Search

Discussions of the rise of therapeutic culture have tended toward the abstract, in part due to a focus on theory. This article looks at the case of Ernest Dichter's motivational research, particularly a study conducted on fur coats in the late 1950s, to locate this broader cultural shift more materially. Motivational research was a broad project of study that aimed to uncover unconscious consumer desires using the tools of psychology and psychoanalysis. This project materialized culture first through the pen‐and‐paper projective test created for the study, which sorted styles of fur into different classifications of womanhood, and second through the fur coats themselves, which were granted by Dichter a psychological agency of their own in their relationship with middle‐class women. Through this study, Dichter observed a shift in Americans' understanding of the self, a movement away from meeting physiological needs to addressing their inner lives; changing economic conditions had granted more income and free time with which to look inward, and Americans wanted consumer goods to aid in such self‐discovery. Dichter suggested that the fur industry capitalize on this change by emphasizing the versatility of fur and the role of objects more generally in fostering creative self‐expression. The advertising office was where theory was put into practice. In that way, it is a uniquely generative though often overlooked space from which to look into the rise of the therapeutic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online consumption communities play a significant role in the life of many consumers. These communities remove temporal and spacial boundaries, allowing consumers to convene online to connect over a shared consumption interest anytime and from anywhere. The objective of this special issue is to advance our understanding of online consumption communities and stimulate future research in this exciting research domain. Eight papers are included that present cutting-edge research exploring three issues: (1) governance and conflict management in online consumption communities, (2) implications of community membership for individual and societal well-being, and (3) drivers of community success under different ownership structures. In this introductory editorial, each of the papers and its contribution is briefly overviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of different metrics to quantify the impact of scholarly work in Family and Consumer Sciences, for scholars involved in the tenure and promotion process. Even though each institution will have their set of rules, most professors in university settings are increasingly subjected to monitoring and evaluation of their research outputs. This paper describes several metrics that are valid and reliable including age of the journal, acceptance rate, ISI impact factors, the SJR journal ranking, and the journals' h-index. Two author-level metrics, the Hirsh h-index and the HLA index, are described. In the remainder of the article, three other quantifiable criteria are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to an expanding body of research that has analysed the interactional foundations of economic activity, and price determination, by quantifying the financial implications of different micro-interactional practices. Drawing on video recordings of naturalistic interaction the paper analyses a simple consumer choice, whether to pay one of two prices, the lower 'standard' price (£8.00) or the higher 'gift aid' (£8.80) price, to enter an arts institution. Utilizing resources from conversation analysis, the paper analyses different ways of posing this choice. It describes how, as interactional constraints tighten, standard prices become less socially desirable and customers increasingly 'volunteer' to pay the higher price. The paper contributes to sociological understandings of economic activity, demonstrating how simple one-off choices, and prices, are accountably responsive to micro-interactional structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise of this paper is that the consumption behaviour of ‘Northern’ citizens places Majority World citizens at great risk. A theoretical evolution suggested in this paper is the extension of the notion of risky consumption to include the impact of consumption on the human security of others. Until people can envision that their consumption behaviour places others at risk of exposure to harm, they will not see the need to perceive, assess and manage the risk. The paper tenders a preliminary reconceptualization of risk perception, using the conventional consumer behaviour model constructs of personal, distribution channel and situational factors. From this new perspective, instead of judging whether the good or service is risky for a ‘Northern’ citizen to consume, risk perception scholars would examine people's perceptions of whether their consumption places fellow citizens at risk, the people labouring and producing the goods and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overconsumption is a widely used term in science, media and among concerned consumers. What do we mean by this term? This study is based on the assumption that both the public debate on consumption and consumer research could benefit from better understanding how this term is used and from clarifying the definition. The primary aim of this study was to describe how the term 'overconsumption' is being used in the contemporary scientific debate in fields related to consumer studies. This was done by studying the use of the term in scientific journal papers between 2010 and 2012 using qualitative content analysis. It is concluded that overconsumption is often described