Marketing Theory

Marketing Theory http://mtq.sagepub.com

Weaving a web: subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television Rohit Varman and Russell W. Belk Marketing Theory 2008; 8; 227 DOI: 10.1177/1470593108093555 The online version of this article can be found at: http://mtq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/3/227

Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com

Additional services and information for Marketing Theory can be found at: Email Alerts: http://mtq.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://mtq.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://mtq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/8/3/227

Downloaded from http://mtq.sagepub.com by Rohit Varman on October 11, 2009

Volume 8(3): 227–252 Copyright © 2008 SAGE www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/1470593108093555

articles

Weaving a web: subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television Rohit Varman Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Russell W. Belk Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto

Abstract. Cultivation analysis suggests that television influences local cultures through its complex repertoire of images and narratives, which constitute a representation. Through a discursive analysis of television content in India we contend that rising material aspirations and consumer culture are significantly influenced by this medium. Dialectics of turmoil and tranquility mark this development for the working class population. On the one hand, there is domestication of unrest among subaltern groups, as they withdraw from collective political struggles to narrower and more tranquil forms of emulation and economism. On the other hand, these attempts at emulation have resulted in the poorer sections of society devoting their limited resources to aping a lifestyle well beyond their reach and further compromising their quality of life. The other pole of the dialectic is the increase in turmoil that results from tearing the traditional social fabric and support systems. This turmoil progressively manifests itself in increasing materialism and greater monetization of relationships for these subaltern groups. Key Words consumer culture cultivation analysis subaltern consumption television

•

•

•

•

With the globalization of the world economy, consumer culture has truly become an international culture (Arnould and Thompson, 2005; Belk, 1988b; Lury, 1996; Ritzer, 2004). Many theorists concur that the culture of modern day consumption, which started in the West, has now sunk deep roots across the world (Bauman, 1997; Belk, 1996; Venkatesh, 1994; Zukin and Maguire, 2004). Television is a contemporary institution that plays a significant role in influencing the global reality of cultural flows. Consumption increasingly defines what is perceived as global reality and television is seen as playing a key role in spreading global consumption (Appadurai, 1996; Mankekar, 1999). In this research, we adopt a critical

227 Downloaded from http://mtq.sagepub.com by Rohit Varman on October 11, 2009

marketing theory 8(3) articles

perspective to study the relationship between television, consumer culture, and impacts on the daily lives of subaltern groups in India. A subaltern population has been described as a socially subordinate group (Gramsci, 1990). Although poverty is the single most important determinant of subaltern status, our use of the term draws upon our understanding of multiple sources of hierarchy and subordination in Indian society, such as caste, religion, gender, age, capital, and occupation. Appreciating all of these barriers is necessary to transcend an economic classbased perspective. In the last two decades, India has witnessed unprecedented changes in consumer culture and television programming (Mazzarella, 2003; Rajagopal, 2001). We base our research on an interpretive analysis of consumer narratives about images emanating from television and their impact on lifestyle and consumption practices. In this paper we suggest that dialectics of turmoil and tranquility mark the development of consumer culture for subaltern groups. We also contend that rising material aspirations and consumer culture in India are influenced by television. Supporting the cultivation approach (Gerbner et al., 1980) we find both the creation and legitimation of the discourse of consumption are activities that are carried out by television.

Theoretical issues Consumer culture is acknowledged as one of the most significant and defining features of modern day existence. For the purpose of this study, we use the definition of consumer culture proposed by Belk: Consumer culture is defined as a culture in which the majority of consumers avidly desire (and some noticeable portion pursue, acquire and display) goods and services that are valued for non-utilitarian reasons, such as status seeking, envy provocation, and novelty seeking. (Belk, 1988b: 105)

The definition highlights several dimensions of consumption and consumer culture, which need to be stressed. First, most of the people obtain goods and services for consumption through exchange rather than self-production. Second, and significantly, conspicuous consumption is seen as an acceptable and appropriate activity. In addition, people are judged through their material lifestyles (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986). Finally, following Arnould and Thompson’s (2005: 869) description of consumer culture, ‘as a social arrangement in which the relations between the lived culture and the social resources . . . are mediated through markets,’ it becomes necessary to put a caveat about the role of markets implicit in the above definition. Across the globe, especially in transitional economies, the majority of consumers suffer from extreme forms of poverty. These subaltern groups are practically at the fringe of the market mechanism and hardly participate in exchange processes as buyers. However, this is not to deny that consumer culture, as described above, does not exist among the majority of ‘buyers’ in these societies. Also, it has to be realized that the desire to buy objects of consumption


Subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television Rohit Varman and Russell W. Belk

has become a far more universal phenomenon even amongst consumers with limited purchasing power. While there is consensus about the significance of consumer culture, its theoretical interpretation has been a contested terrain. Consumer culture has been interpreted in multifarious ways including consumption as a control mechanism, as environmentally harmful, as giving new meaning to life, and as having an emancipatory potential (Bauman, 1997; Featherstone, 1991, Firat and Venkatesh, 1995; Marcuse, 1968; Sahlins, 1976; Twitchell, 1999). The interpretive turn in consumer research has especially enhanced our understanding of consumption with emphases on identity construction (Belk, 1988a; Holt, 1995; Thompson and Haytko, 1997), proteanism (Thompson, 2000; Thompson and Tambyah, 1998), and social class and cultural capital (Holt, 1997, 1998). Arnould and Thompson (2005) have summarized these developments in consumer culture research by highlighting the four inter-related aspects of consumer identity, marketplace cultures, sociohistoric patterning of consumption, and ideologies. We acknowledge that consumer culture has effects in multiple domains and any uni-dimensional analysis of its impact would be simplistic (Belk, 2004; Featherstone, 1991). We do not intend to dwell upon the description of each of the interpretations listed above (for a partial coverage of the debate refer to Arnould and Thompson, 2005; Belk, 1983, 2004; Zukin and Maguire, 2004). It is more relevant for us to emphasize the historicity of consumer culture in terms of its linkages with capitalism and the role played by institutions in spreading it. Several theorists have closely associated consumer culture with the rise of the industrial–capitalistic mode of production (e.g. Ewen, 1976; Ritzer, 2004). It has been argued that conversion of human beings into consumers was not intrinsic to any universal process of human development, but one that was specific to a certain path followed under industrial capitalism. According to Stearns (2002: x), ‘While consumerism may appeal to some “natural” human impulses, it is not purely natural. It requires certain causes, and part of the larger task of using history to explain what it means involves exploring these causes.’ Historically, this change involved the active intervention of several external institutions such as universities, corporations, and the media. Leach (1993) has described the historical forces behind the rise in American consumer culture: The new consumer direction of American culture was also the consequence of the alliances among diverse institutions, non-economic and economic, working together in an interlocking circuit of relationships to reinforce the democratization of desire and the cult of the new. National corporations, department stores, investment banks, hotel chains, and the entertainment industry joined this circuit, but so did the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, the Harvard Business School, The Wharton School, Cornell University, New York University, Pratt Institute, and the New York School of Design. Even the nation’s most radical labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World, participated inadvertently in building this new culture. (Leach, 1993: 9)

The institutional imperative developed by Leach (1993) in interpreting consumerism touches upon the systemic critique offered by the critical theorists (e.g. Habermas, 1969; Horkheimer and Adorno, 1998 [1944]; Marcuse, 1968; Sklair,



1994). These theorists have interpreted consumerism as a cultural expression of capitalism with adverse ramifications on the human quest for emancipation. Some consumer researchers have specifically examined subaltern groups and have highlighted the role of materialism and self-identity among the homeless (Hill, 1991; Hill and Stamey, 1990); limited individualism and freedom in consumption choices (Holt, 1998; Varman and Vikas, 2007); increasing consumerism (Ger, 1992); ideology and ethnicity (Crockett and Wallendorf, 2004; Peñaloza, 1994); racial hierarchy (Chin, 2001); and contradictions between consumer culture and brand world (Holt, 2002). These critical interpretations and limited consumer research on subaltern groups show that further work is required to understand the ramifications of rising consumer culture on subordinate groups in transitional economies. Drawing from the above studies, in this research we specifically focus our attention on the role of television in influencing consumer culture in India.

