Class, consumption and quality of life

Traditionally quality of life opportunities in the city have been viewed in relation to class and production-based positions and in terms of access to collective consumption. Developing Saunders' arguments about the restructuring of British society in terms of private modes of consumption, this study assesses the significance of new spatial and social inequalities which arise from the restratification of society on the basis of consumption cleavages. It argues that there has been a failure within much recent research on the quality of life in the city to acknowledge the importance of the shifting attitudes among some population groups towards private modes of consumption. It examines the relations between experience of consumption and perceptions of what constitutes quality of life, by a national attitudinal survey. The results suggest that significant differences in consumption behaviour and attitudes exist and in part these account for the divergent patterns of quality of life, experiences by groups in British society and within different regions of Britain.