Abstract
Supported by non-representational theories (NRTs), we focus on the atmosphere of consumption and use a creative method to carry out this research. We consider the details of everyday life not represented, highlighting the roles of the elements in this fluid network. In order to understand how the atmosphere emerges, intensifies, and affects the behavior and modes of consumption, we ask ourselves: How does narrative/participant observation help us to develop interpretations about the way in which the affective bodies of consumers navigate and move around this experience? We seek, in the resource of biographical tradition, to collect a life story linked to the experiences of consumption enjoyed and meant in a commercial point over the years. Our corpus was based on narrative interviews, observation, and documents. From the nine critical incidents retrieved in the temporal experience of the narrative, the analysis revealed eight syntagms that, when encoded, pointed to six constituent meanings of this mode of experience-based consumption, which is driven by everyday situational factors but operate as signifying elements of the sales environment. The consumption experience was found to be a social and affective form of experience emerging in the respondent’s everyday life, whereas the actual consumption was solely a means for the social reaffirmation of the actor in question and the strengthening of her relationships.
Keywords
Introduction
A constant challenge for the studies of consumer behavior lies in understanding their consumption experiences (Becker, 2018). Recent research by Culture Consumer Theory (CCT) has taken a more holistic view, constituted in the ontology of procedural flows. Assemblage consumption is a more sensitive and reflective cultural approach (Rokka, 2021), capable of showing how various material and semiotic elements constitute a complex and fluid relational network (Canniford and Badje, 2016). What matters is the multidimensional context of its nature, its multiple factors, and the responses to the most diverse stimuli along the way. The concept is used in several disciplines, with actor-network theory (ANT) originating in sociology (Hill et al., 2014). Thus, consumer experiences are constituted by the arrangement established between bodies, spaces, and objects, with the capacity for action being a quality proper to the relationship (Franco et al., 2022; Hill, 2015; Hill et al., 2014). Hill et al. (2014) present non-representational theories (NRTs) as a proposal to expand the application of assemblage and ANT theories. Non-representational theories proposal is to incorporate sensitivities and understand how the “irrepresentational” events of practical life shape consumption and its experiences, with the atmosphere being one of its elements. The set of theoretical sensitivities makes it possible to describe how atmospheres were experienced and managed (Hill, 2015).
Consumer experiences are driven by the atmosphere that constitutes them (Hill, 2015). These involve what has been experienced in its intensity: the constituent flows of the intermittent production of everyday life, culture, of human and non-human arrangements, and their relational sensory registers. Therefore, they are formed by affective bodies and spaces through which affection flows (Hill et al., 2014), they are powerful, and they threaten the social order, but they cannot be represented (Hill, 2015). Atmospheres strongly embody the experience and promote three effects: a) they disturb because their force is intensive; b) they produce automatic bodily responses, as they refer to pre-cognitive modes of action; and c) their movement can shape participants' behaviors (Hill et al., 2022).
The problem pointed out for the implementation of the NRT refers to the capture of sensitivities. As it is experimental in its making, Hill et al. (2014) argue that new and creative methods be used by researchers to reveal these “unrepresentable” aspects of consumption events, such as post-human accounts, pre-cognitive justifications, the intensities of affection, and the atmosphere of consumption. The authors suggest that research capture everyday life as a continuous flow, and consider new actors, forces, and entities involved, which we understand, requires the recognition of how the details of everyday life potentially shape consumption realities.
Inspired by the challenge, we propose to analyze how a shopping experience process becomes effective, focusing on the consumer atmosphere that surrounds it. By putting the atmosphere in the foreground, we focus on the details of unrepresented life and seek to highlight the roles of the elements in this fluid network. Thus, we seek to understand how the atmosphere emerges, intensifies, and affects consumption behaviors and modes (Franco et al., 2022; Hill, 2015; Hill et al., 2014).
We selected a fashion and apparel complex in the city of Caruaru, in the Agreste region of Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil, due to its unique marketing characteristics. It is the commercial expansion of a traditional fair model, which appeared before the city that houses it. The Caruaru fair is one of the most important in the country, it was listed by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN), as it is made up of unique cultural practices, passed on from generation to generation. It comprises a diverse set of productive and commercial activities, including the production of the clothing industry, responsible for sustaining small and medium-sized family businesses, characterized by a low-price commercial strategy. The hub was designed based on the shopping mall model, with food courts, a place to host events, and parking for 4000 vehicles. The internal space comprises a total area of 64,000 square meters, with 500 local brand stores, which sell the most diverse fashion products. The space attracts consumers from different states of the country and serves retail and wholesale, selling local produce.
We identified a consumer who built a long relationship with the complex, called herself loyal, and we propose to collect the narration of her life story linked to this space. We aim to understand: How does narrative/participant observation help us to develop interpretations about the way consumers’ affective bodies navigate and move around this experience?
From the narrative technique, we propose to bring the memory that constitutes the personal archive of the experience. Inspired by Hill et al. (2014), we seek to capture the pre-reflective level of the atmosphere, as the consumer strives to narrate and give retrospective meaning to it. Interest in reports that bring up the daily flow, that indicate habitual experiences and non-discursive records of bodies permeated by affection, are characteristic of NRT (Hill et al., 2014). Following Storey (2018), remembering is always reconstructing the past in the present, as the time between what is lived and what is remembered exposes the living to the new information that participates in the narration. Even when a person does not directly experience an event, he can experience something like memory. Thus, the author argues that memory is individual at the same time as it is collective, and the materiality involved makes them temporarily work together.
We hope to contribute to CCT studies, generating insights into how an atmosphere emerges and intensifies, how affective bodies and spaces constitute and relate to it, and showing how non-representative forces embody and shape experience.