as consumption of hedonic goods by individuals with undesirable personality traits, low moral or belonging to minority groups. Furthermore, overconsumption is described as having detrimental effects both on the individual consumer, the society and the environment; however, direct individual effects are more frequently mentioned in the studies. The term is seldom defined explicitly. This might lead to confusion and misunderstanding between research fields and between different stakeholders. A structured framework for generating clear and useful definitions is suggested in this study, based on the reviewed papers and a theoretical framework from moral philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self-identity and their related concepts. These include personality traits, self-esteem, social comparisons, self-enhancement, impression management, self-regulation and social identity. To illustrate, we examine how elements of consumer culture and neoliberal political economy intersect with social psychological concepts of self-identity through three main topics: 'the commodification of self-identity', 'social categories, culture and power relations' and the 'governing of self-regulating consumers'. In conclusion, we recommend a decommodified approach to research with the aim of producing social psychological knowledge that avoids becoming enmeshed with consumer culture and neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a contribution to sensory-aware cultural consumer research. It suggests that while the audio-visual domain is unquestionably a crucial ingredient of contemporary consumer culture, there is a pressing need to explore the role of the other senses as well. The study works towards a practice-based culturalist approach to sensory ethnography, a perspective that allows consumer scholars to empirically account for the cultural aspects of the senses. Through an empirical case study on sport fishing, the paper scrutinizes the challenges and opportunities related to conducting sensory ethnography. In addition, it discusses the benefits of this approach in consumer research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the burgeoning of consumer culture and materialism on a global scale, a counter‐culture movement, namely, voluntary simplicity, is slowly gaining currency. Extant research reveals a degree of disparateness in the relationship between materialism and voluntary simplicity. Drawing on the value‐basis theory and anti‐consumption research, the current study attempts at an unorthodox study of the fledgling culture of anti‐consumption in urban India. The paper empirically examines the relationship between materialism and voluntary simplicity in India. This research, through an experimental study followed by a sample survey, conducted among urban Indian consumers, examines how satisfaction with life, self‐efficacy, and individualism interact with materialistic values to eventually influence voluntary simplicity attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 74 working professionals), we experimentally triggered materialistic aspirations and evaluated their effects on voluntary simplicity in comparison to a control condition. In Study 2 (N = 315), individuals self‐rated their materialistic values, satisfaction with life, self‐efficacy, cultural orientation, and voluntary simplicity attitude. Our study, contrary to the suggestions in the existing literature, demonstrates that materialists espouse voluntary simplicity attitudes when environmental degradation around them directly impacts their health, wealth, and well‐being. In addition to the positive direct effect, satisfaction with life and self‐efficacy serially mediate the relationship between materialism and voluntary simplicity, providing a welcome divergence from dark‐sided conceptualizations of materialism. Our results help global marketers, and public policymakers better understand the interaction between materialistic values and sustainable consumption attitudes, in the developing country perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers an overlapping generations model of economic growth populated by two types of individuals. Competitive types compare future consumption (i.e. wealth) with the mean. Self-sufficient types derive utility simply from their own consumption and do not compare themselves with others. I derive a condition under which the utility (happiness) of both types increases when the economy is populated by a larger share of competitive types. I show that a sufficiently high share of competitive types in a society can be inevitable for long-run economic growth to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research explores how consumers use labeling in online consumption communities as a social practice. Through the analysis of conversations in an online consumption community of vegetarians, this paper presents a typology of strategies for using labels to serve specific functions. (1) Construction strategy: Consumers invent new practices under one label to account for the variety of practices associated with a label while benefiting from the awareness surrounding it. Its purpose is to accommodate and promote emerging practices. (2) Reconstruction strategy: Consumers use static definitions of a label that selectively exclude community members they do not perceive to be 'true' to the label for policing and demarcating community boundaries. (3) Conversion strategy: Consumers maintain use of a label despite conflicts to promote group cohesion and unity. (4) Invalidation strategy: Consumers abandon a label, because it has lost meaning for the practice to which they adhere. This paper presents a theoretical framework for when, how, and