Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31337/oz.74.2.6
Consumer culture and identity economics: Consumer mentalities and interdisciplinary approaches
Lucija Mihaljević
; Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia
Borna Jalšenjak
orcid.org/0000-0001-5648-8146
; Zagreb School of Economics and Management, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper aspires to contribute to consumer culture discussions. It focuses on anthropologizing orthodox economic models through the paradigm of identity economics as portrayed in economic theory. The emphasis is on a comparison between the economics definition of identity and anthropological concepts. The conceptual framework of the analysis is based on anthropological structuralism — according to which tastes become a form of social differentiation — and also on the theoretical perspective of the objectification of culture in the global context. Empirical ethnographic material on consumer practices and experiences is examined using qualitative methodology in accordance with the rules of grounded theory. Expressive dimensions of the consumer culture are examined from a diachronic perspective of Croatian society starting from the second half of the twentieth century until today. The scope of this analysis includes the interrelationship between consumer practices with reference to a dominant department store during the socialist era and the same in modern shopping malls. The authors question structuralist principles, arguing in favor of the creative character of the identification processes. In illustrating narrative examples, they demonstrate how consumption can become a matter of subjectivity regardless of the economic transaction being realized or not. Research shows how material objects become symbols of individual identity both for those who use them and those who reject them. Finally, the paper affirms the benefits of a methodological shift in the direction of interdisciplinarity, i.e. the identity–based interpretation of consumer society and the necessity of attributing performative meaning to economic practices.
Keywords
identity economics; consumer culture; identification processes; socioeconomic structure; objectification; department store; shopping mall
Hrčak ID:
219969
URI
Publication date:
17.5.2019.
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