Poverty

Dipankar Chakravarti, University of Colorado at Boulder
Jose Rosa, University of Wyoming

Are poverty and consumption congruent topics? What can be transformative about the consumption of the billions of people who make less than $2 per day? Is not the consumption of the poor strictly about survival? Is it not relative straightforward in its inputs (constrained resources, overwhelming health and safety needs) and outputs (insignificant-sized and infrequent purchases, minuscule profits)? How is the consumption of the poor meaningful to society? To business enterprises? To government and other policy shapers?

News of rapid economic development and the growth of the middle class in transitioning societies in India, China, and more generally, the “global south” makes regular headlines in the popular press. However, the sad reality is that the progress is both tenuous and unstable, baseline levels of consumption aspiration and capability remain abysmally low, and the numbers of consumers with subsistence earnings and consumption levels are projected to grow in the coming decades. The influence of an individual consumer earning under $2 per day may seem small, but the aggregated transformative power, for good or evil, of 4-5 billion such consumers can be like the combined power of an equal number of raindrops on a bone dry desert landscape or a water-logged field. Surprisingly, consumer scientists have devoted relatively little effort in recent years to learning more about the poor as consumers, and even less effort seeking to understand the transformative implications of consumption by the poor.

Do the consumption practices of the poor have economic, environmental, and community welfare implications that can transform global well being for good? For evil? Do poor consumers approach products and services with arrays of need similar to those of the affluent? And if these needs are different, in what ways are they different? Are they more or less complex than the typical consumer on which the field has spent the bulk of its intellectual capital in the last four decades?

This track is seeking dialogue over radical ideas and perspectives on poverty that will make significant contributions to the science of transformative subsistence consumer research. And it invites a plurality of perspectives and approaches, ranging from transformative outcomes from and through consumption for individual poor consumers and their families, through the mutually transformative effects of individual consumption on communities, districts, and nations, to a consideration of how a global community that encompasses humanity and its ecological partners can benefit or be irreparably harmed.

Materialism

Jim Burroughs, University of Virginia
Lan Chaplin, University of Arizona

For many scholars and social commentators, materialism is considered the defining characteristic of modern society. As a result, materialism has emerged as a topic of considerable import in consumer research. Most investigators hold a negative view of materialism and there is now considerable evidence to support this position. Materialism has been linked to a host of negative outcomes including: depression, stress, anxiety, unhappiness, and lowered life satisfaction, among others. Yet the focus of materialism research is rather narrow. Most research looks at negative consequences at the individual level. We believe this paints an overly simplistic view of the role of materialism in modern society and we encourage researchers to broaden their scope.

While we emphasize four areas, we also recognize that materialism is potentially relevant to a wide range of topics. Thus, we are open to all research on materialism that is framed in terms of understanding and enhancing consumer welfare. First, consider the macro-social consequences of materialism. What is the effect of materialism on societal health and functioning? Outcome variables might include levels of volunteering and other altruistic behaviors. Research might also focus on the environment and the role of material values on society’s ecological footprint.

Second, consider the interpersonal consequences of materialism. A lot of materialism research presumes a certain social cost, and that individuals who are materialistic lack meaningful social ties (sometimes referred to as the replacement hypothesis). Yet very little research has examined the role of material values in structuring social relationships (e.g. marriage, family, friendships) including how they are formed, maintained, enhanced, and dissolved.

Third, consider the impact of materialism throughout the lifespan, particularly as it relates to the formative years of childhood and adolescence. Because of developing cognitive abilities and heightened susceptibility to peer influence, children seem to be a particularly impressionable when it comes to material images and ideals. Moreover, given that materialism is developed over many years, it is likely that materialism levels seen in adults were formed when these individuals were much younger.

Finally, consider that there may be positive consequences of materialism. An emerging area of research examines how experiences derived from material acquisition may lead to happiness, as opposed to terminal material pursuits that invariably lead to dissatisfaction. Yet most instances of consumer behavior are complex, often involving both experiential and tangible elements. Therefore, in dismissing materialism as entirely negative, researchers may overlook opportunities to develop a richer understanding of the role of material objects in people’s lives.

