Proposal for a Perspectives Session at CCT7
Consumption-Mediated Social Conflict:
A Conceptual and Empirical Investigation of Why Consumers Fight
Research Presentations
Towards a Conceptualization of Consumption-Mediated Social Conflict
- Katharina C. Husemann, University of Innsbruck, Brand Research Laboratory,
Universitätsstr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria, katharina.husemann@uibk.ac.at
- Marius K. Luedicke, University of Innsbruck, Brand Research Laboratory, Universitätsstr. 15,
6020 Innsbruck, Austria, myself@mariusluedicke.de
Tensions in Online Brand Communities
- Olivier Sibai, Aston Business School, Marketing Department, Aston University, Birmingham
B47ET, United Kingdom, sibaiorb@aston.ac.uk
- Kristine de Valck, HEC Paris, Marketing Department, 1 rue de la Libération, 78351 Jouy-enJosas, France, devalck@hec.fr
- John Rudd, Aston Business School, Marketing Department, Aston University, Birmingham
B47ET, United Kingdom, j.m.rudd@aston.ac.uk
Conflict as Potentiality in the Social Embeddedness of Consumption
- Jeppe Trolle Linnet, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Marketing and
Management, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark, jtr@sam.sdu.dk
Discussant
- Sidney J. Levy, University of Arizona, Eller School of Management, USA.
Session Chair & Contact Person
- Marius K. Luedicke, University of Innsbruck, Brand Research Laboratory, Universitätsstr. 15,
6020 Innsbruck, Austria, myself@mariusluedicke.de
Session and Contribution Rationale
Consumer culture is often characterized by the socio-historical, communal, identitarian, or
ideological patterns that it produces. Through consumption, individuals produce, reproduce, and
rejuvenate these patterns, which, in return, allows them to cull status recognition, identity value,
emotional relations, or a sense of communitas from their practices (Arnould and Thompson
2005; Holt 1997).
But how do consumer culture patterns change? One potential driver of this change is social
conflict (Coser 1957, Levy and Zaltman 1975). Social conflict is commonly defined as an
interaction relationship between two or more parties (individuals or groups) that pursue mutually
exclusive or incompatible goals (Kriesberg 1973, 2006; Mack and Snyder 1957). Consumer
culture research addresses such relationships in a variety of studies concerned, for instance, with
consumer movements (Dameron 1941), consumer boycotts (Friedman 1985; Garrett 1987),
consumer resistance (Fournier 1998; Herrmann 1993; Holt 2002; Penaloza and Price 1993;
Rumbo 2002), consumer emancipation (Kozinets 2002; Murray and Ozanne 1991; Murray,
Ozanne, and Shapiro 1994), marketplace drama (Giesler 2008), liberatory postmodern
consumption (Firat and Venkatesh 1995), new social movements (Kozinets and Handelman
2004), or anti-consumption practices (Cherrier 2009; Lee, Fernandez, and Hyman 2009; Varman
and Belk 2009). These CCT studies commonly focus on social conflicts that arise from power
imbalances between hegemonic producers and dominated consumers and draw from the widely
idealized socio-culturally myths of revolution and resistance. However, as Honneth (1992) and
Simmel (2006 [1908]) remind us, social conflict is not limited to courageous individuals fighting
against (class) domination, suppression and corporate exploitation, but likely manifests more
often than not in rather mundane, everyday interactions among consumers that strive for
individualization and differentiation through consumption (Simmel 2006 [1908]).
In recent years, consumer culture theorists have increasingly addressed such more mundane
types of social conflict that we refer to as “consumption-mediated social conflicts.” Thus far,
empirical studies on competition, conflict, and clashes in brand communities (de Valck 2007,
270; Luedicke 2005; Hickman and Ward 2007), on moral protagonism (Luedicke, Thompson,
and Giesler 2010), or on field-dependent cultural capital (Arsel and Thompson 2011), for
instance, illuminated important facets of these conflicts. But no prior study has yet developed a
theoretical framework that defines what is meant by “social conflict”, which consumer (culture)
studies explicate consumption-mediated social conflicts, and which theoretical and practical
interests guide this emerging field of inquiry?
The three studies presented in our session offer a first step towards addressing these questions.
Katharina Husemann and Marius Luedicke will begin with reporting on an extensive review of
sociological conflict theories, and use their insights for sketching out the potential scope of CCT
research on consumption-mediated social conflict. Through this lens, the authors will analyze
which CCT studies match these defining criteria and where more scholarly attention might be
necessary. Olivier Sibai, Kristine de Valck, and John Rudd will then present an early-stage
empirical study on “tensions” arising in online brand communities, and explore how these
tensions influence members’ involvement with the community. As the authors will discuss,
consumption-mediated tensions precede actual conflicts and can thus also be understood as
“conflict potential,” which is the theoretical notion unfolded in our third presentation. Therein,
Jeppe Trolle Linnet will demonstrate how the potentiality for consumption-mediated social
conflicts—i.e. the anticipation that a conflict will follow from a certain consumption act—
structures consumer behaviors within a family context. Jeppe’s presentation will focus on the
culturally induced needs that drive these conflicts, the strategies that family members use to
prevent or escalate them, and the analytical implications of focusing on potentiality as a social
dynamic in everyday consumption.