Television and consumer culture Television is one of the most important institutions of our contemporary existence. According to Appadurai (1996), ‘mediascapes’1 play a significant role in influencing the global reality in terms of cultural flows. Television influences local cultures through its complex repertoire of images and narratives, which constitute a representation. These features have been highlighted by several theorists inspired by the Frankfurt School’s emphases on the social control of thought and the commercial–cultural nexus. These theorists have critically examined the relationship between advertising and consumption practices in contemporary capitalist society and have argued that marketers attempt to create illusory images through distortions of reality to help create false consciousness among consumers (e.g. Ewen, 1976; Horkhiemer and Adorno, 1944; Jhally, 1987; Murray and Ozanne, 1991; Ozanne and Murray, 1995). It is argued that the meanings attached to products and their subsequent consumption is symbolically constituted (Sahlins, 1976). It has been further observed that symbolic constitution of goods for consumers is dialectically produced through the interplay between representations and discourses (Costa, 1998). Representations involve elements like the words used to describe products, the stories told about them, the images produced, the emotions associated with them, the way they are classified, and the values that are placed on them (Hall, 1997). These representations in turn constitute discourses, which are ways of referring to or constructing knowledge about a particular topic of practice (Foucault, 1969). Discourse is a cluster of ideas, images, and practices, which provide ways of talking about, forms of knowledge concerning, and conduct associated with a particular topic or activity (Hall, 1997). Television representations create a discourse about lifestyles and the consumption of objects that affects the culture, specifically the consumer culture, in a society. The various elements of communication – sounds, words, notes, visuals, gestures, expressions – employed by television create symbolic representations of different modes of consumption, which in turn are internalized by consumers.



Foucault (1969) posits that representations and discourses are not devoid of power, politics, and desire, but are rather inflected with these concerns. Several theorists analyzing the role of media and the discursive formations created around consumption agree with Foucault’s position on the issue. Horkheimer and Adorno (1998 [1944]) in their incisive analysis of the post-Second World War capitalism, linked the rise of consumer culture to the corporate control of the media and the culture industry. According to these authors, the culture industry creates a powerful discourse around consumerism, which makes it impossible for people to resist its constructed allure. Accordingly, media is a significant vehicle for legitimizing unjust production relations, as people become increasingly caught up in fulfilling their never ending wants and needs. Gramsci (1990) makes a similar argument that relates to the hegemonic nature of the ‘culture industry’ of the civil society and the control of human consciousness. Similarly, Thorburn (1988) contends that a ‘consensus narrative’ through media is always conservative as it has the objective of reinforcing dominant beliefs. Here, Althusser’s (1971) conceptualization of ideological state apparatus is particularly useful for our understanding. Accordingly, any system of production works through recreation of the means of production and that makes it necessary for the state to use repression as well as ideology as active tools. Ideological state apparatus works in the domain of ideology and relies on the institutions of education, media, religion, and politics (Althusser, 1971). Marcuse (1968) goes a step further and argues that the system of indoctrination unleashed by the media–advertising nexus manipulates people and creates false needs among them. Examining the triad of media, consumers, and corporations, Chomsky (1989) observes that media and corporate interests combine with their profit imperative to consciously deceive consumers. Chomsky (1989), extending the argument of Marcuse further, asserts that consumers are like products, which are sold by the manipulating media to lure a willing buyer to private corporations. This manipulation is achieved through the creation and control of images and representations by television. Communication theorists such as Gerbner et al. (1980) have systematically theorized the above approach as cultivation theory. Accordingly, ‘television’s images cultivate the dominant tendencies of our culture’s beliefs, ideologies, and world views . . .’ (Gerbner et al., 1980: 216). They argue that ‘mainstreaming’ or cultivation of relative commonality in thought and ‘resonance’ or congruence with everyday perceived reality by television are inherent to this process (Gerbner et al., 1980: 217). Cultivation analysis has been criticized for conceptualizing viewers as passive and lacking in ability to distance themselves from television content (Rubin, 1984; Wilk, 2002). An alternate approach labeled the ‘Uses and Gratification’ approach emphasizes the instrumental nature of television viewing. Although there is some merit in the criticism about overemphasis on the passive nature of the television audience, the cultivation approach has received widespread support (McMillin, 2003; O’Guinn and Shrum, 1997; Segrin and Nabi, 2002). While highlighting the uses and gratification features, Rubin (1984) acknowledges that television viewing is not a singular behavior and is also marked by ritualized behavior that can be understood through the cultivation approach.



Similarly, O’ Guinn and Shrum (1997), in supporting the cultivation approach, have observed that heavy television viewing leads to a false perception of affluence. In another study of working class in India, McMillin (2003), adopting the cultivation approach, has found that television influences clothing, food, and other consumption practices. According to McMillin (2003: 509), television plays an important role in cultivating and sustaining the ideology of capitalism and he asserts that ‘television in India has played a crucial ideological role in sustaining these impoverished positions throughout the nation’s postcolonial history.’ In addition, Richins (1991) observes linkages between exposure to television advertising and dissatisfaction levels among consumers with their own physical appearances. Similarly, consumer research on the effect of advertising on children shows that it leads to an increase in their desire to consume and their invocation of ‘pester power,’ which adversely influences the child–parent relationship through forced expenditures on goods deemed to be unhealthy and unnecessary (Bergler, 1999; McDermott et al., 2006; Spungin, 2004). Thus, in this interpretation, television imagery and related advertising practices lead to marketing being understood as the ‘engine of a vast panoptic system of observation and social control by means of which it tracks, traces and seduces unknowing consumers’ (Brownlie et al., 1999: 8; see also Alvesson, 1993; Alvesson and Willmott, 1996). Summing up, the above review argues that consumer culture is becoming an increasingly dominant global reality. Television functions as an important ideological tool and actively contributes to the discursive formations that exist in any contemporary society. The discourse of consumption is an important feature of contemporary existence and television images constitute a significant element of this formation. Critical theorists have stressed the role of media in aligning with capitalist forces and furthering the profit imperative. Scholars adopting the cultivation approach have argued that television functions to create an ideological consensus around dominant beliefs in any society. It is this ideological consensus that we seek to examine in the context of subaltern groups. In the next section, we describe the methodological logic employed to elicit and analyze consumers’ relationships with consumer culture and television. The theoretical motivation of our analysis derives from the critical approach in the literature discussed above. Our objective is to identify and to understand the roles played by media and consumer culture in the lives of our participants.

