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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 scholarships 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.
Introduction
Drop in and Drop Out, Sample and Mix,
Cross Gender Divides . . . Fashion The
Past Style Surfing the Future
(Quote from Polhemus (1996), Style Surfing. What to Wear in the New Millenium)
As this opening quotation is meant to
indicate, style has become an omnipresent
*Correspondence to: Dannie Kjeldgaard, Department of
Marketing and Management, University of Southern
Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark.
E-mail: dkj@sam.sdu.dk
y
Associate Professor
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Dannie Kjeldgaard
Style
Style, in the context of this article, is understood as the selection of a range of objects that,
through their combination, becomes a style.
Style can be said to have communicative
potential through the basic semiotic processes
of selection and combination (Barthes, 1957;
Hebdige, 1979). The constitution of a style
ranges from a rather broad way of doing
things (Maffesoli, 1996), to the general
selection and combination of objects into
lifestyles, to a narrower understanding of
style as the assemblage of clothing and
adornment objects into a fashion style (e.g.
Murray, 2002).
Scholarly study of style as an expression of
youth subcultures emerged from the work of
scholars at The Centre for Contemporary
Cultural Studies (CCCS), also known as the
Birmingham School, which was established in
1965 at the University of Birmingham. The
CCCS became highly influential in subsequent
studies of youth culture. One of the most
influential texts to come out this tradition was
Hebdiges (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of
Style; the title of this article references this
seminal text. In early CCCS work, subcultural
style was seen as a way of expressing and
managing the frustrations felt by white, male
youth who were members of a specific class
position, namely, the working class. Subcultural styles of fashion and music were
established to break both the parent culture
and the dominant social order. Furthermore, as
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Hyperreality
Fragmentation
A market of style
Consumption in the form of style is constructed as a complex interaction between
marketing systems, popular culture and innovative, creative processes in youth culture (see
Kjeldgaard and Askegaard (2006) for a discussion of the global dispersion of the ideology of
youth). Spectacular youth cultures have been
conceptualized as expressions of struggles for
authenticity at collective levels an authenticity that acts as resistance to a dominant
order. However, an attempt to define oneself
as young by establishing and participating in
spectacular youth subcultures is said by some
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Mar.June 2009
DOI: 10.1002/cb
74
Dannie Kjeldgaard
Method
This article is based on data collected among
Danish high school youths as part of a broader,
multi-sited study of global youth culture.
Danish youth culture was one of the two
general cultural contexts. Within this cultural
context, two high school classes were chosen,
each reflecting a rural and an urban setting,
respectively. One was a central Copenhagen
high school, representing students from a
diverse set of city neighbourhoods, and the
other was Svendborg, a country-side city
whose high school has a significant number
of students from rural areas. Data collection
entailed a three-stage procedure: (1) Students
of each class were asked to keep diaries of their
use of money and time. Furthermore, informants were asked to note consumption
favourites food, drink, music and clothing
as well as to note their dreams for the future
(of material objects and/or education/career).
Information from the diaries constituted an
important preliminary understanding of local
knowledge that was leveraged later in depth
interviews; (2) the diaries functioned as a
sampling pool for the next stage, in which six
informants from each class were chosen. Informants were sampled so as to give as much
diversity to the informant group as possible.
Informants involved in particular style subcultures were not particularly sought only
one informant could be said to engage in
subcultural style practices. This was deliberate,
in that the study sought to encompass both
marginal and mainstream identity projects in
order to establish the meaning of style across
social, ethnic, class and subculture categories.
Each informant was given a disposable camera
to document a week in their life; (3) subsequently, each informant was interviewed through
part auto-driving (Heisley and Levy, 1991),
talking about the pictures taken by the informants, and part semi-structured questions. An
overview of informants is found in Table 1.
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Mar.June 2009
DOI: 10.1002/cb
M
F
M
F
F
M
Copenhagen
E`variste
Fatima
John
Line
Stine
Tim
Svendborg
Christoffer
Cille
Kris
Lars
Mie
Rosina
#
All informant names have been anonymized but given aliases which reflect their cultural specificities and origins
At home
At home
At home
Dorm
At home
At home
18
18
18
18
18
19
Copyright
M
F
M
M
F
F
At
At
At
At
At
At
18
17
17
18
17
17
home
home
home
home
home
home
Dwelling
75
Age
Sex
Namea
Home
Comments
Findings
In general, consumption among informants is
interpreted to occur in a construction of
reflexive self-narratives (Arnould and Price,
2000; Giddens, 1991). This is predominant
among both urban and rural informants. Style
and consumption opportunities, however, are
understood differently. For urban informants,
consumption is a matter of making choices
among a plethora of opportunities, while for
rural informants, it is a matter of addressing the
lack of opportunities. However, regardless of
whether it means making choices or reflexively managing the lack of choice of style
opportunities, style is, nevertheless, a predominant theme across both urban and rural
contexts. Hence, it constitutes the focal area
for the following data analysis. Two predominant themes of style organized consumers
narratives: style switching and style codes.
Sometimes its nice to be normal
Postmodern (?) Style Switching
For the informants, style is interpreted to
represent a means of expressing various
aspects of their self-perceived identity and as
an opportunity for experimenting with other
identities through role switching.
To informants, styles represent a plethora of
possible expressions. Several informants disJournal of Consumer Behaviour, Mar.June 2009
DOI: 10.1002/cb
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Dannie Kjeldgaard
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