Our session aims at offering three contributions to consumer culture theory. First, it provides a
systematic overview of social conflict theories and how CCT research has advanced them.
Second, it introduces the notions of tensions and conflict potentiality as two ways of theoretically
capturing the sources and empirical effects of market-mediated social conflicts. Lastly, inspired
by Sidney Levy’s historically informed, critical discussion we hope that the session will spark a
lively conversation about the theoretical state of social conflict research in CCT, its guiding
interests, and opportunities for further research on this key force of consumer cultural change.
Towards a Conceptualization of Consumption-Mediated Social Conflict
Katharina C. Husemann & Marius K. Luedicke, University of Innsbruck
This conceptual study develops the notion of “consumption-mediated social conflict” in an
attempt to theoretically situate and outline this important and still emerging field of consumer
culture theory.
Towards this goal we begin with reviewing sociological writings on social conflict ranging from
Marx’s and Engel’s (2009 [1848]) initial work on class struggle, through Simmel’s (2006
[1908]) classic thoughts on “Streit” (conflict), to Hirschman’s (1994) analyses of social conflicts
in market societies. In synthesis, these writings tend to characterize social conflict as the
concurrence of four contextual preconditions; that is, at least two parties with a minimum degree
of mutual visibility and contact (Kriesberg 1973, 2006; Mack and Snyder 1957; Williams 1970),
a conflict object (Aubert 1963; Kriesberg 1973, 2006), a manifest conflict behavior (Gamson
1968; Kriesberg 1973, 2006), and a set of interactions between conflict parties (Coser 1972
[1956]; Tyrell 1976). Building on these insights, we define consumption-mediated social conflict
as “a relationship between two or more market participants who manifest the belief that they
have mutually exclusive or incompatible objectives regarding certain market resources.”
Based on this conceptualization we identify 27 CCT studies published mainly in the Journal of
Consumer Research and the Advances of Consumer Research and broadly concerned with social
conflict themes. Thirteen of these studies qualified as consumption-mediated social conflict
research according to our conceptual preconditions. Our analysis of these articles revealed three
prevalent types of consumption-mediated social conflicts; emancipatory, ideology-advocating,
and authenticity-protecting conflicts. Emancipatory conflicts tend to emerge when consumers
feel dominated or exploited by market forces and unethical corporations. When consumers, for
instance, revolt against global companies like Coca-Cola or Starbucks they enact this type of
conflict (Thompson and Arsel 2004; Varman and Belk 2009). Ideology-advocating conflicts
arise between consumers fostering opposing ideologies. These conflicts emerge when consumers
advocate a contested moral worldview, for instance, by defending their Hummer SUVs against
their moral antagonists (Luedicke et al. 2010). Lastly, authenticity-protecting conflicts emerge
between consumers when both put claim on the same consumption object. Consumers involved
in such conflicts defend, for instance, their Harley Davidson motorcycles and sub-cultural
meanings against “rich urban bikers” that (in their view) illegitimately claim a Harley throttle
(Schouten and McAlexander 1995).
An informative conceptual distinction that Hirschman (1994) introduces in sociology is that
between divisible and indivisible conflicts. Divisible social conflicts are “more-or-less” conflicts
animated by parties fighting for the redistribution of scarce resources, whereas indivisible
conflicts are “either-or” conflicts animated by parties striving to reinforce their own values or
attitudes. Contrary to more the productive and easier to resolve divisible conflicts, indivisible
conflicts are considered more destructive because their resolution typically only temporarily
overcasts a lingering socio-cultural divide (Hirschman 1994).
As consumer cultures worldwide move from functional/benefit-based consumption to
cultural/identity-based consumption, indivisible types of consumption-mediated social conflicts
gain momentum and with them their potentially destructive dynamic (Hirschman 1994;
Huntington 1997). Engaging in CCT research that illuminates the sources, interactions, and
outcomes of consumption-mediated social conflicts may thus be worthwhile.
Tensions in Online Brand Communities
Olivier Sibai, Aston Business School, Kristine de Valck, HEC Paris & John Rudd, Aston
Business School
Conflicts are part and parcel of online community dynamics (De Valck 2007; Harrison and
Jenkins 1996; Kozinets 2001) – from flames about publishing inappropriate content (De Zwart
and Lindsay 2009) to battles to win high status positions (Campbell, Fletcher and Greenhill
2009) and stigmatization of illegitimate insiders (Tikkanen, Hietanen, Henttonen, and Rokka
2009) up to bashing and smearing campaigns (Bocij 2002). As the concept of community
presumes unity, marketers may be inclined to suppress any dissonance in their online brand
communities thinking that it may hurt brand image or community attractiveness.
