Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty
Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty
复制标题
消费、身份形成和不确定性
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
1994
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
A. Warde
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Warde
本文讨论了鲍曼、贝克和吉登斯工作中出现的一些有关消费的一般性问题。所有人都认为，传记是一个反身性的项目，生活方式和消费对身份的形成和重新形成至关重要。鲍曼尤其坚持认为，这是焦虑的一个来源，消费者选择所隐含的自由需要承担相应程度的个人责任。例如，他观察到，广告的一个功能是平息伴随着选择的自我怀疑。我试图辩称，这些关于反射性现代化对自我认同影响的描述是错误的。如果消费既受制于不断扩大的自由选择，而且所做的决定是身份形成的反射性过程的基本组成部分，那么消费将是一种不那么令人愉快的做法。事实上，其结果很可能是，在那些最深层次参与其中的人中，很可能会产生高度和明显的痛苦。这一点并不明显，这表明身份形成过程和消费之间的特定关系是有倾向性的。对于一些群体来说，消费可能会引发焦虑；选择不当确实存在风险因素。但有许多机制可以起到补偿作用。我探讨了这些机制，认为焦虑是通过群体认同和社会调节的某些过程来避免的，而反身性现代化理论声称这些过程已经萎缩。我的结论是，这些考虑需要修改这些关于消费和自我认同之间关系的理论。
This paper addresses some general issues concerning consumption that arise from the work of Bauman, Beck and Giddens. All maintain that biography is a reflexive project and that life-styles and consumption are critical to identity-formation and re-formation. Bauman, especially, maintains that this is a source of anxiety, the freedom implied by consumer choice entailing a commensurate degree of personal responsibility. He observes, for instance, that a function of advertising is to assuage the self-doubt that accompanies choice. I seek to argue that these accounts of the impact of reflexive modernisation on self-identity are misjudged. Consumption would be a much less pleasurable practice if it was both subject to ever-expanding free choice and the decisions made were fundamental components of a reflexive process of identity-formation. Indeed, the consequence might well be high and visible levels of distress among those individuals most deeply involved. That this is not apparent suggests that the relationships specified between the process of identity-formation and consumption is tendentious. Consumption may be anxiety-provoking for some groups; there is a real element of risk involved in choosing inappropriately. But there are many mechanisms that serve to compensate. I explore those mechanisms, suggesting that anxiety is avoided through certain processes of group identification and social regulation which the reflexive modernisation thesis claims have atrophied. I conclude that such considerations require that these theories about the relationship between consumption and self-identity be modified.