Browsing by Subject "Consumer culture"
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Item Consuming manhood : consumer culture and the identity projects of black and white millennial males(2011-05) Thomas, Kevin Devon; Henderson, Geraldine R. (Geraldine Rosa), 1963-This study qualitatively examines the synergetic relationship between marketing communication, identity formation, and consumer behavior within the context of black and white males of the Millennial Generation. The sample consisted of 20 males between the ages of 18-29; ten self-identified as black and 10 self-identified as white. This project expands the knowledge base of consumption/identity research by incorporating intersectionality into the present body of consumer behavior work. A consumer’s identity project is far more complex than what is represented by current consumer behavior scholarship. Consumers must navigate multiple sites of identification that constantly shift in importance and involvement. To more closely reflect consumers in the flesh, this study incorporated multiple sites of identity projects into the analysis. By taking a more “true-to-life” approach to consumption/identity research, this project unearths new knowledge that is proximate to the lived experience of consumers. Consumer culture theory (CCT), a division of consumer research that moves the discussion of consumption behavior deep into the realm of cultural impact was used as the conceptual focus of this project. Autodriving was utilized to collect data. This form of photo elicitation involves the use of informants taking photos of a particular phenomenon and then “driving” the interview by discussing the photos they have taken. In the context of this study, informants were furnished a disposal camera and asked to photographically document representations of the following: achievement & success, morality, humanitarianism, nationalism, and freedom. Informants were strongly encouraged to also visually document anything that did not fit into the abovementioned categories but represented something they found particularly interesting or offensive. To examine the impact of marketing communication on the informants’ identity projects, print advertisements featuring different configurations of masculinity and manhood were explored. Three key themes emerged from the data. All informants used the marketplace to express values. The concept of identity elasticity was developed to explain the significant difference in identity potentiality between white and black informants. Many white and black informants shared the perception that they live in a post-racial society. However, the experience of a post-racial society was highly divergent based on racial formation.Item Ethical consumerism and parenting in a new urbanist neighborhood in Austin, Texas(2015-05) Cabrera, Sergio Antonio; Williams, Christine L., 1959-; Auyero, Javier; Adut, Ari; Fridman, Daniel; Rudrappa, SharmilaThis dissertation examines how people understand themselves---and, therefore, others like them---to be "good people." Recent decades have witnessed enormous changes in the American cultural landscape, changes which have eroded, replaced, or transformed many of the institutions which Americans once more exclusively relied on (at least ideologically) to construct their moral identities. In this dissertation I argue that today where, how, and what people buy matter a great deal in how they define themselves as good people. I show, moreover, that these consumer choices contribute to new forms of social inequality. This project utilizes in-depth interviews with 31 residents of the Mueller neighborhood in Austin, Texas who are parents of young children. The first part of this dissertation illustrates how, in the case of Mueller, ethical consumerism is a product of particular social settings. I draw on Muellerites' experiences with ethical consumerism to challenge conventional understandings of (1) what compels people to engage in ethical consumerism, and (2) the relationship between self-interest and civic behavior. Second, I explore how liberal, progressive ideals held by residents of Austin---and residents of the Mueller neighborhood in particular---coexist with gentrification and persistent inequalities in surrounding neighborhoods. Third, I explore how middle-class parents in Mueller interpret and negotiate dominant discourses regarding the need to shelter children from market influences, and the cultural work that these parents engage in to draw distinctions between the types of consumerism that are acceptable for their families and those that are not. I conclude with a discussion of the relevance of my findings for social theory and understanding contemporary inequalities.Item The impact of luxury brand mentions on consumer culture : a phenomenological inquiry(2014-08) Mitchell, Natalie Althea; Thomas, Kevin, doctor of advertising; Henderson, Geraldine R. (Geraldine Rosa), 1963-The current research explores how luxury brand mentions impacts consumer culture. Specifically, the social, cultural, and economic implications of such mentions when integrated in reality television is investigated. Exploring this phenomenon is important as consumers are afforded several options to skip or avoid advertising when viewing television. Hence, consumers are