Lears, Jackson (1994), Fables of Abundance, New York: Basic Books. [1] The Medicines Act was first enacted in 1965. Cohen, Lizabeth (2003), A Consumers Republic: The Politics of Consumption in Postwar America, New York: Knopf. 0000060634 00000 n Kozinets, Robert V., John Sherry Jr., Diana Storm, Adam Duhachek, Krittinee Nuttavuthist, and Benet DeBerry-Spence (2004), “Ludic Agency and Retail Spectacle,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (December), 658–72. Ozanne, Julie L. (1992), “The Role of Consumption and Disposition during Classic Rites of Passage: The Journey of Birth, Initiation, and Death,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. Each fails to signify the theoretical commonalities and linkages within this research tradition. However, the resulting diversity of investigative contexts (see table 1) makes it easy to lose sight of the theoretical forest and to classify these studies on the basis of their topical setting—the flea market study, the Star Trek study, the skydiving study—rather than the theoretical questions interrogated in that research setting. Kim Corfman and John Lynch, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT: 1–5. These meanings are embodied and negotiated by consumers in particular social situations roles and relationships. Hetrick, William P. and Héctor R. Lozada (1994), “Construing the Critical Imagination: Comments and Necessary Diversions,” Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (December), 548–58. Sherry, John F. and Eduardo Camargo (1987), “‘May Your Life Be Marvelous’: English Language Labeling and the Semiotics of Japanese Promotion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (September), 174–88. This article provides a synthesizing overview of the past 20 yr. of consumer research addressing the sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption. Murray, Jeff, Julie Ozanne, and John Shapiro (1994), “Revitalizing the Critical Imagination: Unleashing the Crouched Tiger,” Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (December), 559–65. One likely reason for the paucity of macro-level analyses of consumer culture is the difficulty of undertaking such work in a journal-length article. 0000004238 00000 n Sheth, Jagdish N. (1985), “Presidential Address: Broadening the Horizons of ACR and Consumer Research,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. Most research on consumers' practices of ideological resistance highlights the creative and often sophisticated ways in which consumers critically reinterpret media and advertising ideals and ideological inducements (Scott 1994a). Brown, Stephen, Robert Kozinets, and John F. Sherry Jr. (2003), “Teaching Old Brands New Tricks: Retro Branding and the Revival of Brand Meaning,” Journal of Marketing, 67 (July), 19–33. ——— (1992), “Presidential Address: Constructing Consumer Behavior; A Grand Template,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 0000112286 00000 n Rather, it refers to a family of theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relationships between consumer actions, the marketplace, and cultural meanings. 0000112984 00000 n Ԅ�xVC�R�u�-�`n*��BYMP�pT����7�XH�Y�‹�oĪڪB�1~�,-O�5^cȢ�xH���":�{���'i������S���t�k�n,v�8$Ԫ�v٫��������unG�n��l3��4�=��I|Y[��Ѹ��6T���/Q����f7%Yo��]���ٸu߮���k�_ߑ6m�_��Xo\�|'��l�����#�3d���>���^�Ľ�NS3�o[b�?����JO�K,M~ƐR�#�ҍ��z��W��t6���RZ��uV��T��)r�L��;z;Y8u��T�� �����=+Qy���H��.O ^s����l�w�+=��GT�k��f}{��^�ڻ%�`�끠��Ci�[�~��k�XE(5�o'�s��[��Q5��D���l�(�qPW_U�J�KFDz����b�����,J��P����Sv}��=R�G:����A�FR�'���G��LBH͈. Consumer culture theory examines consumer ideology—systems of meaning that tend to channel and reproduce consumers' thoughts and actions in such a way as to defend dominate interests in society (Hirschman 1993). To anthropomorphize a bit, this polyvocal fluency makes the consumer research field a more interesting and creative conversationalist and enables it to forge greater and more varied linkages to other branches of social science, governmental and public policy agencies, and the world of management. At that time, consumer researchers most typically defined managerial relevance in terms of a rational choice paradigm and its corresponding focus on purchase behavior. What does it mean when Uranus is in Sagittarius? One family of CCT research devoted to marketplace