The Democratization of the Status Game

Consumption has traditionally been a reliable indicator of one’s social status in society. In today’s marketplace, however, the sharing and digital economies are making signifiers of affluence and high culture more accessible than ever, and the markers that denote one’s position in the status game are becoming increasingly blurred. We posit that in an increasingly digitalized and platformized social and material world, the market changes and democratizes the status game. It emerges as a catalyst for adaptability, enabling more people than before to transcend or reshape embodied resources and emulate high status positions more easily. This does not mean that social class has lost its role; rather it puts into question what is considered a high-status possession, occupation or practice and propels the emergence of new cultural scripts that alter the rules of status signification. In this essay, we outline these dynamics and suggest directions for future research.