Introducing Anthropology of Consumption: a methodological point of view

1. Introducing Anthropology of Consumption: a methodological point of view Dominique Desjeux, Anthropologist 2004, Les Sciences sociales, Que-sais-je?, PUF 2006, La Consommation, Que-sais-je?, PUF Professor at the Sorbonne (Paris -Descartes University) www.argonautes.fr EACR 2007 Doctoral Consortium, Bocconi University, Milano

2. Viewing innovation and consumption as a social process • Analyzing innovation and consumption by means of scales of observation as a part of the same process • Different aspects can be observed at different levels • On a macro-social scale • Effects of social belonging and the diffusion curve • On a meso-social scale • The channel or itinerary of innovation, which starts at R&D, goes through distribution, and reaches the consumer…then goes back to R&D (Web 2.0) • On a micro-social scale • The itinerary of purchase • The social system of the domestic space based on rooms and social interaction among members of the family • Effects of the life course • I mainly focus on the meso- and the micro- scales of observation in order to understand what becomes of the new product when it leaves the enterprise and enters the domestic space to be consumed

3. Five main scales of observation • life style, social belonging • social class, generation • gender, culture Macro-social scale • Organizations • Pressure and political groups Meso-social scale Itinerary method from innovation to daily life, based on social interactions Micro-social scale • Staging of self, norms, codes, social constraints, objects as markers of life passages, practices and uses Micro-individual scale • Individuals, trade-off • Cells, brains… biology

4. Macro-social scale What is seen on one scale disappears at another scale of observation. Meso-social scale Micro-social scale Micro-individual scale An individual is only visible at a micro- scale Neurobiological scale

5. At a macro-social scale: three main practices • Change point of view when studying innovation in another culture. • Focus on the variables of social belonging in order to determine the boundaries of the market. • Look at the diffusion curve of an innovation in order to understand how it advances.

6. Changing point of view: The world from a European point of view (Gérard Chaliand et Jean Pierre Rageau, Atlas Stratégique, Fayard,1983)

7. The world from an American point of view

8. The world from a Chinese point of view

9. Reading 36% Decoration 6% Do-it-yourself 34% Sport 26% Video games 18% Innovation is embedded into patterns of social belonging, which are visible at the macro-social scale of observation 59% 12% 9% 19% 4% Variables of social belonging: Differences in practices between men and women in France

10. Reading, a regular leisure activity of women — a gender effect Women are very often early adopters of newly published novels in France. Geopub, 2005

11. Looking at the diffusion curve of an innovation in order to understand how the innovation/consumption process spreads From innovators to late adopters Late adopters Late majority 1943, the diffusion curve for hybrid corn, Ryan and Gross (E. Rogers, 1962) Women Early majority Early adopters Innovators

12. On a meso-social scale: viewing the innovation/consumption process as a channel • The process is made up of power relationships, territory struggles, and cooperation among social actors inside a company. • Interest and symbolic representations come into play throughout the process • The social channel encompasses the entire path from invention to innovation, that is, from R&D to end consumer. • That explains why more than 80% of creations die before reaching the consumer. • This risk explains the importance that companies attribute to the process of re-enchantment through advertising, transubstantiation. • Transubstantiation is an animistic magical-religious mechanism that allows a product to be transformed and sold to the consumer infused with a type of energy such as youth, beauty, physical strength, etc.

13. Stages of the life of a product or service: production, transformation, circulation, consumption, disposal Ordinary trajectory R & D Marketing Advertising Packaging Distribution Purchase Storage Use Disposal Recycling Contestation Transubstantiation Enchantment

14. An ordinary object is transformed into an "enchanted" object by advertising. Brands transform a product into a person. This is the principle of transubstantiation(cf. Catholic consecration, the transformation of bread into transcendent divinity). Here, the transformation is immanent, earthly. A key moment in the symbolic mobilization involved in the process of innovation: advertising Photos D. Desjeux

15. Modern magic thought Disneyland, Paris 75014, 2003 Crédit Lyonnais, Paris 75018, Barbés, 2003 Photos D. Desjeux BNP, Nice 2003

16. Enchantment through distribution Mall, Israel, 2004 Victoria’s Secret, USA, 2003 Real estate ad, Canton, 2001 KaDeWe, Berlin, 2003 D. Desjeux Vic