now exposed to brand mentions that are integrated in media by advertisers who aim to combat the advertising avoidance. Generally, brand mentions are depicted in media as inexpensive, convenient products, such as household goods or food products. But with the emergence and popularity of reality television, consumers are now exposed to those brands, in addition to luxury brands. This is true as brand mentions financially support production costs for many reality television programs and also serve as aspirational props. Luxury brand mentions are worthy of study as they exude exclusivity and status and are traditionally targeted to a niche, elite market. As luxury brands are integrated in reality television, a broader, more diverse consumer audience is exposed to such mentions. This research is one of the first to specifically explore how luxury brand mentions appear in reality television. Using the consumer culture theory framework, two studies were conducted to understand the nuanced meanings of such mentions among consumers. Study One explored the integration of luxury brand mentions using a content assessment. Study Two used depth interviews to gauge consumer response to such mentions. Study One results indicate luxury brand mentions are highly prominent in affluent-lifestyle reality television shows. Five of the most frequently mentioned luxury brands represent the automobile, entertainment/technology, and hospitality product categories. Overall, the promotion of materialism, aspiration, and elitism were messages consumers were exposed to. Study One results were supported by findings in Study Two which revealed informants’ race, class, and gender as strong influencers of their interpretations of luxury brand mentions.Item Organizing the American domestic interior : 1978-2010(2013-05) Kelly, Katherine Feo; Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949-; Catterall, Kate; Mickenberg, Julia; Davis, Janet; Long, ChristopherOver the past thirty years, organization has become one of the most popular ways to spend time and money on the home in the U.S. In part, this popularity and its attendant fixation on simplicity and stillness is a reaction to historical circumstances of the late twentieth century, in which consumption and time seem to have “sped up” as a result of the postindustrial economy. Situating home organization within the fields of American Studies, Design History, and Material Culture studies, this dissertation examines the contemporary preoccupation with organizing the domestic interior through five case studies: reality television shows about messy homes, the retail vendor The Container Store, Real Simple magazine, self-help books on de-cluttering, and interviews with professional organizers. Although its rhetoric and aesthetics seem to mimic the principles of design modernism, home organization is highly postmodern in its adoption of neoliberal values of self-improvement and its participation in an aestheticized landscape of consumer culture. Each case study in this dissertation exposes a number of tensions at the heart of the trend: home organization is a lucrative industry that relies on anxiety around overconsumption to sell products, often depending on corporate branding techniques that stress organization as an ongoing “lifestyle” of consumption; acknowledging gender inequity in domestic responsibility, home organization advice texts show women how to speed up, rather than delegate, housework, ultimately creating more work for women; de-cluttering manuals ask individuals to detach their sense of self-identity from their belongings, yet use the same principles to explain how editing objects results in the expression of one’s “true” self. Placing the discourse around clutter and order in the home within historical and cultural contexts, these case studies offer valuable insight into gender, middle-class culture, and the domestic interior at the turn of the twenty-first century.Item The prop metaphor : how consumers and socially-visible brands connect(2011-05) Schulz, Heather Marie; Stout, Patricia A.; Drumwright, Minette; Eastin, Matthew; Maxwell, Madeline; Falbo, ToniPost-purchase consumer behavior is an area of consumer research that is underdeveloped. One new phenomenon that can be used to study post-purchase consumer behavior is the individual behavior related to “socially-visible brands.” A socially-visible brand (SVB) is a brand located on or near a person’s physical body while they are out in the public atmosphere. Understanding consumers’ use of their socially-visible brands sheds light onto this form of post-purchase behavior. From a theoretical standpoint, impression management theory from the field of social psychology and consumer culture theory from the field of consumer research were juxtaposed and applied to the topic of socially-visible brands. An organizing framework is presented which adapts the dramaturgical concepts from impression management theory to the field of consumer behavior. Two studies are then presented which look at consumer behavior through this organizing framework. Study one delves into the consumer culture surrounding consumer behavior associated with socially-visible brands. Study two shows how market segmentation factors predict consumer behaviors associated with socially-visible brands. The