Chronic Consumer Liminality: Being Flexible in Precarious Times

Understanding Difficult Consumer Transitions: The in/Dividual Consumer in Permanent Liminality

Laetitia Mimoun and Fleura Bardhi

Journal of Consumer Research, 2022, vol. 49, issue 3, 496-519

Abstract: This study introduces the notion of chronic consumer liminality (CCL) defined as a recurrently activated state of transition experienced when engaging in frequent, multiple, and nonlinear consumer life transitions. CCL is characterized by (1) reoccurring transitions, (2) ongoing self-transformation, and (3) the embracing of precarity. We find evidence of CCL in a multimethod qualitative study of the flexible consumer lifestyle. CCL emerges as a response to the liquidification of society and the rise of a marketplace ideology of flexibility. CCL is manifested and managed through three CCL navigation processes: destabilizing consumption routines, liquidifying consumption, and asserting control over time and money. Thus, consumers experiencing CCL tend to prefer variety seeking and serendipity over routine even for mundane choices, access-based consumption across domains, and a productivity orientation toward free time. Three skills also facilitate CCL: resilient optimism, adaptability, and self-preservation. This study contributes to research on liminality, consumption in liminality, liquid consumption, and precarity. We conclude with the managerial implications of our framework.

Keywords: chronic liminality; flexibility; life transition; liquid consumption; precarity; access-based consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:49:y:2022:i:3:p:496-519.

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