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A CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF IDEOLOGY IN CONSUMER CULTURE: The Commodification of a Social Movement Alexandra Serra Rome Doctor of Philosophy University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh Business School 2016 DECLARATION I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own and has been composed by myself. To the best of my knowledge, it does not contain material previously written or published by another person unless clearly indicated. The work herein presented has not been submitted for the purposes of any other degree or professional qualification. Date: 2 May 2016 Alexandra Serra Rome ___________________________________ I II To Frances, Florence, Betty, and Angela The strong-willed women in my life who have shaped me to be the person I am today. This thesis is dedicated to you. III IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my family. To my mother, Frances, who has always been my biggest supporter – I could not have emotionally undertaken such a huge venture without her relentless support. And to my father, Ron, one of the biggest cynics I know – I have approached life with a critical eye and an unwavering passion to succeed thanks to his encouragement. I am so thankful for my brother, Anthony, who is one of the most kind and compassionate people I know, and for my sister, Angela, who served as a huge inspiration to this work. I would also like to thank my Nana, Florence, who has given me great insight about the complicated world of love, life, and men. I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to all three of my inspiring supervisors. First and foremost, to Stephanie, who graciously guided me through this incredible journey – she is the reason I became a qualitative researcher; to Jeff, who took me under his wing at the University of Arkansas and fostered my interest in critical theory; and to Susan, who I could always count on to share fresh new insight and offer valued perspective to my work. I would like to thank all of the staff at the University of Edinburgh and members of the CCT community who offered me encouragement and guidance throughout my PhD. I would particularly like to thank one of my closest friends, Taake, who inspired this PhD. I will be forever grateful that our paths crossed. I would like to thank my Christian for consistently pushing me beyond my comfort zone both personally and professionally. I am a better person for knowing him. A huge thanks to my friends back home Chelsea, Diego, and LB, and to my colleagues in Edinburgh with whom I have been so lucky to go on this journey with. And last, but not least, I would like to thank all of my lovely participants. I would like to thank them for sharing their stories of love, life, friendship, and heartbreak with me – this research was made possible by their courage and bravery. V VI ABSTRACT The study of ideology has long interested sociologists and consumer researchers alike. Much consumption research has approached ideology from various macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis. However, many studies fail to address the dialogical interplay among these three levels of analysis when examining how ideology manifests in, and interacts with, consumer identity projects. Many consumption-based studies examining ideology provide descriptive and normative accounts, affording practices of consumption emancipatory potential. In response, this research adopts a critical marketing perspective in order to draw out the macro and political implications of meso cultural production systems and micro consumption experiences and identity projects. Focusing on the contemporary American feminist movement, and on discourses around sex and sexuality, it explores how hegemonic (patriarchal) and counterhegemonic (feminist) ideologies are communicated in the marketplace, through the media, to understand their role in regard to consumers’ lived experiences and interactions with advertisements. Working within the consumer culture theory tradition, this thesis employed a variant of phenomenological interviewing that explored female emerging adults’ sexual narratives and their interpretations of sexualized ads. By generating data on a specific type of experience, inferences were drawn about how young women experience and relate to the contemporary feminist movement. In total, 14 American women, aged 20 to 31, were interviewed twice and also created media collages of what they considered ‘sexy’. Implementing a multi-step hermeneutic analysis, the data were analyzed through an iterative process, moving back and forth between the idiographic cases and theory. Through multiple iterations, micro, meso, and macro level inferences were made. VII Abstract This study suggests that young women foster diverse and temporary identifications with feminism in the pursuit of two, often overlapping, goals: ontological security and status. This results in a micro process of ‘ideological shifting’, which has depoliticizing effects, insofar as (anti-) feminist brands and identities were readily appropriated and discarded depending on specific contexts and situations. Thus, contrary to much work in the consumer culture theory tradition, which presents consumption as having transgressive and liberating effects, this study finds that while the young women had the power to dialogically interact with marketized (meso level) ideologies that constitute the marketplace, they failed to intercept the macro level processes of marketization and commodification and consequently did not challenge the hegemonic (patriarchal) ideology at large. In adopting a critical perspective, this study offers valuable insight into the relationship between ideology and consumer behavior. Ideology is shown to be disseminated via hegemonic processes of commodification and marketization. Because these processes occur at a macro level, counterhegemonic ideologies are hegemonized and subsequently depoliticized before even reaching the consumer on a micro level. By examining ideology across all three levels, this study finds that consumer agency is largely relegated to the realm of the marketplace, where consumers’ dialogical interactions and consumption practices do not challenge the macro ideologies or oppression at large, but merely alter their marketplace expressions. VIII LAY SUMMARY The purpose of this thesis is to critically and holistically explore the role that ideology plays in consumer culture theory. In particular, it examines three levels of analysis: ideology (at a macro level), the marketplace (at a meso level), and consumer’s identity projects and their interpretations of advertisements (both at a micro level). Conceptually, this thesis looks at how young women relate to the contemporary feminist movement and how market co-optation impacts the propensity for social change. Qualitative interviews were used to collect empirical data about women’s experiences and their interpretations of advertisements. Insofar as issues about sex and sexuality have long served as a major tenet of the feminist movement, qualitative interviews were used to gain insight into fourteen informant’s sexual narratives and their interpretations of sexual content in ads. This allowed the researcher to capture the women’s first-hand experiences in relation to the feminist movement, without directly asking them to theorize about this. Using a Marxist-influenced theoretical framework, this study argues that consumer agency and social change is relegated to the marketplace. In this way, while consumers and social movement activists have the power to alter what is offered in the marketplace and influence symbols of feminism (and patriarchy), this does not translate to the broader oppressive ideologies. As a result, the feminist movement has become depoliticized, functioning as a hegemonic cultural production system in a marketplace that contributes to an overarching oppressive society. This study contributes to the discipline of consumer culture theory, as well as scholarship on new social movements and gender studies. In conclusion, it urges other researchers to identify political strategies that might exist outside the marketplace and consumption in order to facilitate social change on a more macro level. IX X TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ........................................................................................................................ I Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... V Abstract .........................................................................................................................VII Lay Summary ...............................................................................................................