Consumers, Producers and Practices

Journal of Consumer Culture - Tập 5 Số 1 - Trang 43-64 - 2005
Elizabeth Shove1, Mika Pantzar2
1LANCASTER UNIVERSITY,
2National Consumer Research Centre, Finland

Tóm tắt

The idea that artifacts are acquired and used in the course of accomplishing social practices has important implications for theories of consumption and innovation. From this point of view, it is not enough to show that goods are symbolically and materially positioned, mediated and filtered through existing cultures and conventions. Twisting the problem around, the further challenge is to explain how practices change and with what consequence for the forms of consumption they entail. In this article, we suggest that new practices like Nordic walking, a form of ‘speed walking’ with two sticks, arise through the active and ongoing integration of images, artifacts and forms of competence, a process in which both consumers and producers are involved. While it makes sense to see Nordic walking as a situated social practice, such a view makes it difficult to explain its growing popularity in countries as varied as Japan, Norway and the USA. In addressing this issue, we conclude that practices and associated cultures of consumption are always ‘homegrown’. Necessary and sometimes novel ingredients (including images and artifacts) may circulate widely, but they are always pieced together in a manner that is informed by previous and related practice. What looks like the diffusion of Nordic walking is therefore better understood as its successive, but necessarily localized, (re)invention. In developing this argument, we explore some of the consequences of conceptualizing consumption and consumer culture as the outcome of meaningful social practice.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Bijker, W., 1992, Shaping Technology, Building Society, 75

Bijker, W., 1997, Of Bicycles, Bakelites and Bulbs

Bourdieu, P., 1984, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Bourdieu, P., 1992, The Logic of Practice

Bradberry, G., 2004, Times, 6

10.1111/j.1467-954X.1998.tb03468.x

Country Walking, 2004, Country Walking, 33

de Certeau, M., 1984, The Practice of Everyday Life

Dant, T., 1999, Material Culture in the Social World

10.1177/1357034X00006003005

Goffman, E., 1976, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Helsinki Stock Exchange (2003) Daily Bulletin (22 July).

Hughes, T., 1983, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930, 10.56021/9780801828737

10.1177/1469540504040903

ISPO News (2003) ‘Nordic Walking Tracks through ISPO’ (summer) outdoor 3. URL: http://www.ispo.com

10.1016/0160-7383(94)90114-7

K. P., 1928, ‘Tahkon’ mukana jenkkien maassa (Following Tahko to the country of yankees)

Kantaneva, M., 1999, Sauvakävelystä sauvaliikuntaan (From stick walking to stick exercises)

10.1080/09537329808524310

Kidder, T., 1982, The Soul of a New Machine

Latour, B., 1992, Shaping Technology/Building Society

10.1177/14695405030033014

Levine, R., 1997, A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or how Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently

Macnaghten, P., 1998, Contested Natures

10.4135/9781446221266.n6

10.1080/03085140220123135

Mintel, 2002, Sports Goods Retailing, UK

Molotch, H., 2003, Where Stuff Comes from: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers, and Many Other Things Come to Be as They Are

Oksanen-Särelä, K., 2005, Manufacturing Leisure: Innovations in Happiness, Well-being and Fun

10.1080/00913367.2003.10639052

Parsons, M., 2003, Invisible on Everest

Reay, J., 2000, Knowledge Management Review, 3, 20

10.1177/13684310222225432

10.1007/978-0-230-20304-4

Ryave, L., 1974, Ethnomethodology, 265

2003, Saturday Evening Post, 27

Schatzki, T., 2001, Social Practices

10.1177/00027649921955335

Warde, A., 2004, ‘Theories of Practice as an Approach to Consumption’

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Journal of Consumer Culture

Tập 5 Số 1

43-64

Thông tin tác giả