The construction of knowledge, values and identities in present-day consumerism discourses : the case of perfume reviews

• This paper presents ongoing critical research staged against the backdrop of global consumerism, which is of continuously escalating importance, both for humanity at large and more concretely in the daily lives of individuals, where consumption choices are increasingly associated with lifestyle and identity. In order to develop an adequate model for our investigation, we focus on a limited and strategically selected material, perfume reviews, which are analysed by means of a combination of argumentation analysis and Appraisal analysis. Consumer reviews in different domains of luxury consumption are of particular interest since they concretize the ambiguity of the concept of consumerism: From the addresser perspective, consumption reviews explicitly function to protect consumers’ rights by providing advice concerning the appropriateness of consumption choices, while also, at least in the range of domains that are not immediately related to the basic necessities of life, implicitly encouraging ever-growing consumption of such excessive products. Consumption reviews also construct ambivalent recipient identities: On the one hand, seeking consumption advice construes a critical persona that is rightly sceptical of the value of products and information from producers. On the other hand, the very existence of consumer reviews in the luxury domain simultaneously invokes an uncertain consumer persona, reluctant to rely on personal taste and therefore in need of guidance. Importantly, these ambivalent identities operate in an environment where what is seen as the basic necessities of life is an ever-changing construction, constantly renegotiated in accordance with both explicit and implicit socio-cultural norms and expectations. The analytical model developed for the current project is subsequently intended to be applicable to a larger corpus of consumer reviews from different domains with the ultimate goal of being able to generalize across present-day consumerism discourses and thus contribute to exploring what we see as a human identity crisis of the 21st century that leads to increasing commodification of our identities. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

perfume review

Appraisal analysis

argumentation analysis

luxury consumption

lifestyle

Humaniora

Humanities

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)