Nerdery, Snobbery and Connoisseurship : Developing conceptual clarity within the area of refined consumption
(2014) Consumer Culture Theory- Abstract
- As consumers in Western consumer culture have increasingly turned from high cultural to low cultural consumption categories to cultivate themselves, the meanings of the traditional and socio-cultural concepts used to represent different forms of consumer expertise have been blurred or altered. Drawing upon sociocultural literature on taste and distinction we attempt to provide theoretical clarity to the concepts of connoisseurship, snobbery, and nerdery; concepts that are often used interchangeably and without rigor in both (contemporary) popular and academic discourse. The outcome of our conceptual analysis is concretised using a semiotic square to illustrate how the concepts differ from each other. Our analysis suggests that the... (More)
- As consumers in Western consumer culture have increasingly turned from high cultural to low cultural consumption categories to cultivate themselves, the meanings of the traditional and socio-cultural concepts used to represent different forms of consumer expertise have been blurred or altered. Drawing upon sociocultural literature on taste and distinction we attempt to provide theoretical clarity to the concepts of connoisseurship, snobbery, and nerdery; concepts that are often used interchangeably and without rigor in both (contemporary) popular and academic discourse. The outcome of our conceptual analysis is concretised using a semiotic square to illustrate how the concepts differ from each other. Our analysis suggests that the democratisation of consumption through the imprinting of status meanings upon traditionally illegitimate cultural objects may lead to the “bastardisation” of taste regarding those same illegitimate cultural categories – a performance formerly restricted to high culture. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d0160bfa-dde7-4047-8679-32577c1cb577
- author
- Egan-Wyer, Carys LU ; Ulver, Sofia LU ; Bertilsson, Jon LU ; Klasson, Marcus LU and Johansson, Ulf LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014-06
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- conference name
- Consumer Culture Theory
- conference location
- Helsinki, Finland
- conference dates
- 2014-06-26 - 2014-06-29
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d0160bfa-dde7-4047-8679-32577c1cb577
- date added to LUP
- 2020-02-22 13:58:10
- date last changed
- 2020-02-26 08:46:28
@misc{d0160bfa-dde7-4047-8679-32577c1cb577, abstract = {{As consumers in Western consumer culture have increasingly turned from high cultural to low cultural consumption categories to cultivate themselves, the meanings of the traditional and socio-cultural concepts used to represent different forms of consumer expertise have been blurred or altered. Drawing upon sociocultural literature on taste and distinction we attempt to provide theoretical clarity to the concepts of connoisseurship, snobbery, and nerdery; concepts that are often used interchangeably and without rigor in both (contemporary) popular and academic discourse. The outcome of our conceptual analysis is concretised using a semiotic square to illustrate how the concepts differ from each other. Our analysis suggests that the democratisation of consumption through the imprinting of status meanings upon traditionally illegitimate cultural objects may lead to the “bastardisation” of taste regarding those same illegitimate cultural categories – a performance formerly restricted to high culture.}}, author = {{Egan-Wyer, Carys and Ulver, Sofia and Bertilsson, Jon and Klasson, Marcus and Johansson, Ulf}}, language = {{eng}}, title = {{Nerdery, Snobbery and Connoisseurship : Developing conceptual clarity within the area of refined consumption}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/76448488/Nerdery_Snobbery_and_Connoisseurship.pdf}}, year = {{2014}}, }