How Do Postconsumers Navigate the Multiple Orders of Contemporary Consumer Society? Emotion and Reason in Young Consumers’ Narratives of Consumerism

The paper focuses on the ways in which young consumers construct and negotiate their consumer identities by drawing from two different cultural models of consumerism: a puritan model of the rational consumer and a hedonist model. The objective is to discuss and elaborate empirically on the tensions that arise from the simultaneous availability of two conflicting models of consumerism, and on the ways in which postconsumers deal with these tensions in constructing their identities. Our analysis reveals how young consumers navigate the social orders by constructing their identities through three models of consumerism: traditional rationalist, rational hedonist and masculine hedonist.

Citation:

Minna Autio, Johanna Moisander, and Shania Määttälä (2011) ,"How Do Postconsumers Navigate the Multiple Orders of Contemporary Consumer Society? Emotion and Reason in Young Consumers’ Narratives of Consumerism ", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 602-604.