overall argument being made here that socially-visible brands are a “prop” or tool consumers use during their presentation of self to others.Item Spaces of indulgence : desire, disgust, and the aesthetics of mass appeal(2012-05) Kolberg, Stephanie Jean 1976-; Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949-; Hoelscher, Steven D.; Davis, Janet; Engelhardt, Elizabeth; Smith, Mark; Adams, PaulThis dissertation examines the narratives surrounding spaces that represent a fantasy of democratized pleasure, power, and excess. In looking at the construction of the gentlemen’s club image, the promotion of Carnival cruise ships, and the discourse surrounding Red Lobster, this project explores the way different types of “indulgent” consumer spaces embody tensions between disgust and desire, and serve as examples of the way various anxieties and ideals are formulated and invoked as articulations of/contests over aesthetic meaning. By putting seemingly disparate types of consumer spaces into conversation with one another, this dissertation seeks to analyze underlying interconnections which would otherwise remain cordoned off in separate disciplines and within separate schools of thought. The upscaling of strip clubs into gentlemen’s clubs, beginning in the 1980s, reveals the methods by which so-called elements of disgust have been disguised, and in which aesthetic cues have been employed to minimize feelings of transgression and to bolster a sense of mainstream “normalcy.” Through downplaying elements seen as lower-class, gentlemen’s club owners have attempted to obscure cues of transgression in order to normalize zones of male power. The so-called downscaling of leisure cruising via Carnival Cruise Lines, from an elite option for the wealthy to a popular and growing mass-market vacation for all, demonstrates the desire for an aesthetic of fun and accessibility which meshes with late twentieth-century notions of Americanness as non-pretentious and playful. Carnival cruise ships embody an aesthetic of overflowing juxtaposition and freneticism which seeks to symbolically annihilate class differences and redistribute power. Lastly, the popular discourse surrounding Red Lobster and all-you-can-eat buffets reveals the way spaces of everyday life become fraught symbols of larger cultural tensions. Such narratives embody various concerns with and ideas about “middleness” and serve as barely concealed statements of disgust towards mass culture and abundance, and towards those who are perceived as somehow powerless. Overall, the tense relationship between desire and disgust that persists within American consumer culture reveals a conflicted relationship between access and excess, and demonstrates the way discussions of aesthetics reveal deep-seated views about class.Item "These goodies haunt your mind" : consumer culture and resistance to American nation-building in South Vietnam, 1963-1975(2012-05) Pho, Helen Nguyen; Lawrence, Mark Atwood; Davis, Janet MFrom 1963 to 1975, the United States invested billions of dollars to establish an anticommunist, independent, and modern nation in South Vietnam. In order to achieve its nation-building goals, the U.S. government facilitated the importation of material goods into South Vietnam to support both American soldiers and civilians and Vietnamese citizens. While the U.S. military allowed soldiers to indulge their desires for food, alcohol, luxury goods, and services, U.S. officials expected South Vietnamese to follow the path of industrial self-sufficiency to economic prosperity. American leaders wanted them to produce goods for themselves, not develop the consumption habits of First World citizens. However, consumer and luxury goods unintended for Vietnamese consumption nevertheless entered the local black market through two main avenues--the PX program and the Commercial Import Program (CIP). The circulation of illegal goods within South Vietnam's underground economy produced serious consequences for America's overarching nation-building objectives. This essay examines the combination of economic, political, and cultural forces shaping South Vietnamese urban society after 1963, arguably the most important years of South Vietnam's existence. It focuses on two major research questions: how did the translocation of American consumerism alter South Vietnam's culture and society, and how did changes in South Vietnamese culture and society, in turn, affect the goals of American nation-building? It argues that U.S. consumerism created a service economy that brought social disruptions to urban South Vietnam. Moreover, the consumerism that dominated U.S. military bases in South Vietnam influenced the development of a consumer society there, ultimately hampering America's goal of creating a stable and independent nation. South Vietnamese embraced some aspects of consumerism counter to the stipulation of Americans themselves; in doing so, they unintentionally resisted America's purported political and economic priorities through appropriating the wartime diffusion of consumer culture for their own material wishes. Uncovering the war's impact on the Vietnamese, this essay analyzes South Vietnamese economy and culture to provide a new explanation for why and how U.S. nation-building continued to deteriorate in South Vietnam.