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Toward a Theory of Status Consumption in Less Industrialized Countries

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  • Tuba Ãœstüner
  • Douglas B. Holt

Abstract

How does status consumption operate among the middle classes in less industrialized countries (LICs)-those classes that have the spending power to participate effectively in consumer culture? Globalization research suggests that Bourdieu's status consumption model, based upon Western research, does not provide an adequate explanation. And what we call the global trickle-down model, often invoked to explain LIC status consumption, is even more imprecise. We study the status consumption strategies of upper-middle-class Turkish women in order to revise three of Bourdieu's most important concepts-cultural capital, habitus, and consumption field-to propose a theory specific to the LIC context. We demonstrate that cultural capital is organized around orthodox practice of the Western Lifestyle myth, that cultural capital is deterritorialized and so accrues through distant textbook-like learning rather than via the habitus, and that the class faction with lower cultural capital indigenizes the consumption field to sustain a national social hierarchy. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Suggested Citation

  • Tuba Ãœstüner & Douglas B. Holt, 2010. "Toward a Theory of Status Consumption in Less Industrialized Countries," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 37-56, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:37:y:2010:i:1:p:37-56
    DOI: 10.1086/649759
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    Cited by:

    1. Castilhos, Rodrigo B. & Fonseca, Marcelo J., 2016. "Pursuing upward transformation: The construction of a progressing self among dominated consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 6-17.
    2. David Crockett, 2017. "Paths to Respectability: Consumption and Stigma Management in the Contemporary Black Middle Class," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 554-581.
    3. Uner, Mehmet Mithat & Gungordu, Aybegum, 2016. "The new middle class in Turkey: A qualitative study in a dynamic economy," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 668-678.
    4. Hollebeek, Linda D. & Belk, Russell, 2021. "Consumers’ technology-facilitated brand engagement and wellbeing: Positivist TAM/PERMA- vs. Consumer Culture Theory perspectives," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 387-401.
    5. Pino, Giovanni & Amatulli, Cesare & Peluso, Alessandro M. & Nataraajan, Rajan & Guido, Gianluigi, 2019. "Brand prominence and social status in luxury consumption: A comparison of emerging and mature markets," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 163-172.
    6. Sirieix, Lucie & Séré de Lanauze, Gilles & Dyen, Margot & Balbo, Laurie & Suarez, Erick, 2023. "The role of communities in vegetarian and vegan identity construction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Pizzetti, Marta & Chereau, Philippe & Soscia, Isabella & Teng, Fangyuan, 2023. "Attitudes and intentions toward masstige strategies: A cross-cultural study of French and Chinese consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Huachao Gao & Karen Page Winterich & Yinlong Zhang, 2016. "All That Glitters Is Not Gold: How Others’ Status Influences the Effect of Power Distance Belief on Status Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(2), pages 265-281.
    9. Anat Keinan & Ran Kivetz & Oded Netzer, 2016. "The Functional Alibi," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 479-496.
    10. Rocha, Ana Raquel Coelho & da Rocha, Angela & Rocha, Everardo, 2016. "Classifying and classified: An interpretive study of the consumption of cruises by the “new” Brazilian middle class," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 624-632.
    11. Song, Jing & Cavusgil, Erin & Li, Jianping & Luo, Ronghua, 2016. "Social stratification and mobility among Chinese middle class households: An empirical investigation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 646-656.
    12. Zeynep Arsel & Darren DahlEditor & Eileen FischerEditor & Gita JoharEditor & Vicki MorwitzEditor, 2017. "Asking Questions with Reflexive Focus: A Tutorial on Designing and Conducting Interviews," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 939-948.
    13. Rodrigo, Padmali & Khan, Hina & Ekinci, Yuksel, 2019. "The determinants of foreign product preference amongst elite consumers in an emerging market," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 139-148.
    14. Regany, Fatima & Benmecheddal, Ahmed & Belkhir, Meriam & Djelassi, Souad, 2021. "Conflicting coexistence of legitimation and delegitimation logics in a revived market: The case of a traditional clothing market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 438-449.

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