Post-Structuralism

As regards the study of consumers and the consumption of everyday culture, post-structuralism signifies a significant departure from the structuralist analyses that it succeeded. Whereas in a structuralist analysis of consumption the patterns of consumption are ascertained through the revelation of some deep structure, in post-structuralist analyses of consumption, emphasis is placed on the minutiae of socially produced meanings, habits, practices, and normative common sense that govern consumption. Indeed, a post-structuralist analysis of consumers will necessarily place emphasis on the position of the consumer as a “subject” who is endlessly reconstructed by his or her particular historical, social, and cultural environs. For consumption, post-structuralism meant that the consumer, advertiser, marketer, seller, retailer, or producer could no longer be considered in a static, autonomous, and decontextualized ...