SUPERMARKET JAKO PRZESTRZEŃ ZNACZENIOWA. PRÓBA REKONSTRUKCJI PRZEKAZU IDEOLOGICZNEGO

Abstract

The article attempts to apply such a perspective o f viewing a life of a society the central point
 of which is an assumption on double status of most phenomenons taking place in it. On the one
 hand the phenomenons are instrumental ways enabling effective activity of individuals and groups
 and, on the other - they are compound systems of symbols and in the same time - media of
 transmitting ideologies and knowledge of proper modes of action what does legitimise certam
 types o f organisation of a society. An example o f using such a perspective is the analysis of a supermarket
 (done in the article) which here is considered first o f all as specific semantic field. Withm
 Polish context a supermarket is above all a symbol of social change operated during several last
 years; it is too a projection of ideal target points of this change and, by the same, it assumes a role
 of an instrument of socialisation which is supposed to inculcate in the individuals some new rules
 of game within reality. Organisation itself o f a supermarket, a way of displaying and exponing
 wares, its location within the urban area, some favourite types o f behaviour of visitors-buyers - all
 this does prove that in contemporary Poland a consumption became central kind of activity, and
 further - that many from hitherto existing distinctive features of individuals or groups have definitely
 lost their significance and are now replaced with new distinctions and inegalities; this all
 proves as well that the price paid for increased effectiveness of human activity and of its rationalisation
 is finally also an increase o f control over all of us. A supermarket seems also to suggest that
 ancient systems of values have already lost their regulative power and are nowadays replaced
 with new secular religion - doing shopping and consumption. The analysed semantic space is
 additionally such a context in which satisfying of instrumental needs is synonymous with putting
 new normative obligations on the individuals, obligations which play a role of an authorisation for
 these types of social organisations that have become the effect of transformation of the society. So,
 a supermarket not only permits to effectively satisfy needs but is also modelling them, it designates
 new aspirations and creates such a vision of the world which is becoming the only one authorised
 or qualified interpretation of our contemporary reality.