Consumption, Social Status and Distinction Among Working Class

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH
Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802
Consumption, Social Status and Distinction Among Working Class Families
Rodrigo Castilhos, FISUL, Brazil
Carlos Rossi, UFRGS, Brazil
The present ethnography seeks to understand the role of consumption in the construction and maintenance of the cultural identity of
urban lower classes. It was observed the existence of three different sub-classes whose structural differences are mainly generated by
different combinations in the scope Economic, Cultural and Social Capital. Such differentiation becomes apparent in the possession of
consumer goods and in distinctive social practices. Results show that consumption is a key element in the formation of social identity
in the urban poorer class, being a powerful inter-classes distinctive mechanism, in spite of its incapacity of removing well-established
social barriers.
[to cite]:
Rodrigo Castilhos and Carlos Rossi (2008) ,"Consumption, Social Status and Distinction Among Working Class Families", in
LA - Latin American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2, eds. Claudia R. Acevedo, Jose Mauro C. Hernandez, and Tina
M. Lowrey, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 174-175.
[url]:
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14131/la/v2_pdf/LA-02
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Consumption, Social Status and Distinction among Working Class Families
Rodrigo Castilhos, FISUL, Brazil
Carlos Rossi, UFRGS, Brazil
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
The present paper seeks to understand and interpret the role of
consumption in the construction and maintenance of the cultural
identity of urban lower classes. Assuming that consumption patterns are the result of socio-cultural formative conditions, as well as
the interaction imposed on individuals by their class position
(Henry, 2002; Williams, 2002), which can operate as a consumption sub-culture where individuals share similar tastes which organise
their actions (Holt, 1997), we tried to have a better understanding
on how individuals belonging to the lower strata of the Brazilian
social hierarchy relate in their community and to the world through
the acquisition and use of goods and services.
The option for ethnography as a methodological approach
reflects the intention to verify the function of consumption in the
logic of everyday relationships in a poor neighbourhood. This
method was carried out not only as a way of collecting data, but also
as means to clarify the ways in which a culture simultaneously
constructs and is constructed by people’s behaviour and experiences (Arnould; Wallendorf, 1994). On the whole, six families
were studied in five months and a half of fieldwork in a poor
neighbourhood of a State capital in Brazil, which generated a huge
amount of material that was analysed and interpreted.
Despite the external representation and the self-image of
homogeneity among low income people in Brazilian urban areas, it
was observed the existence of nuances among the members of the
community studied, which led to a distinction of three different subclasses: the ‘poor’, the ‘really poor’ and the ‘elite of the hill’. Three
major elements structure the distinction among the hill dwellers:
Firstly, the financial resources of individuals determine their possibilities of engaging in a process to improve living conditions,
which includes an increase in the acquisition of consumer goods.
Secondly, ‘knowing how to spend money’ seems to be central to the
individuals surveyed once it means to be able to invest on the most
valued goods, the ones that lend their owners some social distinction; The last important element in this social structure is the
network of relationships in the community. In conclusion, theses
three structural elements of distinction in the hill seem to be very
close to Economic, Cultural and Social Capital (Bourdieu, 1979;
1987)
In spite of the structural determining factors, it is the possession of goods and the consumption practices that effectively distinguished the poor from each other. Being able to ‘buy things’ can
differentiate the ‘poor’ from the ‘really poor’. Some goods, such as
a car, a house and its finishes, the 29 inches TV set, and the
electronics, specially the DVD player and the Personal Computer,
are responsible for making the subjects in this study see themselves
as different from others and also make the others see them as so.
Clothes can also be used to differentiate individuals in the hill,
especially among the youth. Finally, food is seen as a powerful
element to reaffirm the identity of ‘poor’. Excess of food, at the
same time that need and hunger are negated and the distinction from
the very poor is established, also reaffirms the distinction from the
‘rich’, who eat little either to keep aesthetic principles or due to
‘arrogance’.
Due to close relationships among the hill dwellers, individuals
are permanently in contact with each other, making it common
practice to judge both their possessions and acts. In this context
being polite, for example, is a kind of attitude that sets these
individuals apart from those who are less satisfied with their social
conditions and their dwellings. However, even the most polite
individuals adopt practices that could be considered ‘excessive’,
which seem to aim at reinforcing social identity, instead of being an
instrument of distinction, since people give the impression of being
aware of the association between poverty and excess. Last, contacts
outside the community or with the ‘elite of the hill’ tend to be highly
valued, in a set where having friends or acquaintances outside and
between the most affluent hill dwellers means to have contact with
coders of behaviour and influences that broaden the horizon, and
help to keep distinctions inside the community.
The results show that the consumption of goods is a key
element in the formation and the preservation of social identity in
the urban poorer class. On the whole, the possession and consumption of consumer goods does not lead to social mobility, which the
working classes know that is extremely difficult and improbable,
but aim at improving their live conditions compared to their own
standards. The distinctive logic applies mainly to others belonging
to the same social class, where the neighbours, instead of the ‘rich’,
are the mirror which establishes parameters for some sort of
material advancement that can be achievable and surpassed, being,
for this very reason, a reality easier to endure. In addition, if
consumption is incapable of removing cultural and social barriers
between the working and the upper and middle classes, the results
of this study show that it can even so be considered as a powerful
intra-classes distinctive mechanism.
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