Home Sweet Messy Home: Managing Symbolic Pollution
Dion, Delphine; Sabri, Ouidade; Guillard, Valérie (2014), Home Sweet Messy Home: Managing Symbolic Pollution, Journal of Consumer Research, 41, 3, p. 565-589. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/676922
Type
Article accepté pour publication ou publiéDate
2014-10Journal name
Journal of Consumer ResearchVolume
41Number
3Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Pages
565-589
Publication identifier
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract (EN)
Hanging up our coat, tidying our desk, classifying our books, what meanings do these mundane practices convey? Extending Mary Douglas’s work, this article investigates tidiness from the angle of symbolic pollution. Based on photo-elicitation, it shows that, similarly to symbolic pollution described at a macro-social level, tidiness depends on two conditions, namely, a set of classifications and the dangerous transgression of these classifications. However, at a micro-social level, individuals negotiate boundaries between classifications in order to cope with symbolic pollution. Consumers define their domestic classifications through a juxtaposition of micro-practices, which does not necessarily create a hierarchically ordered system but which enables these consumers to avoid anomalies and transgressions. Furthermore, respondents are willing to break tidiness rules on specific occasions because the danger-beliefs associated with transgression are context-dependent. This analysis of tidiness gives new insights into materiality, emphasizing the cultural meaning of ordering one’s possessions.Subjects / Keywords
Consommateurs; Comportement; Psychologie; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Psychology; Consumers' preferences; Orderliness; Order; HierarchiesRelated items
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