why online consumption community members use labels to describe themselves, their consumption activity, and the community to which they belong. This also provides marketers with insights into when and how to use such community-based labels to communicate with consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toys protest political corruption in Siberia, critique ISIS worldviews in London and illustrate Greece's financial and migrant crises. Geographers disagree about whether playing with things distracts us from, or helps us to more critically engage with, questions of justice, poverty, exploitation, environment and the commodity. Art activists in the academy say that working in creative ways can enliven and enhance our practices of research, publication and impact. Drawing together these debates about art, activism and geography, this paper asks what can be learned from recreating in LEGO and posting online scenes from the tense and changing socio‐economic relationships between investigative journalists, corporate executives and garment workers making clothes for a high street fashion retailer Primark before, during and after the catastrophic Rana Plaza garment complex collapse in April 2013. It also experiments with the composition of academic outputs, in the hope that that its arguments leap up from the page. And it finishes by inviting readers to try this approach for themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the consumer imagination and, more specifically, on the imaginary shopping spaces which women's magazines create. It addresses the anticipatory, imaginary and experiential consumption which this medium invites. The paper explores how women's magazines function as 'dreamworlds' of shopping; and how contemporary readers consume these imaginary shopping spaces. In order to illustrate what the authors term the 'shopping imaginary', they draw on findings from a study of women's experiential consumption of magazines, which show the multifaceted ways around which imaginary consumption is explored and enjoyed by women. The study suggests that women's magazines, like department stores, are spaces that facilitate and celebrate just looking and browsing, and, above all, they are shopping spaces that address the power of the imagination within them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of non-deterministic understandings of nature, with their emphasis on intensive difference and non-linear processes, has occurred in conjunction with the neoliberalization of environmental governance, which at once emphasizes and financializes the inherent productivity of nature. This paper accepts the position that there is a link between the two, but argues that if we are to maintain a crucial ontological distinction between capital and non-capital, this link must be understood as contingent rather than necessary. Drawing upon Deleuze and Guattari's concept of 'universal history', I argue that the neoliberalization of nature must be understood, in part, as the strategic containment of the critical energies of new materialist thought, and that the role of critical historiography is to recognize within processes of containment the contents and qualities of more radical possibilities. If such critical efforts are to succeed they must continually distinguish between nature's innovative force and the mechanisms that seek to capture this force in the service of capital and state. In turn, if we are to remember the radical potential of these ideas, the neoliberalization of nature must be understood as a response to these critical energies, and not their origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the influence of consumer-generated representations on symbolic brand meaning. The term consumer-generated representation is used in this research to refer to the image created for a brand based on the defining characteristics of a consumer or group of consumers. A preliminary qualitative study consisting of 12 in-depth interviews was conducted in Kuwait, specifically exploring Muslim female consumers as consumers of western luxury fashion brands. The findings show that Muslim female consumers generate 'Modestly Sexy' representations that recreate meaning for western luxury fashion brands in Kuwait. Thus, marketers need to recognize the importance of managing consumer-generated representations on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social influence on consumers' behaviour has been recognized and documented, the vast majority of empirical consumer studies about sustainable products considers mainly, if not only, individual characteristics (socio-demographic attributes, individual environmental attitudes, etc.), to explain the decision to buy sustainable products. Making use of experimental methods, this paper studies the social influence that peer groups like colleagues, family and friends may exert in the decision to choose for environmentally friendly products rather than conventional ones. We also test for different types of social influence, in particular for 'herd behaviour' vs. 