Theorizing Reactive Reflexivity : Lifestyle Displacement and Discordant Performances of Taste
(2018) In Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 45(3). p.571-594- Abstract
- Culturally oriented consumer research has predominantly been framed by two ideal types of reflexivity, which we characterize as existential and critical reflexiv-ity. Drawing from our research on divorced women who have been displaced from their domestically oriented, middle-class lifestyles, we develop an alternative con-ceptualization-reactive reflexivity-that highlights a different relationship among consumer agency, social structures, and identity goals and practices. Rather than embracing their post-divorce lifestyles as a revitalizing challenge (per existential reflexivity) or liberation from a constraining gender role (per critical reflexivity), our participants felt estranged from their current lifestyle and reflexively viewed... (More)
- Culturally oriented consumer research has predominantly been framed by two ideal types of reflexivity, which we characterize as existential and critical reflexiv-ity. Drawing from our research on divorced women who have been displaced from their domestically oriented, middle-class lifestyles, we develop an alternative con-ceptualization-reactive reflexivity-that highlights a different relationship among consumer agency, social structures, and identity goals and practices. Rather than embracing their post-divorce lifestyles as a revitalizing challenge (per existential reflexivity) or liberation from a constraining gender role (per critical reflexivity), our participants felt estranged from their current lifestyle and reflexively viewed their pre-divorce lifestyle as a structure of relative empowerment that had afforded emotional, aesthetic, and status-oriented benefits. In reflexive response to these perceived lifestyle discontinuities, they engaged in discordant practices of taste that sought to insulate their aesthetic predispositions from structurally imposed socioeconomic constraints and, ultimately, to accomplish a reactive identity goal of regaining their displaced status as middle-class homemakers. We discuss the implications of our analysis for theorizations of consumer taste and the relationships between gender ideologies and reflexive consumption practices. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/0ed64bd9-dc89-4879-9a4c-3b07182b8ae5
- author
- Thompson, Craig J. ; Henry, Paul C. and Bardhi, Fleura LU
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- reflexivity, tastes, lifestyles, gender roles, agency, social structures
- in
- Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
- volume
- 45
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 24 pages
- publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- ISSN
- 2378-1815
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 0ed64bd9-dc89-4879-9a4c-3b07182b8ae5
- alternative location
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325370017_Theorizing_Reactive_Reflexivity_Lifestyle_Displacement_and_Discordant_Performances_of_Taste
- date added to LUP
- 2020-11-04 13:43:03
- date last changed
- 2020-11-04 16:49:12
@article{0ed64bd9-dc89-4879-9a4c-3b07182b8ae5,
abstract = {{Culturally oriented consumer research has predominantly been framed by two ideal types of reflexivity, which we characterize as existential and critical reflexiv-ity. Drawing from our research on divorced women who have been displaced from their domestically oriented, middle-class lifestyles, we develop an alternative con-ceptualization-reactive reflexivity-that highlights a different relationship among consumer agency, social structures, and identity goals and practices. Rather than embracing their post-divorce lifestyles as a revitalizing challenge (per existential reflexivity) or liberation from a constraining gender role (per critical reflexivity), our participants felt estranged from their current lifestyle and reflexively viewed their pre-divorce lifestyle as a structure of relative empowerment that had afforded emotional, aesthetic, and status-oriented benefits. In reflexive response to these perceived lifestyle discontinuities, they engaged in discordant practices of taste that sought to insulate their aesthetic predispositions from structurally imposed socioeconomic constraints and, ultimately, to accomplish a reactive identity goal of regaining their displaced status as middle-class homemakers. We discuss the implications of our analysis for theorizations of consumer taste and the relationships between gender ideologies and reflexive consumption practices.}},
author = {{Thompson, Craig J. and Henry, Paul C. and Bardhi, Fleura}},
issn = {{2378-1815}},
keywords = {{reflexivity; tastes; lifestyles; gender roles; agency; social structures}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{571--594}},
publisher = {{University of Chicago Press}},
series = {{Journal of the Association for Consumer Research}},
title = {{Theorizing Reactive Reflexivity : Lifestyle Displacement and Discordant Performances of Taste}},
url = {{https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325370017_Theorizing_Reactive_Reflexivity_Lifestyle_Displacement_and_Discordant_Performances_of_Taste}},
volume = {{45}},
year = {{2018}},
}