society referred to identity, revealed various elements of symbolic order in a postmodern considered reality. The different approaches towards this phenomenon tend to take perceptions that link various subjects to a common field, through the products and services consumed. From this point of view, different groups of young people were analyzed, among others, consumers eager for expansion of its network affiliation through the acquisition of different items on the market. This research based on qualitative methods and non-probability nature, was carried out through focus group techniques. It was possible to identify elements for analysis of the following issues: 1. How does market influence the consumption practices of young people from low-income education funding programs? 2. Is there a relationship between identity and consumer practice in young people from low-income families? 3. How do consumer culture and market creates collective identity among the young people of the low-income classes? The present study examined the relationships between society, consumer culture, classes and youth. This research contributes for future studies adopting the dialectic approach of the consumer society through knowledge about the practice of consumption by young people. The analysis of the results showed the importance and the significant role of consumption in life within society, in particular within a significant portion of this society who are young students and workers belonging to low-income classes, that to pursue the acquisition of goods and services, aim to ensure their identity and affiliation with the groups in which they are belonging.