Research context India has witnessed some unprecedented changes in the last two decades on the economic and sociocultural fronts. These changes have primarily been fueled by the structural adjustment program started in the country in 1991. The economic liberalization pushed in the name of ‘free markets’ has meant that multinational corporations have free access to the Indian market and its cheap labor (Kurien, 1995). It has entailed privatization, removal of trade tariffs, and free-floating currency, among other mandated changes. While this market liberalization has



boosted the overall growth rate of the Indian economy, the structural adjustment program has also resulted in an increase in rural poverty levels, a growing gap between rich and poor, and a decline in the pace of employment generation in the country (Chandrashekhar and Ghosh, 2000; Chossudovsky, 1997; Patnaik, 2004). The structural adjustment program is based on the agenda dictated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and also involves reduction in spending on social programs, as well as elimination of state subsidies and price support programs (Chossudovsky, 1997; Swaminathan, 2000). The reduction in state expenditures in India has resulted in an overall decline in per capita consumption in the critical domains of food (Patnaik, 2004; Swaminathan, 2000) and clothing (Chossudovsky, 1997). These changes in the economic domain and the deterioration in rural living conditions in the country have been accompanied by the entry of global brands and multinational media corporations in the country. The country is witnessing a surge in consumerism, which is closely linked to economic liberalization (Venkatesh, 1994). Indians in the last couple of decades have witnessed an unparalleled proliferation of consumer goods and international brands in urban centers along with a rapid growth in the size of the middle-class urban population. The period has also witnessed a decline of Indian brands and public sector activity, with international private capital dominance increasingly taking root. As the Indian economy becomes part of the world capitalist system, there is a shift away from building a self-reliant welfare state to a ‘market’ driven consumer goods economy (Kurien, 1995; Mankekar, 1999). This has resulted in rising consumer expectations, created by the change in economic policies, and has led to increasing social acceptance of consumption as a key means of defining social status. Mankekar describes the phenomena: ‘The new economic policies enabled the middle class to consume goods that had recently been luxury items but were now perceived as crucial indices of upward mobility: household appliances, toiletries, packaged foods, and other consumer goods’ (Mankekar, 1999: 74). Venkatesh and Swamy (1994) describe the media as one of the prime movers of growing consumerism in India. There are three related changes in the nature and content of media that should be highlighted. First, there has been a several-fold increase in the number of television channels in the country. Second, there has been an exponential rise in advertising expenditures in India (Gupta, 1998). Third, there has been a related alteration of the media programming and media content to suit the advertisers and corporate interests (Gupta, 1998; Mankekar, 1999). Indian television, completely controlled by the government since its inception, gave way to cable television in the 1990s. All the cable television channels, which include names like Star, Zee, and Sony, are controlled by private domestic or international capital. Though private channels are the biggest vehicles of the consumer culture in media, the state owned channel also witnessed a change in priorities in the 1980s (Gupta, 1998; Mazzarella, 2003; Rajagopal, 2001). In the initial years the state-controlled television programming was a reflection of the paternalistic welfare role in which the Indian state saw itself. In the pre-liberalization era, ‘Doordarshan’2 programs were marked by a special focus on education and themes that were socially relevant for the weaker sections of society (Sinha, 1996). The



turning point in Indian television programming and advertising came in the early 1980s with the success of the ‘Doordarshan’ soap opera ‘Humlog’ and its sponsor Nestlé. This ‘success’ led to the increasing commercialization of the medium and a thrust away from the welfare imperative (Gupta, 1998). Subsequent programs and advertisements, especially with the rise of private and multinational channels, have been marked by the portrayal of upper- and upper-middle-class lifestyles, which legitimize consumerism and create material wants (Mankekar, 1999). Based on an analysis of changing Indian television programs and advertising over the last two decades, Gupta (1998) argues that there has been an unprecedented rise in the consumerist content in Indian television programs. A glance through any of the popular channels reminds the reader of the famous statement of Horkheimer and Adorno, ‘in the most influential American magazines, Life and Fortune, a quick glance can now scarcely distinguish advertising from editorial picture and text’ (1998 [1944]: 163). Most of the programs are set in rich, educated, urban-class milieux. The images and stories woven around the themes of consumerist lifestyles create an ‘ideal form’ of existence for viewers, one marked by conspicuous consumption (for a detailed description and analysis of these programs refer to Gupta, 1998). This imagery sets up the discourse of consumption, and inevitably fosters the desire by viewers to consume more and more. These representations demonstrate a close nexus of advertising firms and television programmers with television entertainment increasingly portraying urban, rich class with disposable income (Mankekar, 1999).

Methodology We conducted an interpretive study to understand the role of consumer culture and television in the lives of subaltern consumers. The approach involved extended fieldwork and theorization that helped us to arrive at a deep level of understanding of a particular geographically and culturally bound setting. Seventeen adult consumers participated in the in-depth interviews in two north Indian cities. A participant profile is presented in Table 1. Following qualitative research conventions, our sample plan was purposeful. As suggested by Miles and Huberman (1984), for in-depth understanding we utilized within-case sampling and a nested approach, looking at various relevant subaltern consumers in their home and work settings. In order to achieve the target of covering the caste, gender, and agebased variations within these settings, we captured a mix of low and middle/high caste, young and old, and of males and females, among subaltern participants. These respondents were recruited through contacts at their work places, referrals by other participants, and personal acquaintances that researchers made during the course of the study. Our data collection followed the conventions of qualitative in-depth interviewing involving multiple rounds with most of the participants (McCracken, 1988). The interviews varied from 45 minutes to three hours and took place in three different locations comprising participants’ homes, their places of work, and their acquaintances’ homes. The choice of location was governed by



Table 1 Profile of participants

Pseudonym

Gender

Age (approximate)

Rani Rakhi Preeti Suchitra Neeru Kishore Ravi Mahendra Alok Aravind Sharma Ali Jeetu Sanjeev Brahm John Nilesh

Female Female Female Female Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male

25 35 45 30 18 35 30 50 35 45 65 55 20 30 35 50 55

Position in the caste hierarchy

Occupation

low low low–middle bottom bottom bottom bottom high low bottom high low low–middle low–middle low–middle low–middle high

Laundry worker Domestic worker Domestic worker Construction worker Construction worker Janitor Janitor Construction supervisor Laundry worker Janitor Ex-union leader Mason Unemployed Security guard Cook Peon Peon

convenience for participants. Some of the interviews were spread over several days and also involved informal rounds of conversations with researchers. This informal phase was helpful in building a rapport with these respondents. The consumer respondents were primarily questioned about their possessions, exposure to television programming, and the impact of television on their lives. These interviews were conducted in Hindi and then transcribed and translated into English. Our interpretation of the interview texts was conducted through a hermeneutical process that involved a continuous movement between transcripts and the emerging understanding of the entire data set (Thompson and Troester, 2002). The theoretical understanding presented here reflects the final stages of the analysis in which linkages were developed between participant meanings and a broader set of theoretical questions. Adhering to recommendations made by Erlandson et al. (1993), triangulation, peer debriefing, member checking, thick description, and purposive sampling were carried out for establishing trustworthiness in the data. Triangulation, the use of multiple sources and/or forms of data, methods, or researchers, helps verify findings (Erlandson et al., 1993). In conducting interviews with different consumers in two different cities, we triangulated our data sources geographically as well. Two researchers were involved in analysis, during and after data collection,



and provided researcher triangulation. Peer briefings, which are formal or informal discussions with peers as sounding boards and sources of new ideas, were used during the work. We continuously discussed emerging issues with our colleagues. Member checking was continuous and involved formal or informal verification of data and interpretations with the participants, resulting in conclusions that are deemed realistic and accurate by informants (Erlandson et al., 1993). In most cases, before finishing the interviews, we would briefly discuss participant comments with the informants. In addition, during the course of the fieldwork, we periodically conversed with participants about emerging issues in order to obtain their feedback and to achieve the objectives of member checking. Thick description is particularly critical for good qualitative accounts (Geertz, 1973) and aids other researchers in determining the transferability of our findings (Erlandson et al., 1993; Glesne, 2006). We carefully amalgamated participants’ emic views with our analytical etic insights.

Findings Our data show that the subaltern group under study displays a high propensity to consume and is strongly influenced by television images. In this section we describe and analyze the role of television in influencing consumption practices and in effecting changes in subaltern behavior. We highlight the themes of emulation, economism, atomization, and monetization as particularly disturbing dimensions of this development. The data presented below make evident the dialectic of tranquility and turmoil that marks this development.