cultures has sought to unravel the processes by which consumer culture is instantiated in particular cultural milieu and the implications of this process for people experiencing it. Holt (2004) shows how longitudinal changes in advertising campaigns for iconic brands, such as Bud and Mountain Dew (and their respective failures and successes), are related to specific cultural tensions and economic anxieties that dominate particular historical moments. Reilly, Michael D. and Melanie Wallendorf (1987), “A Comparison of Group Differences in Food Consumption Using Household Refuse,” Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (September), 289–94. Mary Gilly and Joan Meyers-Levy, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1–5. 0000021740 00000 n It is interesting that few of these interactions actually instigate pressures to buy the product or brand advertised. Allen, Douglas (2002), “Toward a Theory of Consumer Choice as Sociohistorically Shaped Practical Experience: The Fits-Like-a-Glove (FLAG) Framework,” Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (March), 515–32. This mistake would be analogous to classifying experimental research in terms of its research stimuli, thus leading to discussions of the beer and wine study, the camera study, or the cake mix study. 1989; Fournier 1998; Grayson and Shulman 2000; Hirschman and Holbrook 1982; Joy and Sherry 2003; Mick and DeMoss 1990; Mick and Fournier 1998; Richins 1994; Rook 1985, 1987; Thompson 1996; Wallendorf and Arnould 1988). 1990; Wallendorf and Arnould 1991). Rather than replicate prior efforts, we provide a thematic framework that profiles four major interrelated research domains that are explored by CCT researchers. (1987), “What Is Consumer Research?” Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (June), 128–32. Whereas mainstream consumer research is sometimes critiqued for ivory tower theorizing (Lehmann 1996; Wells 1993), CCT research is fundamentally concerned with the cultural meanings, sociohistoric influences, and social dynamics that shape consumer experiences and identities in the myriad messy contexts of everyday life (Fournier 1998; Holt 1997, 1998; Peñaloza 1994; Thompson et al. John Sherry and Brian Sternthal, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1–6. eQhe1��$i�+S�) Leigh McAllister and Michael Rothschild, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1–5. Frank, Thomas (1997), The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Brown, Stephen and John F. Sherry Jr., eds. The theoretical understanding of structural predisposing has been significantly developed by research on the design and management of servicescapes (both built and natural) and the systematic effects they exert over consumer experiences (McAlexander et al. ——— (1993), “Nostalgia and Consumption Preferences: Some Emerging Patterns of Consumer Tastes,” Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (September), 245–56. Simonson, Itamar, Ziv Carmon, Ravi Dhar, Aimee Drolet, and Stephen M. Nowlis (2001), “Consumer Research: In Search of Identity,” in Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. Maffesoli, Michel (1996), The Time of Tribes, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. These works not only highlight the sociohistorical significance of consumption generally but also often have an impact on broader academic and social conversations concerned with marketing's effects on society (e.g., Ritzer 1993; Schor 1998). It has been amended on no less than fifteen different occasions since then. We further suggest that this body of research fulfills recurrent calls by Association for Consumer Research (ACR) presidents and other intellectual leaders for consumer research to explore the broad gamut of social, cultural, and indeed managerially relevant questions related to consumption and to develop a distinctive body of knowledge about consumers and consumption (Andreasen 1993; Belk 1987a, 1987b; Folkes 2002; Holbrook 1987; Kernan 1979; Lehmann 1996; Levy 1992; MacInnis 2004; Olson 1982; Richins 2001; Sheth 1985; Shimp 1994; Wells 1993; Wright 2002; Zaltman 2000). The key research question driving this program of research is this: how does the emergence of consumption as a dominant human practice reconfigure cultural blueprints for action and interpretation, and vice versa?