Against naive materialism: culture, consumption and the causes of inequality
批判主流经济学忽视商品文化意义的唯物主义倾向，基于森的能力理论分析消费的复杂性，揭示偏好形成的社会维度，并探讨不平等的深层文化根源。
Economic orthodoxy is narrowly materialistic in that it largely neglects the cultural significance of commodities. Taking as its starting point A. K. Sen's work on capabilities, the paper examines modern consumer theory and argues that consumption is an inherently complex activity that requires considerable knowledge and expertise and which cannot be adequately understood from an individualist point of view. It is argued that interpersonal comparisons are consequently more complicated than is suggested in Sen's work on capabilities, and that an inquiry into the cultural aspects of consumption encourages a reappraisal of the role of preferences and sheds light on the deeper causes of inequality. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.