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The meaning of style? Style reflexivity among Danish high school youths
Author(s) -
Kjeldgaard Dannie
Publication year - 2009
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.274
Subject(s) - style (visual arts) , reflexivity , identity (music) , sociology , consumption (sociology) , postmodernism , expression (computer science) , meaning (existential) , scholarship , aesthetics , epistemology , anthropology , social science , literature , art , philosophy , political science , computer science , law , programming language
In much of the cultural theory literature on youth, style has been said to have started as an expression of subcultural class and transformed into individualized identity projects in neo‐tribal sociality. This article discusses young, Danish consumers' discourses on style and style practice. The key characteristic of their style practice is the reflexivity they bring to bear on their negotiation of global style expression in local identity projects. This style reflexivity manifests itself in two themes: style switching and style code reflexivity. The article shows that consumers' reflexivity of style consumption constitutes not only a ‘folk theory’ of consumption that reflects the academic and popular vernacular of style, but also postmodern consumer research scholarship's mode of expression about style. How individual consumers handle style in a reflexive manner through folk theories of the market is unexplored in previous research on the consumption of style. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.