'social learning'. In our experimental setting, the relevance of peer effects is corroborated. We find clear evidence for 'herd behaviour' and the data indirectly support the presence of 'social learning' effects. The results also suggest heterogeneous impact of specific social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate how web-based online communities bring about new forms of environmental dialogue. We suggest that these online sites play an important role in setting the stage for new forms of cultural production, dissemination of environmental knowledge and environmental dialogue, through which particular forms of ecological citizenship and consumer culture are being created and sustained. Based on an empirical study of an online community of ‘global travelers’ carried out using netnographic methods, the study shows how environmental knowledge is being disseminated, negotiated and made sense of in the online environments of the global marketplace. Our findings illustrate, in particular, how online communities may work out an agenda for sustainable consumption practices and lifestyles, and create new forms of consumer citizenship. Regarding the environmental policy implications of our study, we argue that there is a need to facilitate the creation of online environments where consumers can participate in the construction of active consumer citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the ways in which the department store has become a key site for the constitution of Japanese modernity through the introduction of images and goods taken from the West, along with the emphasis on “Western design” and “Western taste”. These new consumer spaces have become aestheticized in various ways so that we can speak of an “aestheticization” of everyday life. Yet this was also a modernizing learning process for Japanese consumers, hence a key problem was how these new experiences were to be classified and ordered into a relatively stable habitus. The rise of the department store has had an important mediating function here. Department stores not only provided new goods along with interpretations of how to use them, but also acted as theatres, as rehearsal spaces, with front and back stage areas where one can watch the performance, try out for oneself new roles. This is especially the case for women in the city, who were able to explore a new identity space with a new set of competence experiences and pleasures. In this process, the department store also provided a form of women's public sphere where they could enjoy shopping, entertainment and learning opportunities. Department stores encouraged not only a sense of luxury and theatrical settings, but also help to teach women how to assemble new tastes and styles into their lifestyle. In addition, it should be emphasized that in the Japanese case, department stores also played an important role not just as a new cultural initiative on the part of the businessmen and cultural intermediaries who invented consumer culture, but also as a political initiative on the part of the government who sought to link them to the reform of everyday life and the production of good Japanese citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model to explore the inter-relationships between conflict and economic activity. We construct a simple two-period model where consumption and investment decisions are made in the presence of governments who consider initiating diversionary conflict to raise their chances of remaining in power. Economies with selfish leaders and lower gains from capital formation may fall prey to engaging in avoidable conflicts thereby lowering investment and hence future growth. Using panel data for over 152 countries from 1950 to 2000, we find evidence for conflict lowering economic growth and, after conditioning on the initial conditions of geography, private, public, and human capital investment, lower growth raising the likelihood of conflict. These results are broadly consistent with our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption practices that are environmentally and socially more conscious have been studied previously; however, consumers who entirely reject market society and the ideologies associated with it in search for alternatives have received little attention. The participants in this study have had the means to enjoy all of the privileges of market society, yet chose to drop out of their well‐paid corporate positions in search of more meaningful lives. A framework to understand their motivations for this choice, the alternatives they present, and the challenges they face is developed through a qualitative inquiry using in‐depth interviews, secondary data sources and observation. To these individuals, living in market society represents an eventually dreaded path leading to a vast emptiness, contrarily their departure appears to be a decision of "choosing life." In their alternative lives, they find meaning in sharing with and helping others, also through an existence with, not against nature. Choosing to have only occasional marketplace interactions, they exhibit a willingness to exist within and navigate multiple organizations of life, even if preference for the one experimented with is strong. The practices of such members of society show potentials for greater change to alleviate the shortcomings of a solely market‐driven way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer‐oriented societies are awash with materialistic messages that link happiness and success to wealth and consumption. However, despite extensive research evidence that dispositional materialistic orientations are correlated with lower well‐being, the effects of materialistic cues on the well‐being of individuals and social groups have not been examined. The present research meta‐analytically reviews the experimental evidence for the causal effects of materialism on two dimensions of well‐being: (a) individual and (b) societal. We included 27 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria of priming materialism and measuring well‐being (N = 3,649), containing a total of 62 effect sizes. Multilevel modeling revealed that materialism has an effect on both individual (δ = −0.39) and societal well‐being (δ = −0.41), suggesting that materialistic cues cause lower well‐being. Moderation effects suggested that materialistic cues might have a higher