Suiting Yourself: Consumer Narratives in Hermeneutic Self-Production Through Transition

ABSTRACT - Drawing upon sensemaking theory, we argue that consumption stories form part of a broader, hermeneutic autobiographical act to produce and reproduce a consistent self as we participate in fragmented and changing social environments. Using material from a multi-method ethnographic study, we analyse two undergraduate management students’ stories of suit purchase. We argue that suit purchase is a ritual within a life passage between childhood and family and organisation and work. We show how this purchase is storied individually to achieve a consistency of self at this moment of disjuncture drawing together a past self and anticipated self around persistent and satisfying storylines.



Citation:

Gillian Hopkinson and Terry Newholm (2003) ,"Suiting Yourself: Consumer Narratives in Hermeneutic Self-Production Through Transition", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Darach Turley and Stephen Brown, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 257.

European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, 2003      Page 257

SUITING YOURSELF: CONSUMER NARRATIVES IN HERMENEUTIC SELF-PRODUCTION THROUGH TRANSITION

Gillian Hopkinson, UMIST, UK

Terry Newholm, UMIST, UK

ABSTRACT -

Drawing upon sensemaking theory, we argue that consumption stories form part of a broader, hermeneutic autobiographical act to produce and reproduce a consistent self as we participate in fragmented and changing social environments. Using material from a multi-method ethnographic study, we analyse two undergraduate management students’ stories of suit purchase. We argue that suit purchase is a ritual within a life passage between childhood and family and organisation and work. We show how this purchase is storied individually to achieve a consistency of self at this moment of disjuncture drawing together a past self and anticipated self around persistent and satisfying storylines.

----------------------------------------

Authors

Gillian Hopkinson, UMIST, UK
Terry Newholm, UMIST, UK



Volume

E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6 | 2003



Share Proceeding

Featured papers

See More

Featured

Narrative Transportation and Cognitive Responses: The Other Side of the Story

Rebecca Krause, Northwestern University, USA
Derek Rucker, Northwestern University, USA

Read More

Featured

‘But Screw the Little People, Right?’ Case of the Commercialization of Reward-Based Crowdfunding

Natalia Drozdova, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Norway

Read More

Featured

Taking a Leaf out of my Review: The Asymmetrical Link between Linguistic Similarity and Attitude Certainty for Writers and Readers of Product Reviews

Ann Kronrod, University of Massachusetts, USA
Yakov Bart, Northeastern University, USA

Read More

Engage with Us

Becoming an Association for Consumer Research member is simple. Membership in ACR is relatively inexpensive, but brings significant benefits to its members.