However, Fournier and Lee (2009) advise marketers to embrace the conflicts that make
communities thrive. As tensions and conflict cannot be avoided this seems logical advice.
Nevertheless, are all tensions and conflicts created equally? Are some not more constructive (or
destructive) than others? Thus, should all tensions and conflicts really be embraced, and what
can be done to channel tensions and conflicts such that they do not become destructive? These
questions form the starting point of this paper. Few marketing researchers have systematically
investigated tensions and conflicts in brand communities. Therefore, the objective of this
research is to first develop a typology of tensions in the context of online brand communities.
This research is the first step of a larger project aimed at determining how tensions impact
members’ involvement in online communities and how community management practices
moderate their impact. This study contributes to the conflict literature by adapting the concept of
tension developed to analyze firm alliances to relationships in online communities. The research
has also managerial relevance as findings will provide insights for the development of guidelines
on conflict management in online communities of consumption.
Tension is defined as a state in which two contradictory forces co-exist (Fang, Chang, and Peng
2011) within a certain entity (Das and Teng 2000). Whereas tensions remain enduringly,
conflicts emerge suddenly and are settled for good. We argue that conflicts in online brand
communities are the temporary expression of lasting tensions. Emergence, development,
resolution and re-emergence of conflicts are thus primarily determined by the state of tensions.
Understanding the effect of conflicts on online brand communities therefore primarily requires
understanding tensions. Three main types of tensions seem to emerge in online communities
from the analysis of cases mentioned in the literature and the preliminary analysis of discussions
on the Facebook page of a big UK mass-market retailer. First is the divergence of individual
goals, whether related to prestige (De Valck 2007; Campbell, Fletcher, and Greenhill 2009) or
economic interest (Zwick, Bonsu, and Darmody 2008). Second is the co-existence of opposing
values, whether in terms of significance of daily practices (De Valck 2007; De Zwart and
Lindsay 2009) or ethics and what is morally acceptable. The third type of tension is the
transgression of the relationship norm, whether defined by the individual or the group (Moon and
Sproull 2008; Tikkanen, et al. 2009). Those preliminary findings will be completed in the future
by analyzing tensions in a social web (Fournier and Lee 2009) type of community with strong
relationships between all members.
Conflict as Potentiality in the Social Embeddedness of Consumption
Jeppe Trolle Linnet, University of Southern Denmark
This paper argues that if people´s social relations constitute a legitimate and necessary
perspective on their everyday consumption, then so does conflict. Conflicts are inherent to the
social embeddedness of consumption, influencing consumers´ decisions and the possibilities they
contemplate, as well as their experience of their own and other people´s consumption patterns.
The central point is that conflict does not need to unfold as an observable empirical phenomenon
to influence people´s everyday consumption. Indeed, it is exactly in its absence and potentiality
that conflict may play its most central role. The potentiality for conflict can spur consumption
actions meant to prevent conflict from arising, and curtail the extent to which people realize their
individual consumption desires. As an empirical phenomenon, this conflict potentiality can be
detected as explicitly stated expectations, whereby consumers rationalize their course of action,
or less tangibly as an implicitly anticipated endpoint towards which things are assumed to
develop if not prevented in everyday negotiations. It also manifests as preventive actions or tense
moods observable among consumers who take shared decisions, and share social and material
space, such as family members.
In the collective purchase of major durables, negotiations over influence can become somewhat
tense with the possibility of conflict looming. The paper looks at cases where family members´
marking and expansion of their individual zone of autonomy, through symbolic consumption, is
a central concern that spurs the interpersonal negotiations which have repeatedly been
demonstrated in the literature on family consumption (Sheth 1974; Stevens, Maclaran and
Catterall 2007; Miller 1998; Hamilton 2009; Palan and Wilkes 1997). The empirical material
concerns gender-patterned negotiations around the purchase of vehicles, which involve
negotiations in terms of how collective needs vs. individual desires should be prioritized. It also
brings up disputes in which family members challenge each other's values and understandings of
consumption, or defend an individual attitude, as a consumer and owner, vis-à-vis family
members
The paper demonstrates that conflict, both in interaction and as potentiality, plays a role in how
consumption is embedded in social relations. The conflict-potential resides partly in the ability of
consumer goods to mark the symbolic boundaries of an individual´s “extended self”. Consumer
goods to which people have individual ownership may enable them to withdraw temporarily
from the pressures of sociality. In the eyes of other members of their social group, these goods
can therefore become a contested and negatively regarded vehicle for the individual´s selfrealization. For individuals the wish not to escalate that conflict can be a motivation for limiting
their consumption practices. However, escalating a conflict can also be a strategy which spurs
preventive actions from others, e.g. the giving of gifts.
In terms of methodology and interpretation, the paper argues that to recognize the role of
conflict, researchers should look not only at the practices and patterns of social relations that lie
before their eyes, but also extrapolate upon those realities and consider the potentialities that
might be realized, the alternative scenarios that consumers themselves are mindful of.
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