Moving up, down or sideways?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to argue that consumers experience conflict not only when in identity transitions or social status transitions but also in-between these two, and that the relationship between these two is becoming increasingly important to address. First, this is done by identifying how status transitions (vertical movements) overlap but differ in some important respects from identity transitions (horizontal movements), and second, the consumption strategies used by people when these movements lead to an experience of conflict between one’s (new/old) identity role and (new/old) status position have been demonstrated. Design/methodology/approach – In this multi-sited, qualitative data collection, the phenomenological and ethnographic interviews have been conducted with 35 urban middle-class consumers in their homes at three culturally and historically different sites (Sweden, Turkey and the USA). Findings – The importance and kind of a consumption strategy to resolve the status–identity incongruence relates if it is mainly a vertically or horizontally determined transition. To consumers with a main focus on status change – characterised by hierarchical and competitive dimensions that identity role transitions are free from – the engagement in consumption becomes more important and intense. Practical implications – Marketers have historically mainly been engaged in static categorisation and segmentation of consumer lifestyles. By instead emphasising consumers’ life transitions and their accompanying status–identity conflicts, marketers may consider the implications for market communication. Social implications – Given that liquid modernity (Bauman, 2001) and its loose social structures forces the middle-class to become increasingly socially mobile, matches and mismatches between identity and status positions ought to become more common and the resulting consumption strategies more sophisticated. This research offers a first, tentative framework for understanding these conflicts in relation to consumption. Originality/value – Although lifestyle transitions have often been elaborated on in consumer research, the differences between social status transitions and identity transitions, and especially the conflict in-between these two, have not been paid its deserved attention. Based on multi-sited, qualitative data collection, concrete consumption strategies following the experience of status–identity incongruence have been identified. The results also contribute to a better understanding of the growing uncertainty and volatility of social status positions in contemporary middle-class consumer culture.

Volunteer Tourism as a Transformative Experience: A Mixed Methods Empirical Study

“…In parallel, a separate but relevant stream of research has attempted to clarify how individuals create and maintain their identities through symbolic consumption practices (Dimanche & Samdahl 1994;Ekinci et al 2013). Research on consumer identity explores how consumers deploy resources to build a personal or collective narrative of their identities (Arnould & Thompson 2005), by continually changing their status and transforming themselves (Ulver & Ostberg 2014). However, consumer researchers "tend to emphasize identity work itself, leaving unquestioned the processes and the nature of transformations that consumers experience in the construction of such narratives" (Castilhos & Fonseca 2016: 6).…”

'Fault' genes and false needs? A critical review on the direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic tests

“…The importance of consumption for the construction of individuals' identities has been highlighted by several authors (Belk 1988;Elliott & Wattanasuwan, 1998;Hogg & Mitchell, 13 1996;; Shankar, Elliott & Fitchett, 2009) and it has been related to a plethora of socio-cultural variables such as ethnicity (Sobh, Belk & Gressel, 2014;Takhar, MacLaren & Parsons, 2010), religion (McAlexander, 2014) and social class (Ustuner & Holt, 2007;Ulver & Ostberg, 2014) amongst others. Perhaps, the increasing popularity of DNA ancestry tests represents an era wherein results related to unknown relatives, geographical and ethnic origins might influence or even alter the attitudes of some consumers regarding their identities and perceptions of their selves in general.…”

Taste Transformation in the Context of Social Mobility

“…However, the economic and political environments create situations in which consumers find themselves in a state of constant movement, i.e. becoming something new instead of simply being (Ulver & Ostberg, 2014). This calls for an investigation on the transformation of taste during the process of social movement.…”

“…However, in emergent markets, the radical economic and cultural changes of the last years have muddled the traditional class descriptors (Kravets & Sandikci, 2014). Similarly, in late capitalist societies, social status and economic power of the middle classes have become more volatile (Ulver & Ostberg, 2014), causing social ascension and decline and the consequent transition of the consumers' social status, which is more recurrent in contemporary consumer culture.…”

“…how taste is transformed during the vertical social BAR, Rio de Janeiro, v. 15, n. 2, art. 2, e170100, 2018 www.anpad.org.br/bar mobility process in which groups navigate in a classification system which is also undergoing a reformulation process (Ulver & Ostberg, 2014).…”