Standards of taste and varieties of goodness: the (un)predictability of modern consumption

Very broadly speaking, there are three alternative understandings of the relationship between an object and its individual user. First, the value of an object is inherent to that object’s use in its capacity for satisfying its user’s needs or functions. Second, value is based on the individual’s subjective evaluation of the object in question, regarding its utility, capacity to give pleasure, etc. The third, culturalist, alternative is to understand the value of an object in terms of the cultural meaning assigned to it and shared by the members of a community. It is thus determined by its place in a