Product, Competence, Project and Practice

Journal of Consumer Culture - Tập 8 Số 1 - Trang 69-89 - 2008
Matt Watson1, Elizabeth Shove2
1University of Sheffield, UK
2Lancaster University, UK

Tóm tắt

Studies of ordinary (as distinct from spectacular) forms of consumption have generated new questions and new ways of thinking about mechanisms and processes of change and about the conceptual status of consumer goods. No longer exclusively framed as semiotic resources deployed in the expression and reproduction of identities and social relations, products are increasingly viewed as essential ingredients in the effective accomplishment of everyday life.In this article, we examine the recursive relation between products, projects and practices with reference to do-it-yourself (DIY) and home improvement — an important area of craft consumption and a field in which consumers are actively and creatively engaged in integrating and transforming complex arrays of material goods. Interviews with DIY practitioners and retailers point to a circuit of interdependent relations between the hardware of consumption (tools, materials, etc.); distributions of competence (between humans and non-humans); the emergence of consumer projects and, with them, new patterns of demand. In elaborating on these practical and theoretical linkages we develop an analysis of the material dynamics of craft consumption that bridges approaches rooted in science studies, material culture and consumption.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.1215/9780822382720-006

10.1177/1469540505049843

Clarke, A. (2001) `The Aesthetics of Social Aspiration', in D. Miller (ed.) Home Possessions , pp. 23—46. Oxford: Berg.

Dant, T., 2005, Materiality and Society

10.1177/0038038590024001003

10.1016/S0048-7333(02)00006-9

10.1353/aq.1997.0007

Gronow, J., 2001, Ordinary Consumption

Haraway, D., 1991, Siminans, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature

Kuniavsky, M., 2003, Observing the User Experience. A Practitioner's Guide to User Research

Latour, B., 1987, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society

Latour, B. (1992) `Where are the Missing Masses? A Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts', in W.E. Bijker and J.Law (eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society, pp. 225—58. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Latour, B., 1993, We Have Never Been Modern

Leadbeater, C., 2004, The Pro-Am Revolution

Lury, C., 1996, Consumer Culture

McCracken, G., 1988, Culture and Consumption: NewApproaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities

Michael, M., 2000, Reconnecting Culture, Technology and Nature: From Society to Heterogeneity

Miller, D. (1997) `Consumption and Its Consequences', in H. Mackay (ed.) Consumption and Everyday Life , pp. 13—64. London: Sage and the Open University.

Miller, D., 1998, A Theory of Shopping

10.1007/BF02095828

Mintel, 2003, DIY Review 2003

Mintel, 2005, DIY Review 2005

Nelson, M.K., 2004, Feminist Economics, 10, 9, 10.1080/1354570042000217702

ONS, 2001, Household Satellite Survey 2000

Pred, A. (1981) `Of Paths and Projects: Individual Behaviour and its Societal Contexts', in R. Golledge and K. Cox (eds) Behavioural Problems in Geography Revisited, pp. 231—55. London: Methuen.

10.1177/13684310222225432

Roush, C., 1999, Inside Home Depot: How One Company Revolutionized an Industry through the Relentless Pursuit of Growth

10.1017/CBO9780511527470

10.1177/1469540505049846

10.5040/9781474293679

10.1016/S0022-4359(99)80007-4

10.1177/1469540505053090

10.1108/09590550410534613

10.1177/0004869003394005

10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00613.x

Woolgar, S. (1990) `Configuring the User: The Case of Usability Trials' , in J.Law (ed.) Sociology of Monsters, pp. 58—99. London: Routledge.

Zerubavel, E., 1985, Hidden Rhythms

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Journal of Consumer Culture

Tập 8 Số 1

69-89

Thông tin tác giả