Ekaterina Naumenko: Consumption as an instrument of identity construction: a qualitative study design
Ekaterina Naumenko
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), Department of international journalism, branch of sociology, professor
The complex issue of consumption has received wide attention in the social sciences and continues to be of great interest. Today consumption may be seen as a central social and cultural process involving cultural signs and symbols, not simply as an economic and utilitarian process. In a world in which traditional social bonds and class boundaries are weakening the use of consumer goods and patterns of consumption plays an important role in creating or confirming an individual sense of self or personal identity, maintaining and demarcating boundaries between social groups. Many people’s sense of identity is now bound up with their patterns of consumption rather than their work roles. Because of the wide range and character of goods and services currently on offer in the marketplace, individuals become free to select an identity for themselves. Under post-modern conditions, identities are in constant change; individuals mix and match what were formerly distinct categories. Different forms of style in clothing, cars, interior décor, television viewing or types of food, which were clearly delineated in modernity as distinct patterns for specific social status group, become more mixed up upon modernity. Adolescence is typically the time in which individuals begin the process of identity formation that involves the development of a self-structure, an internal, self constructed, dynamic organization of drives, abilities, believes and individual history.
The purpose of the project I’m working on now is to examine how young people construct their identities through different consumption practices. My research is based on secondary data gleaned from a larger qualitative study that examined everyday practices and life strategies of young people in the forming consumer society headed by Vladimir Ilyin. Semi-structures in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 students (17-26 years) from different universities of Moscow in June-August 2005. Prospective participants were recruited by snowball and purposive sampling through the acquaintances of study participants.
The study employs a communicative act paradigm in which language more generally is a model for all actions and which is common to theorists as Veblen, Goffman, Bourdieu, Barthes and Baudrillard. From this perspective, consumer actions are viewed as symbolic acts or signs. Individuals employ material objects to send messages to other and thus to symbolize or express an existing social relationship. The consumption pattern that consumers select, whether represented by their choice of car, clothes or furnishings can be regarded as indicative of their self-identity and of how they wish other to regard them. Constructing his identity, an individual skillfully manipulate impressions of those around him. By means of sophisticated consumer practices and all kinds of manoeuvres he is aiming to perform successful self-presentation.
Interview transcripts are being analyzed using the discursive narrative analysis consistent with the structural narrative analysis and the constant comparative method. Narrative analysis is often used in the researches of identification. Since we think of ourselves in storied form, these in-depth interviews transcripts indeed were narrative in form. People construct identities by locating themselves in ongoing narrative histories. When asked “Who are you?” many people give a narrative account of the past, a chronologically organized, mini-story of sorts. By examining narratives we can gain insight into the multiple meanings the people bring to and derive from consumption and how consumption plays a role in identity construction.
One the findings of this study is that person’s identification with particular community supposes demarcation of social boundaries between “us” and “them” on the base of distinction between normative and non-normative consumer practices. For example, the position of people following high consumer standards embedded by consumerist ideology and hegemonic mass media discourse is fixed in their right to blame and punish those who deviate; this identification strategy uses the procedures of stigmatization of those who don’t want to be “proper consumers”.
Secondary data analysis is regarded here as a useful first step in subsequent designing the primary data collection process.
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), Department of international journalism, branch of sociology, professor
The complex issue of consumption has received wide attention in the social sciences and continues to be of great interest. Today consumption may be seen as a central social and cultural process involving cultural signs and symbols, not simply as an economic and utilitarian process. In a world in which traditional social bonds and class boundaries are weakening the use of consumer goods and patterns of consumption plays an important role in creating or confirming an individual sense of self or personal identity, maintaining and demarcating boundaries between social groups. Many people’s sense of identity is now bound up with their patterns of consumption rather than their work roles. Because of the wide range and character of goods and services currently on offer in the marketplace, individuals become free to select an identity for themselves. Under post-modern conditions, identities are in constant change; individuals mix and match what were formerly distinct categories. Different forms of style in clothing, cars, interior décor, television viewing or types of food, which were clearly delineated in modernity as distinct patterns for specific social status group, become more mixed up upon modernity. Adolescence is typically the time in which individuals begin the process of identity formation that involves the development of a self-structure, an internal, self constructed, dynamic organization of drives, abilities, believes and individual history.
The purpose of the project I’m working on now is to examine how young people construct their identities through different consumption practices. My research is based on secondary data gleaned from a larger qualitative study that examined everyday practices and life strategies of young people in the forming consumer society headed by Vladimir Ilyin. Semi-structures in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 students (17-26 years) from different universities of Moscow in June-August 2005. Prospective participants were recruited by snowball and purposive sampling through the acquaintances of study participants.
The study employs a communicative act paradigm in which language more generally is a model for all actions and which is common to theorists as Veblen, Goffman, Bourdieu, Barthes and Baudrillard. From this perspective, consumer actions are viewed as symbolic acts or signs. Individuals employ material objects to send messages to other and thus to symbolize or express an existing social relationship. The consumption pattern that consumers select, whether represented by their choice of car, clothes or furnishings can be regarded as indicative of their self-identity and of how they wish other to regard them. Constructing his identity, an individual skillfully manipulate impressions of those around him. By means of sophisticated consumer practices and all kinds of manoeuvres he is aiming to perform successful self-presentation.
Interview transcripts are being analyzed using the discursive narrative analysis consistent with the structural narrative analysis and the constant comparative method. Narrative analysis is often used in the researches of identification. Since we think of ourselves in storied form, these in-depth interviews transcripts indeed were narrative in form. People construct identities by locating themselves in ongoing narrative histories. When asked “Who are you?” many people give a narrative account of the past, a chronologically organized, mini-story of sorts. By examining narratives we can gain insight into the multiple meanings the people bring to and derive from consumption and how consumption plays a role in identity construction.
One the findings of this study is that person’s identification with particular community supposes demarcation of social boundaries between “us” and “them” on the base of distinction between normative and non-normative consumer practices. For example, the position of people following high consumer standards embedded by consumerist ideology and hegemonic mass media discourse is fixed in their right to blame and punish those who deviate; this identification strategy uses the procedures of stigmatization of those who don’t want to be “proper consumers”.
Secondary data analysis is regarded here as a useful first step in subsequent designing the primary data collection process.
posted by A. | 5:04 PM
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