Rising consumer culture and emulation Consumer culture is characterized by greater desire to procure objects of consumption (Belk, 1988b). Our participants repeatedly described the escalation of the general increase in desires for certain consumption objects. Our interview with a young male consumer, Kishore, shows how informants often projected this escalation of desires to others rather than admitting to their own desire to emulate these ‘others’: There is showbaazi (conspicuous consumption). The society has changed in the last few years. One person gets a bike then person next door has to get a bigger one.

This narrative also suggests three intertwined cultural processes of conspicuous consumption, normative change, and competition. The usage of showbaazi by Kishore, who is also a dalit or an untouchable by caste, to describe his experience and perceptions is particularly revealing because it shows the increasing cultural emphasis on the ostentatious display of wealth that is being experienced by consumers at every level of society. Dalits have traditionally been at the bottom of the caste hierarchy in India and have experienced extreme forms of poverty and exploitation. Most dalits make their living by working as janitors in the region and



still face social segregation and poverty. Another important feature of Kishore’s narrative is the stress he puts on the changes in the normative order in the last few years. He gave the example of motorcycles, which have a high sign value for the subaltern group to which Kishore belongs. According to Kishore this normative shift is increasing the level of conflict by increasing competition among his friends and neighbors for whom buying and displaying a motorcycle is as much a status symbol as a practical means of transportation. Kishore further asserted that it [television] increases your hunger [for goods]. Children put pressure on parents and demand more goods. My son asks for a bottle Horlicks (a branded health drink) and I have to buy. It puts financial pressure on us . . . Youngsters want to copy TV stars.

Here too, Kishore speaks of others’ desire (his son’s) rather than his own. As Ger and Belk (1999) found in Turkey, by claiming that conspicuous consumption is for the sake of the family rather than the self, the consumer may not only escape blame for increased materialism, but may even feel ennobled by it. Increasing desires to consume branded goods that are advertised through television is also a consistent and recurring theme in our data. These findings may also hint at the problems of pester power as theorized by others (e.g. McDermott et al., 2006; Spungin, 2004). At the bottom of the caste hierarchy, Kishore has struggled for social and economic survival his whole life, and now he faces an added challenge of catering to his children’s increasing demands, which he perceives to be a result of their exposure to television. Similarly, highlighting the role of television and its impact on changing consumer demand, Rani, a young working-class lower caste homemaker, opined that Children now ask for many more things. Whatever they see on TV, they want to own it . . . Earlier dal-roti (popular local food) seemed sufficient, but now that want rice, vegetables and sometimes even ask for Maggi [a brand of instant noodles marketed by Nestlé].

Both Kishore and Rani believe that their children are more vulnerable to these normative changes and have become active participants in the process of rising consumer culture. Implicit in this narrative is the assumption that children are gullible consumers, who are easily influenced by television programming. Scholars adopting the cultivation approach have focused on the role of television programming in creating representations, which create their own reality. Highlighting this dimension of discourse and the role of rich or upper middle-class settings depicted in the television serials Ravi, a young janitor, told us that Hi-fi society, which television programs portray, plays a role in creating greater desire to consume. People around me want to dress up like those actors. They feel embarrassed if their clothes are not fashionable. This has increased competition amongst us.

This account by Ravi, another dalit, highlights two significant aspects of rising consumer culture and television images in subaltern settings in India. First, Ravi’s criticism stresses the role played by representations of rich people and luxurious settings in television programming in increasing consumer desire. Second, Ravi’s narration shows that in this discourse most of these influences are affecting ‘others’ who are considered gullible enough to fall for these representations. When



we specifically questioned Ravi on the role played by television in influencing his own choice of clothing, he denied the influence and asserted that he does not fall for media gimmickry. This claim about distance is revealing because Ravi is a fashion conscious young man, who often wears a leather jacket, jeans, and an expensive pair of sneakers. This style of dressing up is unusual among dalit janitors, who are commonly seen in old trousers, shirts, and rubber slippers. In a similar vein, Mahendra, a middle-aged male worker who works for a local Workers’ Cooperative, described television as a source of ‘pollution’ and a bad influence on ‘other’ people around him. According to him Earlier people were happy to live simple lives, but now they want everything. TV shows only elite lifestyle and it influences people by increasing their desire to copy and consume . . . TV is a big status symbol and people even go under [a] heavy burden of debt to purchase it.

Mahendra not only highlights the role played by television images in influencing consumers, but also emphasizes ‘other’ consumers who fall for it. This constant usage of ‘others’ or ‘children’ to illustrate the influence of television programming shows that consumers, who are themselves active participants in rising consumer culture, are unable to see or admit the role played by television in influencing their own consumption practices. Most of the consumer participants we interviewed believed that they were able to critically disengage themselves from the television images that legitimize conspicuous consumption. It was only in exceptional negative cases that we found some consumers admitting that they were imitating the lifestyle of others and that television was an important part of this emulation process. Revealing this relationship, Alok, a low caste consumer who makes his living by washing clothes, informed us that it was essential for him to own a television in order to be regarded as socially acceptable by his relatives. He told us that he had to reduce the consumption of milk by his children in order to purchase a color television set. This was particularly similar to the findings by Ger (1992) who found Turkish parents driven by television-stimulated desire, were selling milk from their cows in order to buy candies for their children. Sunita, a subaltern homemaker, also told us that in order to buy a television she saved money by reducing the family consumption on food and clothing. I saved by cutting down the household expenses. I reduced our expenditure on food and I did not buy clothes for myself and my children for a year.

Through such sacrifices, even quite poor consumers find ways to afford a few seemingly prohibitively expensive goods. This process has been called ‘leaping luxuries’ (Belk, 1999). In summary, consumption is a significant aspect of the lives of these subaltern consumers. They demonstrate a high level of desire to consume and to emulate others. This subaltern group acknowledged that television played an important role in influencing the beliefs of these people about the world around them. In particular, television is important in stimulating perceived needs and in supplying those studied with lifestyle icons and images to attempt to copy.



Economism and social atomization Economism is the attaching of greater importance to economic goals over social and political goals. According to Lenin (1947), the tendency toward economism among trade unions and working-class activities involves emphasis on economic struggles, while leaving the political domain to intellectuals. Here, economic goals invariably imply an emphasis on better wages. We found that with increasing consumer culture several workers stressed their desire to make more money by earning higher wages. Increasing perceived needs for consumption required more money to fulfil them. Describing his own experience, Aravind, who works as a janitor and has recently been elected secretary of a local workers cooperative, told us that he has been forced to open a small grocery store in order to meet the growing demands of his family. This makes it difficult for him to participate in the local social and political activities. Highlighting this issue further, Kishore, who also is a member of a local workers cooperative, told us that Workers actively discuss consumption as compared to issues related to the functioning of the organization. Organization and community have taken a back seat in all this . . . It is difficult to get people to participate in public activities.

During the course of our field work, we found strong support for Kishore’s assertion about the functioning of his cooperative organization. We observed several workers in meetings of this local workers cooperative and a trade union and found very poor attendance. Most of these meetings were limited to the presence of office bearers and a handful of workers. This worker apathy toward these organizations was particularly striking. It also highlights the displacement of citizens by consumers within consumer cultures (e.g. Barber, 2007; Cohen, 2003). During the course of a meeting one of the ex-presidents of the local trade union, Sharma, referring to conspicuous consumption, remarked that the ‘moment a worker gets a new motorcycle, he stops attending these meetings.’ Particularly blaming increasingly consumerist lifestyles, Ali, a local union leader, informed us that Our union has become ineffective because of limited participation by workers. To a large extent it is because of their refusal to see beyond their own short term economic goal of higher salary.