effect on interpersonal well‐being than on self‐evaluation indicators. We discuss the limitations of the current evidence, highlight the research gaps and underdeveloped areas, and provide recommendations such as minimum sample size for future experimental work, since the advancement of this area will help us to gain a better understanding of the impact of consumer‐oriented societies on the well‐being of individuals and social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological research on sustainable consumption is developing a rich and diverse corpus of knowledge and tools, involving a broad range of disciplines. This very growth and diversity, however, poses challenges to our collective ability to build upon past research and progress in the field. We aim to place a selection of these challenges in the spotlight for discussion. In particular, we highlight some of the salient difficulties for early career researchers in psychology who are entering this field. Based on issues raised at a workshop conducted as part of the Psychology of Sustainable Consumption Small Group Meeting of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists in 2018, we first examine challenges associated with working in transdisciplinary teams, measurement quality, data accessibility, and research dissemination. We then propose several options to address these, ranging from actions individual researchers can take, to more systemic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has linked materialism to lower well‐being in children, and recent findings suggest that this link is heightened among those exposed to high levels of advertising. One proposal is that children may be pursuing consumer culture ideals (CCIs) – orienting to material possessions and physical appearance – as a maladaptive coping strategy for dealing with underlying distress. The present work offers the first direct evaluation of this theoretically plausible hypothesis. In Study 1, higher scores on our measure of consumer‐focused coping (CFC) not only predicted lower well‐being in a sample of 109 9‐ to 11‐year‐olds, but also served as mediator in the indirect link between the number of hours spent watching television and lower well‐being. Study 2 tested our expanded model of these processes in a sample of 380 9‐ to 11‐year‐olds. Specifically, structural equation modelling revealed that frequency of watching commercial (advertising‐rich) television in particular predicted greater CFC. This, in turn, predicted greater endorsement of CCIs, which then predicted lower well‐being. Implications for theoretical models and educational interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT Even though consumers' status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions from two important research areas-the mundane food context and prosocial status signaling between male consumers-to signaling literature are still scarce. Thus, this study empirically investigates how a male signaling about his status through favoring organic foods is perceived and treated by other males in two different sociocultural settings (urban vs. rural). In an urban area-but not in a rural-the pro-organic signaler was perceived as more respected, altruistic, and affluent than a male who did not signal about this (he also received statistically more money in a charity donation task). This may indicate that signaling about this tendency-because it can be viewed as use of one's own resources for the benefit of others-is not only a way to attain status, but can also make others behave more positively toward the signaler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to explain why some people incorporate ethical concerns into everyday shopping for food and household goods, while many do not, have so far left significant variation in 'ethical consumption' unexplained. Seeking to move beyond explanations that rely mainly on differences in consumers' social class, gender, and political engagement, I draw on concepts associated with 'practice theory' to argue that ethical consumption is closely tied to people's willingness and ability to spend time, while shopping, on distinct activities associated with breaking old routines and establishing new ones. The central insight of practice theory is that most consumption is the product of unconscious routine. And it is precisely because consciously departing from routine is, according to my study, a fundamentally time-consuming process, that lack of time emerges as a crucial obstacle to translating abstract ethical concerns into concrete action as a consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers sustainable consumption and alternative food networks in the context of global consumer capitalism as a locus where a new form of consumer sovereignty can be developed. It offers a theoretical overview aimed at charting the emergence and consolidation of a relational, responsible vision of consumer sovereignty. Potentially alternative to neo-classical and neoliberal views, such a vision of consumers and their power involves both sustainability, equality and democracy, and private happiness, conceived as a form of responsibility for personal, creative well-being and fulfillment as opposed to acquisition and spending power. Ultimately the article offers a reappraisal of the economistic notion of utility of goods, and proposes a way forward for alternative ways of consuming and of thinking of consumption which aim at avoiding the mere reproduction of charity and at involving individuals' subjectivity working on their capacities to develop new pleasures in sustainable lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary culture is characterized by individual and societal efforts to