From Time Is Money to Life Is Hygge: How Countermythologies Enable Consumer Temporal Resistance

Sarah C. Grace

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2026, vol. 11, issue 3, 335 - 348

Abstract: This research examines how market-mediated countermyths enable consumer temporal resistance by analyzing US consumers’ adoption of Danish hygge to challenge the dominant myth that “time is money.” Through a netnographic study combining visual analysis and existential-phenomenological interviews, findings reveal a four-stage recursive process through which consumers utilize hygge to achieve temporal transformation within contexts of acceleration. Unlike temporary oases of deceleration, this process enables an enduring transformation in consumers’ orientation toward time through (1) recognizing temporal myths as constructed rather than natural, (2) finding market legitimation for alternative temporalities, (3) crafting new temporal rhythms and timeflows in everyday life, and (4) sustaining emancipatory timework within dominant structures. This research extends understanding of consumer temporality by demonstrating how counter-temporal myths, mediated by the market, provide resources for sustained consumer deceleration, and introduces “emancipatory mythwork” as the strategic borrowing of alternative cultural narratives to expand agency within constraining structures.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/741123 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/741123 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jacres:doi:10.1086/741123

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the Association for Consumer Research from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().