Ali’s emphases on workers’ interests in only short gains and economic goals are a reflection of the increasing economism in these subaltern groups. This development has to be further understood in the context of the consequences of the structural adjustment program, which has led to a slowing down of employment growth in the formal sectors of the economy. Many of these subaltern consumers, who are working for the cooperative or the local contractors on daily wages, believe that the flawed liberalization policies are responsible for the absence of employment opportunities with the government. By stressing the issue of lack of participation, Ali further touches upon an important and related issue of rising individualism in this setting. Most of our participants increasingly experience and talk about declining community ties. For these subaltern consumers the decline in community ties, the rise in consumer culture, and economism in the wake of economic liberalization are concurrent phenomena that have fed into each other. In



the social domain a similar trend towards atomization was observed. Rani, a young subaltern homemaker, informed us that Now everyone watches TV in free time and no one has time for socializing . . . there is less bonding among neighbors. Earlier we used to spend time together.

Rani’s assertion is of significance because it not only reflects an increasing level of atomization, but also highlights the role of television as a medium in contributing to this change. Similarly, Mahendra, who is a high caste resident of a village informed us that earlier it was common for villagers to come together and help each other out. In recent times, however, there was an increasing trend toward social isolation and individualism. Earlier for occasions of marriage the village used to collectively own a tent and it was common for neighbors to come together in putting it up and for preparing food for guests. This doesn’t happen anymore as you are on your own. This has reduced fights in the village, but you have to manage everything on your own by paying for it.

Like collective quilting bees and barn raisings in North America, the village wedding tent has become a thing of the past. Mahendra’s nostalgia about this past is common in the discourse about social ties in this subaltern group. Here, Mahendra’s dialectical understanding of this social change reveals the two sides of subaltern communities and existence. On the one hand, he acknowledges that communities were oppressive and restricted individualism, which often led to conflicts. On the other hand, however, Mahendra believes that due to increasing social atomization, subordination of these subaltern groups has increased because of the gradual decay of collective social institutions. Highlighting a similar theme and adding the dimension of television as a medium contributing to social atomization, Kishore observed that People sit and watch TV in their bedrooms and social interactions have reduced. Earlier fellow workers used to spend 1–1.5 hours with each other everyday. We used to put radio in the middle and sit around it and chat . . . TV shows [the] nuclear families as happy families and joint families as problematic. This influences people in their beliefs that it is better to be on your own.

In summary, increasing consumer culture has contributed to an economic imperative in the lives of subaltern consumers. This increased emphasis on the economic domain is seen to manifest itself in greater social atomization and political alienation in the lives of workers. This has directly contributed to the reduction in collective struggles witnessed in earlier periods. Television plays an interesting dual role in further accentuating this situation. As an alternate and private medium of entertainment, television reduces social interactions in the subaltern group. Additionally, television programming glorifies consumption, individualism, and nuclear families in the garb of modernity, and has further contributed to social atomization.



Increasing materialism and monetization Materialism has been described by Belk (1984: 291) as ‘the importance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions.’ Belk (1985) has further suggested that materialism is socially harmful because envy, non-generosity, and possessiveness are components of this trait. Inherent to materialism is the perception of being a modern, i.e. consuming person (Conlon, 1995; Rajagopal, 1998/9). Preeti, a middle-aged woman who works as a domestic worker, in describing her relationship with her daughters highlighted this problem. During the course of the interview she became extremely emotional and broke down. With tears rolling down her cheeks she told us that in the world of increasing consumption she was unable to fulfill her role as a good mother because of her inability to purchase goods demanded by her daughters. Her inability to fulfill the needs of her daughters for better clothing, food, and cosmetics significantly contributed to this self-perception of failure. My daughters keep telling me about their friends wearing good clothes or eating better food. They keep asking me to get these things. [The] younger one will tell me that, ‘mother I’m getting pimples on my face, get me a face cream.’ I tell her that I can’t afford this. They feel that I don’t do enough for them [crying].

This assertion by Preeti about her children and their state of dissatisfaction resulting from exposure to peers and television advertising is similar to the findings of Richins (1991). Preeti’s emotional reaction and experiences as a single mother also show that her state of subordination is becoming exacerbated because of her inability to control her private sphere of existence that is being increasingly encroached by the culture industry. Reflecting further on the rising consumer culture, Preeti highlighted a concern raised by several respondents and told us that increasingly relationships were determined by their ability to convey material wealth. Accordingly, On Holi [local Hindu festival] everyone gets new clothes. But, we don’t have money to afford this. We have stopped going out because of this reason. Relatives only look at your clothes. We have stopped visiting them after my husband’s death.

The theme of material wealth becoming increasingly equated with respect in society is strongly echoed in the data. Kishore observed that, ‘my children suffer from inferiority complex because I’m unable to fulfill their demands. This leads to tension in the family.’ According to Sunita, a young subaltern homemaker: Without goods, people around you don’t give you any respect. Times are such that if you don’t have goods, people don’t care about you . . . even if you have money, people don’t care about you. Your money should be visible through goods around you . . . Our neighbors have everything now. They have a TV, refrigerator, cooler [air cooler], and a secondhand scooter. Their respect in the community has gone up because of that.

Thus, objects of consumption are increasingly becoming the only vehicles for elusive social respect for these subaltern consumers. Ironically, this increase in ostentatious display requires access to money, which these subaltern groups do not possess. Another development related to the rise in materialism in the consumer group under study is the increase in dowry expectations. Most of the participants



told us that in the last two decades dowry demands have increased exponentially. Describing this phenomenon, an unemployed young man, Jeetu, described the following changes over the last few years. My sister got married 15 years ago and they [groom’s family] asked for a cycle, a fan, and a black and white television . . . I have to get another sister married and now they [prospective groom’s family] are asking for a ring, motorcycle, household furniture, refrigerator, and a cooler. People have become very greedy now.

Again, the emphasis on the changes in the last two decades and the state of turmoil are particularly noticeable in this narration by Jeetu. This time period is important because it has coincided with the spread of global brands as a result of the structural adjustment program in the country and the spread of television network and advertising in India. Echoing a similar sentiment, Preeti told us that for her daughter’s marriage she will have to save a lot of money to pay the dowry. Deeply concerned about the state of anomie and increasing dowry killings across the country and the well-being of her daughters, she told us that, ‘if you don’t pay dowry, they burn the girl.’ Highlighting the role of television and its impact on changing consumer demand and on family and social structures, Sunita further concluded that Earlier there was no competition [for getting more consumption objects]. . . . Everyone lived simply. Now there is so much of exposure . . . like we get to see on TV. We did not know about so many things before watching TV. But, now we see everything in it. Interviewer: Can you give me an example? Now we see nice houses on TV and we think what a nice house? I wish we owned it. We see beautiful people, nicely decorated houses . . . Anyone living in these houses must be happy.

This account by Sunita suggests that the spread of television programming in India has led to aspirations for more objects of consumption in order to achieve happiness. This change in expectations and goals for these subaltern participants, however, has not been accompanied by the necessary changes in economic opportunities. These means–end conflicts lead to turmoil in the lives of these subaltern participants. Emphasizing this issue, Preeti blames television for this crisis in her life. According to her, television programs and advertisements have contributed to the increase in consumer demands and the feeling of dissatisfaction. They [her daughters] watch television in the neighborhood and come back and ask for that white soap which they see on TV. Similarly they will see Shampoo on TV and come and ask for it. I wish my children were living better, but I feel so helpless.

Notably, blaming television for her family’s unhappiness is not the same as blaming her family’s and society’s increased materialism. This differs from North America where many people are quick to blame materialism for all manner of social and personal ills (Wuthnow, 1994). In summary, the above data show that increasing consumer culture is seen as closely linked to television exposure. Television is part of the increasingly dominant discourse of consumption and contributes to rising consumer culture in this



period of economic liberalization in India. The findings, however, show that a strong dialectic of tranquility and turmoil marks this development. Rising consumer culture is closely related to increasing emulation by members of subaltern groups of each other, of the elite classes, and of television images of the good life. This emulation is closely associated with greater economism and a more tranquil political sphere as consumers increasingly struggle for greater monetary gains. However, this development is closely associated with a compromise in quality of life, social atomization, increasing materialism, and monetization. This is the other pole of turmoil that we have referred to in this work.

