Imagined futures of retail and consumption
Shahriar, Hossain LU
and Wulff, Gabriella
(2026)
In International Review of Retail Distribution & Consumer Research
- Abstract
- Retail and consumption stand at a precipice, tethered to the urgency of the planetary crisis and propelled by the accelerating force of digital transformation. At this crossroads, we introduce imagined retail and consumption futures as the organising concept for this special issue on the Future of Retail and Consumption. Drawing on Jens Beckert’s theory of fictional expectations, we argue that the future of retail and consumption is a contested terrain of competing narratives that, by motivating present action, partially bring themselves into being and obscure others that go unfunded and unbuilt. We articulate three features of imagined futures (narrativity, performativity, and contestation) and four tensions that structure how they are... (More)
- Retail and consumption stand at a precipice, tethered to the urgency of the planetary crisis and propelled by the accelerating force of digital transformation. At this crossroads, we introduce imagined retail and consumption futures as the organising concept for this special issue on the Future of Retail and Consumption. Drawing on Jens Beckert’s theory of fictional expectations, we argue that the future of retail and consumption is a contested terrain of competing narratives that, by motivating present action, partially bring themselves into being and obscure others that go unfunded and unbuilt. We articulate three features of imagined futures (narrativity, performativity, and contestation) and four tensions that structure how they are negotiated in scholarship and in practice: accumulation (circular economy versus growth capitalism), accountability (consumer responsibilisation versus collective provisioning), sovereignty (consumer agency versus platform governance), and tangibility (physical circulation versus digital dematerialisation). The seven contributions to the special issue are illustrated through this framework, making plausible a future in which sustainability is approached as a systemic property of well-designed retail environments, irreducible to the cumulative outcome of individually enlightened choices. We close with a research agenda that considers how certain retail and consumption futures become plausible, funded, designed, and normalised, while others remain peripheral, underfunded, or difficult to imagine. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2fb1f10d-a92e-435b-a106-2f5e89257785
- author
- Shahriar, Hossain
LU
and Wulff, Gabriella
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Future of retail and consumption, Fictional expectations, Imagined futures, Sustainability, Digitalisation
- in
- International Review of Retail Distribution & Consumer Research
- publisher
- Routledge
- ISSN
- 0959-3969
- DOI
- 10.1080/09593969.2026.2675863
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2fb1f10d-a92e-435b-a106-2f5e89257785
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-01 14:45:31
- date last changed
- 2026-06-03 09:07:08
@article{2fb1f10d-a92e-435b-a106-2f5e89257785,
abstract = {{Retail and consumption stand at a precipice, tethered to the urgency of the planetary crisis and propelled by the accelerating force of digital transformation. At this crossroads, we introduce imagined retail and consumption futures as the organising concept for this special issue on the Future of Retail and Consumption. Drawing on Jens Beckert’s theory of fictional expectations, we argue that the future of retail and consumption is a contested terrain of competing narratives that, by motivating present action, partially bring themselves into being and obscure others that go unfunded and unbuilt. We articulate three features of imagined futures (narrativity, performativity, and contestation) and four tensions that structure how they are negotiated in scholarship and in practice: accumulation (circular economy versus growth capitalism), accountability (consumer responsibilisation versus collective provisioning), sovereignty (consumer agency versus platform governance), and tangibility (physical circulation versus digital dematerialisation). The seven contributions to the special issue are illustrated through this framework, making plausible a future in which sustainability is approached as a systemic property of well-designed retail environments, irreducible to the cumulative outcome of individually enlightened choices. We close with a research agenda that considers how certain retail and consumption futures become plausible, funded, designed, and normalised, while others remain peripheral, underfunded, or difficult to imagine.}},
author = {{Shahriar, Hossain and Wulff, Gabriella}},
issn = {{0959-3969}},
keywords = {{Future of retail and consumption; Fictional expectations; Imagined futures; Sustainability; Digitalisation}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{International Review of Retail Distribution & Consumer Research}},
title = {{Imagined futures of retail and consumption}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593969.2026.2675863}},
doi = {{10.1080/09593969.2026.2675863}},
year = {{2026}},
}