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So hard to say goodbye? An investigation into the symbolic aspects of unintended disposition practices
Author(s) -
Suarez Maribel,
Dias Campos Roberta,
Moreira Casotti Leticia,
Velloso Luciana
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of consumer behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.811
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1479-1838
pISSN - 1472-0817
DOI - 10.1002/cb.1580
Subject(s) - disposition , liminality , typology , product (mathematics) , unintended consequences , sociology , field (mathematics) , aesthetics , psychology , social psychology , marketing , advertising , business , law , political science , art , anthropology , geometry , mathematics , pure mathematics
Even though disposition is present in the consumer behavior research agenda, most of the studies focus mainly on intentional movements of products leaving the home. The present article describes a less conscious and co‐incidental journey of products into a liminal zone between use and disposal inside homes. A qualitative field study, based on the itinerary method, was undertaken with a group of 26 affluent women in Brazil. The findings show that consumers maintain purgatories – “forgotten” repositories of products no longer in use – as an in‐home disposition practice. The aspects and functioning of purgatory are also detailed, through a typology of purgatories and a discussion of specific strategies to deal with cluttering as a consequence of product accumulation inside homes. Finally, purgatories emerge as a contemporary consumer solution to deal not with individual products but with product collectivities' disposition. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.