limit exposure to risk. Paradoxically, many consumers actively pursue high-risk consumption experiences. High-risk consumption, coupled with a lack of consumption-orientated information, amplifies consumer vulnerability. However, consumer-to-consumer information sharing can help reduce unwarranted risk and enhance consumption context control. This study investigates the ecstasy 'market maven crowd': an online community anonymously bound by acts of collective market mavenism intended to address the void of market information and reduce the risks thereof. Acts of collective market mavenism include the assimilation and dissemination of scientific ecstasy pill content reports and personal ecstasy consumption tales. The diffusion of market-orientated information provides consumers with an opportunity to identify, and avert, the serious health risks intrinsic to ecstasy consumption and assert consumption context control. Collaborative market mavenism fosters market policing, which enhances the safety structures of the unregulated ecstasy market. This study contributes to marketing and consumer research by developing an understanding of how consumers collectively adapt to risk online; displaying market mavenism as an innovative framework to examine online consumer-to-consumer information sharing; showing how Internet technologies facilitate the emergence of market maven crowds; and providing marketers with guidelines for approaching market maven crowds. Finally, the author discusses the societal implications arising and suggests directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online communities of consumption (OCCs) represent highly diverse groups of consumers whose interests are not always aligned. Social control in OCCs aims to effectively manage problems arising from this heterogeneity. Extant literature on social control in OCCs is fragmented as some studies focus on the principles of social control, while others focus on the implementation. Moreover, the domain is undertheorized. This article integrates the disparate literature on social control in OCCs providing a first unified conceptualization of the topic. The authors conceptualize social control as a system, or configuration, of moderation practices. Moderation practices are executed during interactions operating under different governance structures (market, hierarchy, and clan) and serving different purposes (interaction initiation, maintenance, and termination). From this conceptualization, important areas of future research emerge and research questions are developed. The framework also serves as a community management tool for OCC managers, enabling the diagnosis of social control problems and the elaboration of strategies and tactics to address them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the effect of the type of community host (consumer-hosted versus company-hosted communities) in the relationship between motivational drivers and content contribution to online communities. By presenting a typology of motivational drivers of content contribution and classifying prior research on motivational drivers accordingly, this article offers an integrated, in-depth literature review. Four motivational self- versus other-oriented and extrinsic versus intrinsic drivers were included in an empirical study of three online communities, with more than 800 community members. The results reveal that opinion leadership, self-presentation, and enjoyment positively affect content contribution; altruism negatively affects content contribution. In company-hosted online communities, the positive drivers are stronger than in consumer-hosted online communities. To encourage members' contribution, community managers should seek to attract opinion leaders, provide room for self-presentation, and enhance members' feelings of pleasure and comfort. A qualitative post hoc analysis also explicates the negative effect of altruism. Overall, this study provides a fruitful basis for several important theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptual blind spots persist when it comes to understanding the value of consumptive dimensions of participation, such as lurking, in online community. This article uses a practice-theoretical lens to conceptualize the consumptive moments of online community practices and explores how they shape different value outcomes. Building on a mixed-method investigation through two studies within an online gardening community, findings reveal two specific consumptive moments, direct and vicarious, and their differential role in the creation of community engagement and vitality. These findings suggest that lurking is not adequately described as a unidimensional construct, but is best understood as vicarious consumptive moments of specific online community practices with distinctive value outcomes. Implications for research on online consumption community are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores conflict culture as a distinct and influential element of a consumption community's broader culture, and explores how communities initiate, perform, manage, and resolve intracommunity conflicts. A four-year interpretive study of the Premium Cola consumption community reveals two sets of formal and informal elements of conflict culture; explains how community members perform routine, and manage transgressive conflicts; shows how members garner positive and negative practical, identity, and relationship value from these two types of conflict; and documents how a community's conflict culture develops through inventing new conflict behaviors to resolve transgressive conflicts. The study thus contributes new theoretical insights to the literature on social conflict in online