Discussion In this era of neo-liberalism, the dominance of multinational corporations and the marginalization of the welfare state have created a globally dependent economic system, in which a vast majority of the population is left to the mercy of market forces. In the Indian context, the last few years have witnessed a continuous decline in state spending on subsidies and social welfare (Chandrashekhar and Ghosh, 2000; Chossudovsky, 1997; Kurien, 1995). This reduction in welfare spending has been accompanied by several sops to the urban elite in terms of tax benefits and reduced duties on consumer goods (Venkatesh and Swamy, 1994). The plowing of limited state resources into what is effectively a new welfare program catering to the urban elite is already leading to higher levels of rural poverty and inequality (Chandrashekhar and Ghosh, 2000; Patnaik, 2004; Swaminathan, 2000). In a country where the vast majority of the population barely survives, any deterioration in their economic condition instantaneously plunges them further into the abyss of life-threatening poverty. The economic decline of the majority is accompanied by the rise of a system in which an abundance of goods are flaunted like never before. There has been a shift from envy avoidance (Gell, 1988) to envy provocation (Belk, forthcoming). Our findings show there is a critical double impact of these developments in the subaltern context. The dialectic of tranquility and turmoil characterizes the state of the subaltern population under study. On the one hand, rising consumerism influenced by television representations is leading to a vast majority trying to catch up with the ‘conspicuous consumption’ of India’s ‘leisure class’ as Veblen (1953 [1899]) conceptualized. The result of this discourse has been greater systemic tranquility resulting from withdrawal of subaltern groups from collective forms of political activism and domestication of unrest, as they attempt to match the elite. With emulation and economism, subaltern consumers are systematically drawn into individual struggles of social mobility. The depoliticization enhances the legitimacy of the system as Habermas (1973: 37) has observed and is characterized as ‘civic privatism – that is, political abstinence combined with an orientation to career, leisure, and consumption.’ It can be deduced from the Indian case that television plays an active role in contributing to this discourse, which promulgates, perpetuates, and legitimizes



consumer culture. Our findings show that television is acknowledged as contributing to the increases in materialism, monetization, and economism by vertically stretching the reference groups in the lives of subaltern consumers (see also Schor, 1998). This form of repression in the name of consumerism disappears from the consciousness of the population, because it is provided legitimately by the media discourse on consumption. In India, consumption takes new meaning as it is often created and marketed as a ‘western’ value, linked with other values such as ‘democracy,’ ‘modernization,’ and ‘liberation.’ In line with Habermas (1969), the legitimization of domination has assumed a new character: it is achieved by the creation of ‘fabricated stimuli’ like ‘free choice’ and the ‘good life.’ As described by Habermas, ‘It provides a legitimization of domination, which is no longer called down from the lofty heights of cultural tradition but instead is summoned up from the base of social labor’ (1969: 96–7). Our concurrence with Habermas does not imply that we are attaching a value judgment to consumption or more appropriately, as Featherstone (1991: 13) has cautioned against, indulging in ‘negative evaluation of consumer pleasures inherited from mass culture theory.’ Rather, our findings draw attention to the role of television in contributing to the discourse on consumption and its impact on the lives of the participants. Furthermore, we do not interpret subaltern consumers as passive recipients of ideology and media imagery (Althusser, 1971). We also share with Mankekar (1999) her reservations about a unified subject and acknowledge, based on our findings, that subaltern groups are situated in an interdiscursive space. This interdiscursive space is characterized by multiplicity of discourses, some of which are critical of consumer culture and television imagery. However, we found a limited ability of participants to distance themselves from the hegemonic discourse of consumption. Our findings show that despite disapproving television programming and consumerism, most of the subaltern consumers were found to be actively emulating and consuming the very images and objects they criticize. In our findings, the constant invocation of the ‘other’ and children to illustrate the problems with rising consumerism by consumers who were active consumers themselves, gives credence to this interpretation. This does not imply that the hegemony is not resisted by subaltern consumers. On the contrary, it implies that hegemonic discourses are dynamic and continuously incorporate any form of opposition that is offered to them. We found an illustration of this cooptation with some of the participants who invoked discourses of religion and rural community as purer forms of existence. Accordingly, television and consumer culture contaminate by increasing material aspirations. However, we found participants invoking alternate discourses of religion and rural community drawing upon objects of consumption to reinforce and reify religious traditions and social hierarchies. This development makes the hegemony effective and results in a more tranquil and stable social system. The second effect has been in a way the opposite of the first and has led to turmoil in subaltern groups. The other pole of the dialectic is the increase in materialism and as a result, the tearing of the social fabric. The rise in consumer



culture in India has been accompanied by the greater monetization of the social relations. This change has led to the weakening of the traditional bonds of kinship and community in the society. As Ewen (1976) has argued, people are only left with relationships with their co-workers or with commodities. This increasing turmoil manifests itself in several ways. Here, we find strong resonance with Belk’s observation that: Coupled with the widened window on the world opened by global media networks and expanded telecommunication technologies one predictable result is growing envy, resentment, and hatred of the haves by the have-nots of the globe. (Belk, 2006; see also Chua, 2003)

Our findings not only show increasing inter-group problems as highlighted by Belk, but also intra-group turmoil that threatens the subaltern social fabric. This turmoil strongly manifests itself in greater materialism and monetization of relationships. Our research shows that envy, possessiveness, and non-generosity are perceived to have increased in the group under study, demonstrating an increase in materialism as suggested by Belk (1985). Television programming glorifies individualism and it finds resonance in social atomization in the population we researched. This increasing atomization, along with monetization and loss of community, creates unrest and unhappiness among these consumers. The turmoil is further increased by greater exposure to television, which constantly produces imagery of elite lifestyles. Our participants experience a greater sense of relative poverty and dissatisfaction (see also Richins, 1991). These developments point in the direction of an anomic or a pathological social situation in which there is a breakdown of a pre-existing value system (Durkheim, 1951 [1933]). The rapid changes in the cultural and the economic domains in the country triggered by rising consumer culture and supporting media images have contributed to this state of social turmoil. This surge in consumerism has increased the divide between institutionalized success goals, which revolve around branded objects of consumption and the availability of legitimate means, which require access to money in the market-based Indian economy. This differential in access to success goals and legitimate means, as well as structure and agency conflict, have further added to the state of turmoil (see also Giddens, 1979; Merton, 1938). These findings concur with those of Messner and Rosenfeld (1997) and Sklair (1994), who attribute the problem of turmoil to structural and cultural conditions in a society that are specifically brought about by capitalism with an over-emphasis on consumerism, individualism, and pecuniary materialism. The other pole of the dialectic implies that, although consumers are tranquilized by the television imagery, it also creates a contradiction of its own when consumers find themselves unable to fulfill these increasing expectations. This contradiction accentuates the crisis tendencies in the system with a vast majority of subaltern population finding it increasingly difficult to accept the system as legitimate and just. This finding complements Holt’s (2002) understanding of the tension between consumer culture and brand world by showing that subaltern consumer culture in itself is structurally constituted by contradictory tendencies. These conflicts for subaltern consumers do not merely emanate in the cultural



domain of authenticity, but also in the structural domain of access and resources in a capitalist society. In summary, our data indicate an important relationship among rising consumerism, television, and lives of subaltern consumers. Consumerism and television are like a double-edged sword for the system. These twin forces are both stabilizing and undermining the capitalist system of production at the same time. The dialectic of turmoil and tranquility has attempted to capture the essence of this contradiction in the lives of the working-class population.

