This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Maguire, J. S. Articles by Stanway, K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Looking good

Consumption and the problems of self-production

Leicester University, jbs7{at}le.ac.uk

Kim Stanway

Leicester University, kimbo82uk{at}yahoo.co.uk

This article considers the anxieties and risks that attend the process of self-production in the context of consumption. Drawing from interviews with a small sample of British young adults — white, middle-class, university-educated — the article examines how material practices and discursive strategies resonate with theoretical accounts of the nexus of consumption, identity and individualization. The analysis highlights how respondents discursively cope with anxieties and risks associated with the question of style, the problem of conformity, the desire for confidence and the negotiation of gender. In doing so, the article indicates ways in which the process of self-production in contemporary consumer societies may be less reflexive, and more socially conservative, than some accounts of individualization would suggest.

Key Words: appearance • class • consumer culture • consumption • gender • identity • individualization • self-production • young adults

European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, 63-81 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1367549407084964


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?