YOU KNOW YOU'RE WORKING CLASS WHEN YOUR TV IS BIGGER THAN YOUR BOOKCASE: ENDURING HOUSEHOLD IDENTITY CONFLICT

摘要

Voted among the funniest jokes at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, the line "you know you're working class when your TV is bigger than your bookcase" reflects a powerful cultural stereotype: that lovers of television occupy a lower social class than those who prefer more status-imbuing pastimes. Perceptions of social class membership constitute part of consumers' desired self-identity, the maintenance of which is continuously pursued through congruent consumption. The post-modern depiction of the consumer broadens the notion of a single self to one comprised of multiple identities that guide behaviors as consumers seek to enact desirable and avoid undesirable identities. The influence of self-identity on consumption therefore becomes a complex process of identity negotiation in the achievement of overall identity coherence. Further complexity arises from customer network influences, as consumers manage overlapping identities at individual and shared relational and collective levels. The interplay of individual and shared identities impacts behaviors as the role of a specific consumption activity may vary between identities at differing levels, rendering consistent identity congruence difficult for both consumers and marketers to achieve. These complex influences result in consumer identity conflict, in which consumption supports desired and undesired identities simultaneously, or necessitates a choice between multiple desirable identities. Consumers experiencing identity conflict typically act or adjust their behaviors in order to relieve the associated tension and restore overall self-identity coherence.