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From Commodity Fetishism to Commodity Narcissism

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journal contribution
posted on 2012-11-28, 11:05 authored by Robert Cluley, Stephen Dunne
Marketing and consumer researchers have taken an increasing interest in the prevalence of and possibilities for enlightened consumerism. Contemporary studies show us, though, that ethically concerned consumers rarely act on their concerns – instead they act as if they were unenlightened about the negative effects of their consumption. The paper advances a theory for this contradiction that draws on Marx’s work on commodity fetishism and Freud’s analysis of sexual fetishism. In an attempt to reconcile the structural contexts of contemporary consumption with the psychic structures of the consuming subject proposed by each theorist, the paper concludes that narcissism, rather than fetishism, offers an explanation of this as if moment of contemporary consumption.

History

Citation

Marketing Theory, 2012, 12 (3), pp. 251-265

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE/School of Management

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Marketing Theory

Publisher

Sage Publications

issn

1470-5931

eissn

1741-301X

Copyright date

2012

Available date

2013-10-01

Publisher version

http://mtq.sagepub.com/content/12/3/251

Language

en

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