Developing Markets

Cliff Shultz, Arizona State University
Rohit Deshpande, Harvard University

The ultimate measure of whether markets truly are developing is the extent to which consumers' lives are improving, on a number of subjective assessments and objective measures. The discourse on developing markets is largely dominated by economists and financial analysts. A consumer-centric orientation is rare, ironically. The purpose of this track, therefore, is to assemble researchers who possess elastic minds and eclectic consumer-research tools, who are interested to explore ways to transform consumer well-being in developing markets.

The research questions of potential exploration are many and varied. For example, do consumers have more choices, do they choose "wisely," are they being lifted from poverty, are they empowered, are they happy and healthy, is family and community welfare improving,…? Again, answers to these questions can be addressed with an array of tools in the eclectic tool-kit familiar to consumer researchers who bring insights and methods from a number of disciplines and perspectives. Furthermore, the oversights and limitations of the dominant development paradigm (i.e., economics and finance)--coupled with the realities of the need to focus on consumers-- provide tremendous opportunities to engage in truly transformative research. Targets for analysis can be individual consumers, families, communities or other aggregations of consumers. An overarching objective of the track is to advance new theory and/or ground-breaking policy to enhance consumer well-being in developing markets.

Sustainable Consumption

William Kilbourne, Clemson University
Andrea Prothero, University College Dublin

There is now wide recognition that the industrialized world must cut its carbon footprint, and that this cannot be accomplished through technological means or minimally effective behavioral changes. The majority of proposals within the business disciplines represent extensions of the managerial perspective. We begin with the assumption that such proposals, while necessary for sustainability, are not sufficient to attain it. Changes in consumption, values, and lifestyles are necessary. Such changes, reflected in the anti-consumption and voluntary simplicity initiatives, result in a lower throughput and lower strain on both sources and sinks within the environment. However logical or reasonable this conclusion may be, it stands in opposition to the prevailing institutional structures of Western industrial societies that demand perpetual, geometric economic growth for their survival. Thus, we assume that sustainability can only be achieved if prevailing political, economic, and technological institutions can be transformed to become compatible with the exigencies of sustainability.

In this context, the role of Transformative Consumer Research is to re-establish the organic relationship between consumers and their environment. In doing so, we can consider the possibilities of a green commodity form where consuming less becomes the norm and where such a lifestyle change improves both the state of the natural environment and consumers’ well being in the process. This may entail a redefinition of needs and, ultimately, of the prevailing conceptions of the quality of life in the developed world. It may entail a new conception of ethics in which both nature and future generations have a standing. It may entail a new conception in the equitable distribution of capabilities and potential between the developed and the under-developed nations. Sustainability is, above all, a systems concept in which all the constituents of the system must be examined in a holistic relationship. To this end, the co-chairs of this track are seeking proposals that address these critical macro perspectives and move beyond existing piece-meal responses to the environmental challenge.

Empowering Consumers to Lead Healthier Lives

Lauren Block, Baruch College
Sonya Grier, American University

"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired" Fannie Lou Hamer

Health is one of the most important consumer “goods.” Yet unhealthy lifestyles, a crisis in access to quality health care, inequitable distribution of health-related resources, hazardous environments, and the epidemic–level prevalence of many chronic diseases consistently challenge the idea of “health for all.” Consumer research can help provide insight and actionable recommendations to address those health challenges that encompass specific problems or opportunities related to consumption. Consumer-focused research has much to contribute to solving challenges such as overconsumption, addictive consumption, patient compliance, food safety concerns, product labeling, rising food costs, health illiteracy, and consumption challenges in globalizing markets.

This track will bring together researchers with an interest in empowering consumers and/or patients with strategies and tools (e.g. education, motivation, and self-confidence) to lead healthier lifestyles and respond to contemporary health challenges. We seek visionary perspectives from multiple disciplines and multiple methodologies, diverse levels of analysis (e.g. individual, group, structural and their interactions) and invite research stemming from a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to consumer behavior, social marketing, health promotion, disease prevention, health communication, public health, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and public policy.

