Performing New Values: Fashion Brands in Post-Socialist Bulgaria

Abstract

In post-socialist societies, marketing and consumption play a crucial role for what is regarded as value. Assuming ‘consumer capitalism’ as an important feature of the neoliberal project, I argue that marketing theories and practices produce market societies in Eastern and Central Europe. To highlight the reflexive adaptation of ‘consumer capitalism’ by producers, marketers and consumers, this essay discusses fashion brand promotion in Bulgaria. The case studies illustrate how the transformation of modes of valuation can be understood as a process of performative modernisation and marketisation. It appears that the ‘local’ adjustment of ‘global’ concepts of marketing and consumption leads to new formations of value in spatial, temporal and subjective terms.

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