Agency, Objects and the Dead: Can Consumer Culture Speak?
Today, the mass accumulation of objects in one’s lifetime means that objects take on new meanings after death. And yet, the treatment of ‘death-objects’ in Consumer Culture Theory remains largely unexplored. Our paper aims to extend our understanding of the symbolic consumption of objects beyond death by asking, firstly, how do the dead exercise agency over objects they leave behind and, secondly, how do the living deal with the objects of dead persons? We argue that these questions pose new challenges for consumer culture researchers and lead us to a better understanding of the role of material objects in, and beyond, death.
Citation:
Ming Lim and James Fitchett (2011) ,"Agency, Objects and the Dead: Can Consumer Culture Speak?", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 611-612.
Authors
Ming Lim, University of Leicester, U.K.
James Fitchett, University of Leciester, U.K.
Volume
E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9 | 2011
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