17. Ordinary settings Supermarket, Israel, 2004 Photos D. Desjeux

18. On a micro- scale: interaction, practices, and types of imaginary • To understand innovation, focus on use, practices, and unresolved problems to determine whether the product or service can fit into the practices on a micro-social scale. • Does it un-do established routines? • Does it create conflicts or cooperation among family members? • Working on the imaginary that will foster diffusion and adoption • messianic • apocalyptic • realistic • The basic question is: how do innovations spread or fail in homes? • One way to respond is to follow the itinerary method. • (D. Desjeux, 2006, La consommation, PUF)

19. The itinerary method: understanding the “bed” • A tool for understanding daily life and cultural differences • A comparative method In-home decision-making process Trip to store Shopping Stealing Receiving as a gift Storing at home Eating habits, Table manners, Presenting objects (hidden, visible, or displayed) Using Cooking Waste disposal Leftovers

20. Anthropological aspects of the imaginary and consumption Identity function Social staging of self function (distinction, decoration) A means of taking action (choice, decision) or of resisting

21. 1 Identity Inspired by Barbara Kruger, 1987 London, January 2004 (sales) Photo D. Desjeux

22. 2 – Social staging of self: objects as markers of identity USA, 2000, family memory in kitchen USA, 2000, J Wayne (living room) Powell (office desk) USA, 2000, dining room "exhibit" Photos D. Desjeux

23. 3 ways of taking action or resisting • Examples with Internet and NTIC innovations • Messianic imaginary: "Everyone will be able to communicate with everyone else." • Apocalyptic imaginary: “It's Big Brother.” • Innovations are always ambivalent:they solve some problems and they create others

24. Conclusion 1 • Innovation and consumption are two sequences within an single process, and they are thus part of the same social workings and the same system of analysis, at least on the micro- and meso-social scales of observation that I use. • Innovation and consumption are perpetually interacting but not linear, without beginning and end, subject to the constraint of collective intercourse of the parties involved in the system of action.

25. Conclusion 2 • The diffusion of an innovation can be viewed as part of many different structures of everyday life • itineraries • routines • rituals • social and cultural prescriptions • and part of social interaction • between generations or between sexes • made up of strategies • of meaning • and of imaginaries • that already exist within the universe of the home. • Comprehending or failing to consider these pre-existing conditions in the consumers' homes will determine whether an innovation will succeed or fail.

26. Conclusion 3 • We must try to grasp the "structures of expectations" that underlie a proposition, which precede intention and the motivations of those involved. • Studies often show that there are not always explicitly expressed demands.

28. Implementing the itinerary method • When observing an object such as a soft drink one must think about: • What triggers the use of the drink? • At what kind of social occasion it is consumed (ordinary or festive, formal or informal)? • How is the drink consumed in different stages of the life course? • As marker of passage from one stage to another (childhood to adolescence, then to youth, then to adulthood) • As marker of identity within each stage, depending on peer group • The practical objective is to use an awareness of these constraints and practices as street trenders observe clothing in order to launch a fashion (innovation).

29. Thinking about intercultural practices • How drinking may be reinterpreted away from its cultural origin • other uses than drinking • other occasions: night/day: meal/snack • individual or collective use • other storing places • type of space in the home • In this example, a birthday is the event that triggers the consumption of cake and soft drinks. French birthday

30. Innovation is embedded in social codes • After purchase, the object comes into the home. • It is placed in a room that is itself normatively coded aspublic, private, or intimate. • These three norms condition the meaning of the object. • E.g., bathroom products are never stored in living rooms in certain cultures. • That is why on the micro-cultural level, I focus on strategies, practices, andsocial codes, on what is culturally and socially • prescribed • permitted • prohibited

31. Innovation/consumption: a social process subject to constraints • On a macro- scale of observation, the process of innovation/consumption depends on: • The cultural point of view • Social belonging • Constraints on the household budget • The variable of individual freedom is just one among others, visible particularly on the micro-individual scale. • The adoption curve for new products or services varies in function of these constraints.

32. A home can be divided into 3 different types of space, which may vary from one culture to another • public • private • intimate Danish living room French kitchen Danish bedroom Photos D. Desjeux Photo Mark Neumann

33. From one culture to another Denmark Hidden objects outside the kitchen Washing machine, vacuum, shoes • Objects are treated in three different ways in a home • displayed • shown • hidden France Old saucepans shown in the kitchen

34. Cultural differences: storing toilet paper 1999, France In the toilet 1996, USA In the bathroom 1997, China In the living room Photos D. Desjeux