consumption communities, discusses managerial implications, and initiates a discussion about conflict culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines how botany was made attractive to broader audiences in France in the 1770s and 1780s. Two transitions significantly defined the nature of public participation: developing ideas about botanical amateurship, and expanding consumer culture. Although these have rarely been considered in relation to each other, both determined how the French public engaged with natural knowledge. Drawing evidence from commercial advertisements and books on botany and horticulture, this article considers the cultural resources used to engage readers, which implicitly defined who might botanise. This cultural construction of botany both reflected and actively determined its social place in eighteenth-century France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data, this study compares the different impacts of household socio-economic characteristics on leisure travel expenditure patterns between 1996 and 2006. The total expenditure is divided into food/beverage, lodging, transportation and sightseeing/entertainment to examine more specific changes. Results indicate that family size, gender, number of elderly family members, race and region/location had different impacts on leisure trip consumption patterns in 1996 and 2006. There is no evident change for the income elasticities of four categories between these two years. The upward direction in high-income households reflects the potential for luxury sightseeing and entertainment activities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convenience stores are atop the list of global retail chains blamed for homogenizing landscapes, deskilling labor, and eroding local cultural difference. Further still, their very ubiquity and “nonplace”-ness is said to challenge conventional modes of ethnographic inquiry. In the following article, I move beyond such broad assumptions by examining how the convenience store constitutes a meaningful lifeworld and culturally embedded economic institution. Drawing on my training and experiences as a clerk, I explore in particular how impersonal familiarity is constructed and contested within the context of this retail environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Ecology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The globalization of American-style consumer culture has invited transformations in attitudes towards money in many societies around the world, rich and poor. However, the majority of research in this area has focused on affluent countries. Towards redress, I report on a study that examined the psychometric properties of Yamauchi and Templer's (1982 ) money attitude scale (MAS) using a sample drawn from Ghana, West Africa. The findings suggest that although the MAS needs to be reconfigured for effective use in Ghana, Ghanaians have attitudes towards money that are similar in most respects to what has been observed in wealthier countries, which suggests the global reach of consumer culture. Limitations and future research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article theoretically proposes and empirically tests an individual and national–cultural nomological network of consumer involvement. A consumer survey in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy captures nomological network data. Findings are significant in three areas. First, the empirical study provides evidence for the cultural invariance of the measurement of consumer involvement. Second, results determine the mediating nature of individual-level consumer involvement. The nomological network differentiates between the antecedent role of cognitive involvement and the subsequent affective involvement state with explanatory effect on brand commitment and brand experimentation. Third, the study identifies the moderating role that uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity play on the involvement relationships. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical implications for the impact of individual and national–cultural variables on the activation and sources of consumer involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial ecology has mainly been concerned with improving the efficiency of production systems. But addressing consumption is also vital in reducing the impact of society on its environment. The concept of sustainable consumption is a response to this. But the debates about sustainable consumption can only really be understood in the context of much wider and deeper debates about consumption and about consumer behavior itself. This article explores some of these wider debates. In particular, it draws attention to a fundamental disagreement that runs through the literature on consumption and haunts the debate on sustainable consumption: the question of whether, or to what extent, consumption can be taken as ''good for us.'' Some approaches assume that increasing consumption is more or less synonymous with improved well-being: the more we consume the better off we are. Others argue, just as vehemently, that the scale of consumption in modern society is both environmentally and psychologically damaging, and that we could reduce consumption significantly without threatening the quality of our lives. This second viewpoint suggests that a kind of ''double dividend'' is inherent in sustainable consumption: the ability to live better by consuming less and reduce our impact on the environment in the process. In the final analysis, this article argues, such ''win-win'' solutions may exist but will require a concerted societal effort to realize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]