At Risk Groups

Elizabeth Moore, University of Notre Dame
Connie Pechmann, University of California at Irvine

Researchers and policy makers increasingly recognize that they must focus special attention on at-risk groups in order to understand their problems, limitations, strengths, needs, and wants. Our extensive research on dominant groups such as white males and college students often does not benefit at-risk groups. For example in the USA, virtually no prescription drugs were tested on children or adolescents and physicians had to prescribe drugs “off label” to them subjecting them to risks including death. This situation has only recently improved because researchers documented that children and adolescents were not little adults and that they metabolized drugs differently leading to the FDA’s 1998 Pediatric Exclusivity Provision that incentivized drug companies to test drugs on children and adolescents.

A large number of consumer groups are at-risk and yet very few have received much if any attention in the consumer behavior literature. At risk-consumer groups include the following:

1. Unborn and newly born infants, children, adolescents, seniors, and the very elderly;
2. Those with chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS;
3. The physically and mentally challenged, e.g., Autism, Alzheimer’s, blindness, and hearing loss;
4. The illiterate, uneducated, unemployed, underemployed, and the homeless;
5. The malnourished and those with eating problems such as anorexia, bulimia, and obesity;
6. Victims of natural disasters, crime, violence, physical abuse, and mental abuse;
7. Compulsive drinkers, drug users, gamblers and shoppers.

Social Justice

Jerome Williams, University of Texas-Austin
Linda Scott, Oxford University

At first blush, the concept of “social justice” in the context of consumption would seem to point directly to poverty or economic development, topics that are already covered by other tracks in the conference. However, distributive justice involving goods is not only a matter of incomes and prices, but can be problematic in many other ways. There are matters we might describe as “rights of access,” in which some segments of a population cannot own certain objects or purchase particular services because they are precluded by law or custom, as, for instance, in the case of sumptuary laws. There are also ways in which market processes and sites can be used in ways that perpetuate the oppression of select groups—as in retail redlining in the United States or gender segregation in restaurants in the Middle East.

Further, market interactions and announcements can be systematically detrimental by, for instance, excluding a certain class from the flow of information or by representing the marginalized groups in ways that demean them, thus perpetuating their disadvantaged status. And, there are retributive or corrective justice issues in which complaints or dissatisfactions or other market wrongs typically go unaddressed or unpunished when the plaintiff is from a socially disempowered group.

Finally, there are the effects of forcing a certain type or level of consumption upon a class of persons in order to mark or undermine them, as with requiring oppressed groups to wear some marker on their clothing or by enculturating them to unhealthy or wasteful or self-destructive habits. Thus, we see a large range of social justice questions that extends well beyond the fair distribution of basic goods to encompass issues of access, information, space, and messaging, just to list a few. Potential participants are therefore encouraged to think broadly and generally—and, especially, globally—about the ways that market practices and goods themselves are used to facilitate and perpetuate oppression.

Immigration, Culture, and Ethnicity

Laurel Anderson, Arizona State University
David Crockett, University of South Carolina

This track highlights creative and bold visions of consumer well-being and social change surrounding cultures, ethnicities and immigration. The influences and impacts on consumer well being in each of these areas are embedded within interacting social, cultural, political, historical, and biological contexts. We will look at both the challenges and the strengths in these realms.

Well-being concerns often arise from issues such as transnational and transcultural mobility, discrimination, inequities, in group/ out group, generational conflict, biological embodiment of stressors, displacement, identity,… Yet, we must also recognize that cultural resources offer assets that strengthen consumer well-being such as traditions, community, creative strategies, values, and alliances to name a few. Championing consumer well-being in these areas gives rise to many difficult dilemmas such as patronization, colonization, power, conflicting visions of well-being, conflicting values, competing notions of expertise, increasing inequity, differential impact of interventions and the loss of culture.

We wish to invite researchers to submit creative theories, research methods and substantive questions. We hope to explore the innovative strategies that individuals, families, communities, cultures, governments, NGOs, and other collectives have developed to deal with some of these issues and dilemmas that both honor culture and foster consumer well-being.