City, Culture and Consumption: A Study on Youth in Dhaka City from 1990 – 2015

Abstract

Fundamental changes in various aspects of the world have been noticed in the last two decades, where technology and the mass media play an important role in the appearance of such changes. They are modifying all aspects of the life of cities, political, economic and cultural. Globalization which resulted from the use of ICTs affected the cities of the world; it has sharpened the basic conflict between the old and the new. In main stream sociology, consumption is an important concept which has a great influence on making changes in different aspect of society as well as it is also being influenced by various facts that make it a result of change .In the last 25 years Bangladesh is going under a lot of changes among these the change in consumption is a recognized one. It is said that youths are the change makers and they accept any kind of change with open arms. So , in order to analyze the consumption culture of youth in Dhaka city of last 25 years this study has been conducted under the title of “ City, Culture and Consumption: A Study on Youth in Dhaka City from 1990 – 2015”. The main objective of the study is to find out whether any kind of change took place in the consumption pattern of youth in Dhaka during last 25 years and if any kind of change has taken place than what is the reason behind this kind of change. Another concern of the study was that whether Globalization had any kind of impact on the consumption pattern of youth. To find out these issues a mixed method research had been conducted where sample size was 250 including 10 in - depth interview. The respondents were divided in to three clusters .From 1990 – 1996 has been made as the period before internet age, from 1997 – 2006 as 2nd cluster which is made as VSAT base data circuit was commissioned for the first time in the country and the launching of three giant mobile companies suac as Grameen, Aktel and Banglalink and finally 2007 – 2015 cluster had been made as Bangladesh got connected to the SEA-ME-WE 4 Submarine cable in 2006.In the study three main areas have been chosen to analyze the changes in consumption pattern among youth such as food habit, entertainment and lifestyle & fashion. As consumption is a vast area and only one theory is not enough for explain this concept different theories have been analyzed to explain the changes among youths in the last 25 years regarding consumption culture such as Harvey’s theory of Time Space Compression, Baudrillard’s theory of consumption and Hyperreality, Ritzer,s theory of Macdonalization, Peter Corigan’s theory of Consumption and finally the theories of cultural globalization. Through the analysis of survey data and interviews along with the consideration of the mentioned theories it can be concluded that food habit of the youths has been changed in the last 25 years and the respondents of all the three cluster agreed that effects of western culture is the reason behind this kind of change. It is also found that Going to first food restaurant as well as frequency of going there is higher among the 2nd and 3rd cluster compare to 1st cluster. Regarding the entertainment it is found that favorite forms of entertainment as well as favorite type of movie, music, channel is taken place by Hoolywood and Bollywood items and all of these are result of different kinds of technological innovation as well as Globalization. Findings in the sector of fashion and clothing is much more interesting. It is found from the study that the youths of 2nd and 3rd cluster had started to like foreign products, shop in the branded store, wear accessories etc. Again the youths have become more conscious about their physique, figure and beauty. Going to parlor and gym has increased sharply in among the youths of 2nd and 3rd cluster in comparison with 1st . So it can be concluded that consumption pattern of youths during the last 25 years has changed remarkably and this change is caused by different aspect of globalization such as cultural, technological, economic etc.