Consumption is originally treated as the distributive aspect of social classes. Recently, it is widely proposed that process of consumption has been much more central to sociological analysis. Scholars have begun taking steps to develop the sociology of consumption. Sociological dimensions of consumption, however, remain an area in need of theoretical framework and methodological work.;In transition socialist societies, no area of social inequality is more important and less explored than social divisions associated with consumption. In socialist societies, the stratification processes are determinated by redistributive economies in which bureaucratic powers monopolize resources allocation and reward distribution. Socialist practice has administratively provided a strict wage system but in the meantime, has created nonwage income as a vehicle to reward the political positions in redistributive hierarchies with a sense of consolidating the communist power. In this sense, one's true income consists of nominal income and nonwage rewards. Stratification scholars tended to examine income inequality but left a larger component of nonwage rewards unconsidered. This study initiates a consumption-based approach using household expenditure as indicator to explore an expansion of social divisions associated with consumption.;I formulate a comprehensive framework of consumption patterns, using survey data from Guangdong China to demonstrate a series of structures that lead to social divisions associated with consumption. Following the multiple-regression analysis of consumption patterns, I further delve into another neglected area as reflected by consumption patterns. In the transition socialist society, Chinese households acted boldly in the pursuit of home appliances. The involvement of symbolism with consumer behavior indicates that symbolic consumer behaviors have moved in the direction of a unequalizing trend for Chinese households. I offer an analytic framework to exhibit the effects of the family constraints on symbolic consumer behaviors. Detailed analysis of symbolic consumer behavior as reflected in the ownership of home appliances is carried out so as to further support my argument that consumption-based social divisions become the key dimensions of redistributive economies and consumption provides a crucial way to the analysis of social inequality.
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