Arnould and Thompson note that the "marketplace has become a pre-eminent source of mythic and symbolic resources through which [people] construct narratives of identity' (2005: 871). Not only do consumers "actively rework and transform symbolic meanings" (ibid: 871), but in everyday practices they use "marketplace cultures [to] define their symbolic boundaries through an ongoing opposition to dominant lifestyle norms and mainstream consumer sensibilities" (ibid: 874). The paper examines identity work done with cherished possessions, in this case cars. By means of a netnography we focus on everyday practices where consumers rework brand identity towards their local identity projects

Brownlie, Douglas

Hewer, Paul

English

University of Strathclyde Institutional Repository

Strathprints Institutional RepositoryHewer, P.A. and Brownlie, Douglas (2009) Cultures of unruly bricolage: ’debadging’ and the culturallogic of resistance. Advances in Consumer Research, 36. pp. 686-687. ISSN 0098-9258Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde.Copyright c© and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authorsand/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for anyprofitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, ornot-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to Strathprints administrator:mailto:strathprints@strath.ac.ukhttp://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/  Hewer, P.A. and Brownlie, Douglas (2009) Cultures of unruly bricolage: 'debadging' and the cultural logic of resistance. Advances in Consumer Research, 36 . pp. 686-687. ISSN 0098-9258    http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/15510/        Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. You may freely distribute the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) of the Strathprints website.  Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to The Strathprints Administrator: eprints@cis.strath.ac.uk  686 Advances in Consumer ResearchVolume 36, © 2009Cultures of Unruly Bricolage: ‘Debadging’ and the Cultural Logic of ResistanceDouglas Brownlie, University of Stirling, ScotlandPaul Hewer, University of Strathclyde, ScotlandEXTENDED ABSTRACTAbstractArnould and Thompson note that the “marketplace has be-come a pre-eminent source of mythic and symbolic resourcesthrough which [people] construct narratives of identity” (2005:871). Not only do consumers “actively rework and transformsymbolic meanings” (ibid: 871), but in everyday practices they use“marketplace cultures [to] define their symbolic boundaries throughan ongoing opposition to dominant lifestyle norms and mainstreamconsumer sensibilities (ibid: 874). The paper examines identitywork done with cherished possessions, in this case cars. By meansof a netnography we focus on everyday practices where consumersrework brand identity towards their local identity projects.IntroductionA rich stream of research has explored consumers’ resistanceto commodity culture and brands (Arnould & Thompson, 2004;Holt, 2001, 2002; Dobscha, 1998; Fournier, 1998; Schor, 1998).Research has thus focused upon the anti-brand movement (Fischer,2001), lovers of the natural world (Dobscha, 1998), downshifters(Schor, 1998), to the voluntary simplicity movement (Murray,2002) or the burning man movement (Kozinets, 2002b). Murray(2002) draws our attention to how such consumers, who are oftencynical of commodity culture, seek to construct their sense of whothey are, through what he terms their ‘salient negations’ to com-modity culture. We reveal how consumer subcultures are engagedin forms of guerrilla warfare to affirm, maintain and consolidatetheir group identity through their appropriations of marketingbrands.ConceptualisationIn their recent synthesising overview of consumer culturetheory, Arnould and Thomson discuss the constitutive and produc-tive aspects of consumption, noting that the “marketplace hasbecome a pre-eminent source of mythic and symbolic resourcesthrough which [people] construct narratives of identity” (2005:871). They remind us that not only do “consumers actively reworkand transform symbolic meanings” (ibid: 871), but that through avariety of everyday practices they also use “marketplace cultures[to] define their symbolic boundaries through an ongoing opposi-tion to dominant lifestyle norms and mainstream consumer sensi-bilities (ibid: 874). In this paper we construct a line of argumentbased on those thematic observations, exploring in particular theidentity work that is done by consumers through modifying cher-ished possessions, in this case cars. We focus, paradoxically per-haps, on the site of everyday practices by means of which consum-ers de-badge, or perhaps, re-badge their vehicles, or otherwiserework its brand identity, in pursuit of local identity projects.MethodologyIn our quest to understand the consumer practices and tacticsof ‘debadging’ we drew inspiration from the netnographic work ofKozinets (2001, 2002a). We started by ‘lurking’ at a number of webforums devoted to car cultures. These included amongst others:MBWorld Discussion forum, otherwise known as the forum forMercedes-Benz enthusiasts; VWvortex forum, otherwise know asthe Volkswagon enthusiast website; Mini2.com, otherwise knownas ‘fuel for your mini obsession’; Hondacivicforum.com; and7thGenCivic.Com. Most of the forums advertise themselves inmuch the same way that the Honda Civic forum does: “as adiscussion forum & one stop resource for all Honda Civic relateddiscussions, with forum topics including Honda Civic vehiclemaintenance, tech help with car repairs, and performance up-grades.”FindingsThe findings are organised under three key themes: first tounravel what we mean by the practice of debadging; second totheorize the consumer as a designer; and third, to explore the formsof exchange, and affiliation exhibited by car enthusiasts. Forinstance, we find that design at the everyday level is about findingsolutions to identity tasks and overcoming contradictions throughbricolage. For many the changes made through de-badging theirvehicles focus upon the achievement of a particular look, where thereclamation of de-signing is intended to achieve a degree ofanonymity, but also a form of cultural capital in itself in which suchpractices were engineered to speak to those who understand, andexclude others for their lack of aesthetic and technical knowledgeand appreciation. The informants display a sophisticated under-standing and appreciation of the state of things and are restless intheir pursuit to change the things that matter in their lives.ConclusionsThe analytical focus of the paper is directed towards a virtualcommunity of car enthusiasts and a series of online reports ofconsumer bricolage in the empirical setting of car modification.This opens a window on a variety of everyday practices thatcharacterize how consumers actively use cars and other resourcesof popular culture in creative ways as symbolic resources forconstructing and sustaining social identity. Also illuminated areways in which arenas of anti-consumption are invested with par-ticular meanings that are grounded within practices of daily life.Through analysing forms of reportage naturally occurring in thoseonline sites, textual data is generated about consumption practicesthat can be read as constitutive of forms of consumer resistance.Theorising resistance through de Certeau’s (1984) lens of everydaypractice brings analysis to ‘grounded aesthetics’ (Willis, 1990) asa potential arena in which practices of consumer resistance areplayed out. Over an eight-month period an internet-based method-ology generated observations of online posting activity on fivedifferent internet newsgroups attracting those with an interest in thehighly particular pursuit of car modification. Participants usedthose web-forums not only to share information and insights, but togive individual and collective voice to enthusiasms towards carmodification and customization as a way of improving vehicleaesthetic appeal. The term ‘grounded aesthetics’ (Willis, 1990) isused to describe ‘articulations’ (Kozinets, 2001, p. 70) betweenpractices of everyday life and the creativity that consumers bring totheir ‘re-appropriation of the product-system’ (de Certeau 1984, pxxiv). For some informants the practice of debadging is a tactic toimprove the look of the vehicle; for others it expresses a moreradical practice that feeds-off desires to be free of what is seen as thethinly concealed calculation and manipulation of visible brandlivery. Findings show that, as Denzin (2001) observes, “groundedaesthetics function both as vehicles and sites of resistance” (ibid, p.Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 36) / 687328). 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Cultures of unruly bricolage : 'debadging' and the cultural logic of resistance

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