Introducing Anthropology of Consumption: a methodological point of view

Dominique Desjeux, Anthropologist2004, 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

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

Five main scales of observation

Micro-individual scale

Micro-social scale

Meso-social scale

Macro-social scale

Itinerary method from innovation to daily life, based on social interactions

life style, social belongingsocial class, generationgender, culture

OrganizationsPressure and political groups

Staging of self, norms, codes, social constraints, objects as markers of life passages, practices and uses

Individuals, trade-off

biology Cells, brains…

What is seen on one scale disappears at another scale of observation.

Macro-social scale

Meso-social scale

Micro-social scale

An individual is only visible at a micro- scaleNeurobiological scale

Micro-individual scale

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.

Changing point of view: The world from a European point of view

(Gérard Chaliand et Jean Pierre Rageau, Atlas Stratégique, Fayard,1983)

The world from an American point of view

The world from a Chinese point of view

Variables of social belonging: Differences in practices between men and women in France

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%

Reading, a regular leisure activity of women — a gender effect

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Bassin Marketing

La Lecture< 38 %

38 % - 42 %

42 % - 44 %

> 44 %

Women are very often early adopters ofnewly published novelsin France.

Geopub, 2005

Looking at the diffusion curve of an innovation in order to understand how the innovation/consumption process spreads

1943, the diffusion curve for hybrid corn,Ryan and Gross (E. Rogers, 1962)

From innovators to late adopters

Innovators

Late majority

Early adopters

Early majority

Late adopters

Women

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.

Stages of the life of a product or service: production, transformation, circulation, consumption, disposal

R & D MarketingAdvertisingPackaging

Distribution Purchase Storage Use DisposalRecycling

Contestation

Transubstantiation Enchantment

Ordinary trajectory

A key moment in the symbolic mobilization involved in the process of innovation: advertising

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.

Photos D. Desjeux

Modern magic thought

Disneyland, Paris 75014, 2003

BNP, Nice 2003

Crédit Lyonnais, Paris 75018, Barbés, 2003

Photos D. Desjeux

Enchantment through distribution

Vic

Victoria’s Secret, USA, 2003

KaDeWe, Berlin, 2003 Real estate ad, Canton, 2001

Mall, Israel, 2004

D. Desjeux

Ordinary settings

Supermarket, Israel, 2004Photos D. Desjeux

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)

The itinerary method: understanding the “bed”

A tool for understanding daily life and cultural differences A comparative method

In-home decision-making

processTrip to store

ShoppingStealing

Receiving as a gift

Storing at home

UsingCooking

Eating habits,Table manners,

Presenting objects(hidden, visible, or displayed)

Waste disposalLeftovers

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

1 Identity

London, January 2004 (sales)

Inspired by Barbara Kruger, 1987

Photo D. Desjeux

2 – Social staging of self: objects as markers of identity

USA, 2000, family memory in kitchen

USA, 2000, dining room "exhibit"

USA, 2000, J Wayne (living room)Powell (office desk)

Photos D. Desjeux

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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 as

public, 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, and social codes, on what is culturally and socially prescribed permitted prohibited

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.

A home can be divided into 3 different types of space, which may vary from one culture to another

public private intimate

Danish bedroom French kitchen

Danish living room

Photos D. DesjeuxPhoto Mark Neumann

From one culture to another

Objects are treated in three different ways in a home

displayed shown hidden

DenmarkHidden objectsoutside the kitchenWashing machine,vacuum,shoes

FranceOld saucepans shown in the kitchen

Cultural differences: storing toilet paper

1999, FranceIn the toilet

1996, USAIn the bathroom 1997, China

In the living room

Photos D. Desjeux