Conclusion In this research, by moving beyond existing theory about the nature of consumer culture that is set in more elite settings, we have attempted to specifically focus on subaltern groups. We have drawn linkages to the role of television, and found a close relationship between the creation of a discourse of consumption and media representations. In this research, we have critically examined the consumer discourse about television as a medium as well as about its message. In highlighting the dialectic of tranquility and turmoil which characterizes this relationship, we hope to create a more nuanced understanding of the lives of subaltern groups. The ideology of consumption that leads to depoliticization and creation of stability within the system at one level fundamentally undermines the system at another level and sets up material conditions for its transformation. This research is based on a study of a subaltern group in a geographically and culturally bound setting. Further research is required to understand ramifications of increasing consumerism and its linkages with media imagery in other parts of the world. Future research is also required to understand how specific cultural, communal, and economic practices of subaltern groups are undergoing a transformation. It would also be of interest to understand how socio-economic hierarchies and traditional forms of distinctions are undergoing a change. This study was conducted on participants residing in urban centers; an understanding of corresponding processes of change in rural areas of transitional economies is necessary to further our comprehension of consumer culture. In addition, given that rising consumer culture and media imagery are contributing to a state of turmoil in the lives of subaltern consumers, research is required to develop a policy framework for regulating these media images. Finally, in describing the ramifications of changing television discourse and rising consumerism on the lives of subaltern consumers in a transitional economy, we have attempted to develop a dialectical understanding of the process. This research shows that the processes of growth and transition that were set in motion with recent economic and cultural changes in India have limitations in ameliorating the subordinate status of subaltern groups. Our work provides further support to the increasing body of evidence that is critical of the exploitative nature of the current neo-liberal phase of global capitalism. In this paper we have presented an explanation of why it has become difficult for subaltern groups to resist this



exploitation. In the spirit of a dialectical inquiry, however, we have also asserted that the turmoil within the apparently tranquil system makes it increasingly necessary for subaltern groups to rebel against it.

Notes 1. According to Appadurai, mediascapes ‘refer both to the distribution of the electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information (newspapers, magazines, television stations, and film-production studios) which are now available to a growing number of private and public interests throughout the world’ (Appadurai, 1996: 35). 2. Doordarshan is the name of the state-owned TV channel in India.

References Althusser, L. (1971) Lenin and Philosophy. New York: Monthly Review. Alvesson, M. (1993) ‘Critical Theory and Consumer Marketing’, Scandinavian Journal of Marketing 10(3): 291–313. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (1996) Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage. Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. Arnould, E. and Thompson, C. (2005) ‘Consumer Culture Theory’, Journal of Consumer Research 31(March): 868–82. Barber, B.R. (2007) Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantalize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole. New York: W. W. Norton. Bauman, Z. (1997) Freedom. New Delhi: World View. Belk, R.W. (1983) ‘Acquisitiveness and Possessiveness: Criticisms and Issues’, M. B. Mazis (ed.) Proceedings of the 1982 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association Division of Consumer Psychology, pp. 70–3. Belk, R.W. (1984) ‘Three Scales to Measure Constructs Related to Materialism: Reliability, Validity, and Relationships to Measures of Happiness’, in T. Kinnear (ed.) Advances in Consumer Research 11, pp. 291–7. Provo, UT: Association of Consumer Research. Belk, R.W. (1985) ‘Materialism: Traits Aspects of Living in the Material World’, Journal of Consumer Research 12(3): 265–80. Belk, R.W. (1988a) ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’’, Journal of Consumer Research 15(September): 139–68. Belk, R.W. (1988b) ‘Third World Consumer Culture’, in E. Kumku and A. F. Firat (eds) Marketing and Development: Towards Broader Dimensions, pp. 103–27. Greenwich, CT: JAI. Belk, R.W. (1996) ‘Hyperreality and Globalization: Culture in the Age of Ronald McDonald’, Journal of International Consumer Marketing 8(2/4): 23–37. Belk, R.W. (1999) ‘Leaping Luxuries and Transitional Consumers’, in R. Batra (ed.) Marketing Issues in Transitional Economies, pp. 38–54. Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Belk, R.W. (2004) ‘The Human Consequences of Consumer Culture’, in K. M. Ekström and H. Brembeck (eds) Elusive Consumption: Tracking New Research Perspectives, pp.67–85. London: Berg. Belk, R.W. (2006) ‘Out of Our Sight and Out of Our Minds: What of Those Left Behind



by Globalism?’ in J. N. Sheth and R. Sisodia (eds) Does Marketing Need Reform? pp. 209–16. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Belk, R.W. (forthcoming) ‘Marketing and Envy’, in R. Smith (ed.) Envy: Theory and Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bergler, R. (1999) ‘The Effects of Commercial Advertising on Children’, International Journal of Advertising 18: 411–25. Brownlie, D., Saren, M., Wensley, R. and Whittington, R. (1999) ‘Marketing Disequilibrium: On Redress and Restoration’, in D. Brownlie, M. Saren, R. Wensley and R. Whittington (eds) Rethinking Marketing: Towards Critical Marketing Accountings, pp. 1–22. London: Sage. Chandrashekhar, C.P. and Ghosh, J. (2000) The Market that Failed. New Delhi: Leftword. Chin, E. (2001) Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Chomsky, N. (1989) Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. Boston, MA: South End Press. Chossudovsky, M. (1997) The Globalization of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms. London: Zed Books. Chua, A. (2003) World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. New York: Doubleday. Conlon, F.P. (1995) ‘Dining Out in Bombay’, in C. Breckenridge (ed.) Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World, pp. 90–127. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Cohen, L. (2003) Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. New York: Vintage. Costa, J. (1998) ‘Paradisal Discourse: A Critical analysis of Marketing and Consuming Hawaii’, Consumption, Markets and Culture 14: 303–46. Crockett, D. and Wallendorf, M. (2004) ‘The Role of Political Ideology in Consumer Behavior’, Journal of Consumer Research 31(December): 511–28. Durkheim, E. (1951 [1933]) The Division of Labor. New York: Free Press. Durkheim, E. (1951) Suicide. New York: Free Press. Erlandson, D.A., Harris, E., Skipper, B.L. and Allen, S.D. (1993) Doing Naturalistic Inquiry: A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Ewen, S. (1976) Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture. New York: McGraw Hill. Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage. Firat, A.F. and Venkatesh, A. (1995) ‘Libratory Postmodernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption’, Journal of Consumer Research 22(December): 239–67. Foucault, M. (1969) The Archeology of Knowledge: The Discourse on Language. New York: Harper Torchbooks. Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Gell, A. (1988) ‘Newcomers to the World of Goods: Consumption among the Muria Gonds’, in A. Appadurai (ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, pp. 110–39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ger, G. (1992) ‘The Positive and Negative Effects of Marketing on Socioeconomic Development: The Turkish Case’, Journal of Consumer Policy 15(3): 229–54. Ger, G. and Belk, R.W. (1999) ‘Accounting for Materialism in Four Cultures’, Journal of Material Culture 4(July): 183–204. Gerbner G., Gross, L., Morgan, M. and Signorielli, N. (1980) ‘The “Mainstreaming” of



