Articlegreen2017

Social Psychology, Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy

Matthew McDonald · Brendan Gough · Stephen Leslie Wearing · Adrian Deville

63 citations0/0 files storedJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour

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Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification Cultural Differences and Values Social Representations and Identity

Abstract

Abstract Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self‐identity and their related concepts. These include personality traits, self‐esteem, social comparisons, self‐enhancement, impression management, self‐regulation and social identity. To illustrate, we examine how elements of consumer culture and neoliberal political economy intersect with social psychological concepts of self‐identity through three main topics: ‘the commodification of self‐identity’, ‘social categories, culture and power relations’ and the ‘governing of self‐regulating consumers’. In conclusion, we recommend a decommodified approach to research with the aim of producing social psychological knowledge that avoids becoming enmeshed with consumer culture and neoliberalism.

Citations in this library

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References

2005A Brief History of Neoliberalism 1987Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education.1985Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.1986Psychology of intergroup relations 1991The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality 2010Governmentality: power and rule in modern society 1992Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age 1995Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body.

Cited by

2021Student-Centered Learning and Sustainability: Solution or Problem?2017Theory from the South: a decolonial approach to the psychology of global inequality 2022No longer look down: investigating second-hand clothing purchase in Indonesia 2020The Social Construction of Ageing Masculinities in Neoliberal Society – Reflections on Retired German Men.

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