America: Violence Profile No. 11’, Journal of Communication 30(3): 212–31. Giddens, A. (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan. Glesne, C. (2006) Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction. White Plains: Longman. Gramsci, A. (1990) Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. G. N. Smith and Q. Hoare. New York: International Publishers Company. Gupta, N. (1998) Switching Channels: Ideologies of Television in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Habermas, J. (1969) Towards a Rational Society: Student Protest, Science and Politics. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Habermas, J. (1973) Legitimation Crises. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Hall, S. (1997) Representation – Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hill, R.P. (1991) ‘Homeless Women, Special Possessions, Meanings of Consumption: An Ethnographic Case Study’, Journal of Consumer Research 18(December): 298–310. Hill, R.P. and Stamey, M. (1990) ‘The Homeless in America: An Examination of Possessions and Consumption Behaviors’, Journal of Consumer Research 17(December): 303–21. Holt, D.B. (1995) ‘How Consumers Consume: A Typology of Consumption Practices’, Journal of Consumer Research 22(June): 1–16. Holt, D.B. (1997) ‘Poststructuralist Lifestyle Analysis: Conceptualizing the Social Patterning of Consumption in Postmodernity’, Journal of Consumer Research 23(March): 326–50. Holt, D.B. (1998) ‘Does Cultural Capital Shape American Consumption?’ Journal of Consumer Research 25(June): 1–26. Holt, D.B. (2002) ‘Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding’, Journal of Consumer Research 29(June): 70–90. Horkheimer, M. and Adorno, T. (1998 [1944]) Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Continuum. Jhally, S. (1987) The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Kurien, C.T. (1995) Aspects of India’s Economy. New Delhi: Orient Longman. Leach, W. (1993) Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. New York: Pantheon. Lenin, V.I. (1947) What is to be Done? Moscow: Progress Publishers. Lury, C. (1996) Consumer Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. McCracken, G. (1988) Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. McDermott, L., O’Sullivan, T. and Stead, M. (2006) International Food Advertising, Pester Power and its Effects’, International Journal of Advertising 25(4): 513– 40. McMillin, D.C. (2003) ‘Television, Gender, and Labor in the Global City’, Journal of Communication 53(3): 496–511. Mankekar, P. (1999) Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womenhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India. London: Duke University Press. Marcuse, H. (1968) One Dimensional Man. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Mazzarella, W. (2003) Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.



Messner, S.F. and Rosenfeld, R. (1997) ‘Political Restraint of the Market and the Levels of Criminal Homicide: A Cross-national Application of Institutional Anomie Theory’, Social Forces 75: 1393–416. Merton, R.K. (1938) ‘Social Structure and Anomie’, American Sociological Review 3(5): 672–82. Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. (1984) Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Murray, J.B. and Ozanne, J.L. (1991) ‘The Critical Imagination: Emancipatory Interests in Consumer Research’, Journal of Consumer Research 18(September): 129–44. O’Guinn, T.C. and Shrum, L.J. (1997) ‘The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality’, Journal of Consumer Research 23(4): 278–94. Ozanne, J.L. and Murray, J.B. (1995) ‘Uniting Critical Theory and Public Policy to Create the Reflexively Defiant Consumer’, American Behavioral Scientist 38(4): 516–25. Patnaik, U. (2004) ‘The Republic of Hunger’, URL (consulted May 2007): http://www. networkideas.org/featart/apr2004/Republic_Hunger.pdf Peñaloza, L. (1994) ‘Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings: A Critical Ethnographic Study of the Consumer Acculturation of Mexican Immigrants’, Journal of Consumer Research 21(June): 32–53. Rajagopal, A. (1998/9) ‘Advertising, Politics and the Sentimental Education of the Indian Consumer’, Visual Anthropology Review 14(2): 14–31. Rajagopal, A. (2001) Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rassuli, K.M. and Hollander, S.C. (1986) ‘Desire – Induced, Innate, Insatiable?’ Journal of Macromarketing 6(Fall): 4–24. Richins, M.L. (1991) ‘Social Comparison and the Idealized Images of Advertising’, Journal of Consumer Research 18(1): 71–83. Ritzer, G. (2004) Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge. Rubin, A.M. (1984) ‘Ritualized and Instrumental Television Viewing’, Journal of Communication 34(3): 67–78. Sahlins, M. (1976) Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Schor, J. (1998) The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumers. New York: Basic Books. Segrin, C. and Nabi, R.L. (2002) ‘Does Television Viewing Cultivate Unrealistic Expectations about Marriage?’ Journal of Communication 52(2): 247–63. Sinha, A. (1996) ‘Development Dilemmas for Indian Television’, in D. French and M. Richards (eds) Contemporary Television: Eastern Perspective, pp. 302–20. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Sklair, L. (1994) ‘Capitalism and Development in Global Perspective’, in L. Sklair (ed.) Capitalism and Development, pp. 165–85. London: Routledge. Spungin, P. (2004) ‘Parent Power and not Pester Power’, International Journal of Advertising and Marketing to Children (April–June): 37–40. Stearns, P. (2002) Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire. London: Routledge. Swaminathan, M. (2000) Weakening Welfare: The Public Distribution of Food in India. New Delhi: LeftWord Books. Thompson, C. (2000) ‘Postmodern Consumer Goals Made Easy !!!!’ in S. Ratneshwar, D. G. Mick and C. Huffman (eds) The Way of Consumption: Contemporary Per-



spectives on Consumer Motives, Goals, and Desires, pp. 121–39. London: Routledge. Thompson, C. and Haytko, D.L. (1997) ‘Speaking of Fashion: Consumers’ Uses of Fashion Discourses and Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings’, Journal of Consumer Research 24(June): 15–42. Thompson, C. and Tambyah, S (1998) ‘Rethinking Theories of “Consumer Culture” through Postmodern Analysis of Consumption and the Production of Hybrid Cultural Forms’, Advances in Consumer Research 25: 58–9. Thompson, C. and Troester, M. (2002) ‘Consumer Value Systems in the Age of Postmodern Fragmentation: The Case of Natural Healthcare Microculture’, Journal of Consumer Research 28(March): 550–71. Thorburn, D. (1988) ‘Television as an Aesthetic Medium’, in J. W. Carey (ed.) Media, Myths and Narratives: Television and the Press, pp. 56–60. New Delhi: Sage. Twitchell, J. (1999) Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism. New York: Columbia University Press. Varman, R. and Vikas, R.M. (2007) ‘Freedom and Consumption: Toward Conceptualizing Systemic Constraints for Subaltern Consumers in a Capitalist Society’, Consumption Markets and Culture 10(2): 117–32. Veblen, T. (1953 [1899]) The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Mentor Books. Venkatesh, A. (1994) ‘India’s Changing Consumer Economy: A Cultural Perspective’, in Advances in Consumer Research Vol. 21, pp. 323–28. Venkatesh, A. and Swamy, S. (1994) ‘India as an Emerging Consumer Society: A Cultural Analysis’, in C. J. Shultz II, R. Belk and G. Ger (eds) Research in Consumer Behavior: Consumption in Marketing Economies Vol. 7, pp. 193–223. Greenwich, CT: JAI. Wilk, R. (2002) ‘“It’s Destroying a Whole Generation”: Television and Moral Discourse in Belize’, in R. Wilk and K. Askew (eds) The Anthropology of Media: A Reader, pp. 286–98. Oxford: Blackwell. Wuthnow, R. (1994) God and Mammon in America. New York: Free Press. Zukin, S. and Maguire, J.S. (2004) ‘Consumers and Consumption’, Annual Review of Sociology 30: 173–97.

Rohit Varman is Associate Professor in the Marketing Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. His research interests are broadly in the fields of Critical/Macro Marketing and Socio-economic Theory. He has specifically worked in the areas of subaltern consumption, healthcare, and embedded market exchanges. His work is visual, qualitative, and interpretive. Address: Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Kolkata, W.B., India 700 104. [email: [email protected]] Russell Belk is Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University. He is past president of the International Association of Marketing and Development, and is a fellow, past president, and Film Festival cofounder in the Association for Consumer Research. He has received the Paul D. Converse Award, the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Consumer Research Award for Long Term Contribution to Consumer Research, two Fulbright Fellowships, and honorary professorships on four continents. He has over 400 publications and his research involves the meanings of possessions, collecting, gift-giving, and materialism. His work



is often cultural, visual, qualitative, and interpretive. Address: Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada. [email: [email protected]]