Atmosphere, consumption experiences and theories of social practice
Non-representational theory proposes an advance to the field through a unique appropriation of the tools of assemblage consumption (Canniford and Badje, 2016; Hill et al., 2014). Consumer experiences involve complex relationships between material (human and non-human) and semiotic elements, and their relationships promote the capabilities and qualities of action in this environment. The atmosphere emerges from the sharing of experience and, being an affective force, strongly incorporates them, permeating the bodies, touching and invading them, aggregating all the elements of the ontological arrangement (Hill et al., 2014). When intensifying among those involved, the force disturbs, shapes behaviors, and produces automatic bodily responses, which can threaten the social order (Canniford and Badje, 2016; Hill, 2015; Hill et al., 2022). Such responses concern the pre-cognitive modes of action sought by the NRT. The term defines the involuntary, unconscious action, usually arising from habit, which occurs through the set of sensations that prepare the body for action (Hill et al., 2014).
Understanding the atmosphere of consumption involves the dimension of everyday life. Dolbec et al. (2021) show how theories of social practice contributed to the advancement of knowledge of ontological theories; Hill et al. (2014) suggest the importance of the details of everyday life to reveal the sensitive networks constituting the market and consumer culture.
The practices of everyday life, as a specific analytical domain, were consolidated in social theory as an alternative to the other three culturalist schools of thought: mentalism; textualism; and intersubjectivism (Reckwitz, 2002). Warde (2005) elucidates that theories of practice are heterogeneous, but in common they understand that consumption takes place in the countryside and, precisely, because of practices, and that it integrates most spheres of everyday life. Still, they understand social life as constituted by complex relational networks established in and between macro and micro spheres and consider the role of routines, emotion, embodiment and desire revealed in consumption behaviors. Assemblage consumption assumes such structural openness and reflects on the complex relationships between spheres, recurrently determinants of the social world (Canniford and Badje, 2016).
Coffin and Chatzidakis (2021) highlight the contribution of De Certeau studies to the studies of the atmosphere, especially in the understanding of place as a space of order and space as a place of relational arrangements. For De Certeau (1984) the modern economy is formed by the relationship between two groups: one that produces and the other that consumes. Its focus is resistance, political and creative action of the group of “users,” whose tactics constantly challenge the discursive regime imposed by dominant strategies, affecting the imposed order. Everyday inventions legitimize the “authority” of what is socially acceptable, but they are based on a “bricolage” with the dominant cultural economy.
Ordinary consumption and the relational arrangement: Between macro and micro social spheres
We assume that the sphere of everyday life is a relevant part of the fluid arrangement that makes up the consumption experience and that consumption atmospheres are primarily “social atmospheres” (Hill et al., 2022). Consumption integrates almost all spheres of social life, being involved in a large part of our life experiences (Warde, 2005). Therefore, in a social form of consumption, individuals are taught to exist as consumers, and shopping places are also spaces for socialization (Miles, 2010; Sassatelli, 2007).
As consumption is recognized as a context of constant resignification, it is naturally the target of power disputes, but it also lends itself to “decommoditizing” goods in everyday making and use (De Certeau, 1984). Thus, Sassatelli (2015), like Miller (1987, 2013) and Fiske (2005), argue that consuming is also producing. Although consumption is subject to various forms of social control and its practices define the public life of individuals, actively contribute to the experience of the social world, and satisfy the need for socialization (Miles, 2010); when they happen in ordinary practices, such commands are constantly challenged (Sassatelli, 2007, 2015). With this, we can understand that the lived experiences, although they are constantly linked to capitalist priorities, through their unique ways of operating and experiencing everyday life, creatively circumvent attempts to control.
Focusing on the affective atmosphere, we can potentially reveal how unique relationships are established between the parts of this arrangement and between these and broader social spheres, evidencing not only the relational fluidity of the web but the elements that integrate it and the roles they occupy in producing a range of intensities (Franco et al., 2022).
Methodological procedures
In this qualitative research, we used the biographical study approach, a type of narrative study, to collect the life story of a consumer and understand her consumption experiences. The approach allows recording such experiences from a topic in question, limiting the research in terms of location and sample, as indicated by Hill et al. (2014). We chose a shopping center, and a consumer, and, focusing on the atmosphere, we expanded the network and its relationships.
For its application, we focused on an individual (Creswell, 2014), and we gave voice to the protagonist (Carú and Cova, 2008), making it possible to know from the specificity of the practice. When we analyze the lived in the form of narratives (Leão, et al., 2015), we use a creative method that, through the memory of the living, captures data from the pre-reflective level, sensitivities that shaped the atmosphere and defined the experience. In doing so, we detach ourselves from pre-existing representative categories and illuminate aspects of the imagination, bringing to the scene the actors, forces, and entities involved (Hill et al., 2014).
The primary tool for data collection was the narrative interview. Since this is dialogical, it turns the researcher into a co-participant in the construction of knowledge. The observation technique was also adopted during the interviews and applied to the documents as well. The document collection included photographs taken by the respondent, news articles about the space in question, information collected on websites, and the official Instagram accounts of the shopping center and various brands, totaling 42 documents. This material was triangulated with the narrations and accounts and the selection criterion was the importance attributed by the respondent and its potentiality to elucidate the experience in question. The corpus was formed by these data sources, following the criteria of relevance and saturation (Bryman, 2016).
The series with three long narrative interviews took place via video call using the Google Meet platform and followed all COVID-19 restriction measures. During the interviews we tried to put the respondent at ease, and questioned, directed, and deepened her narration toward the most elucidative points for understanding the phenomenon. His account offered a detailed description involving his daily life, an experience told from within, as indicated by Hill et al. (2014).
Protocol for narrative analysis.
Source: Retrieved from Leão et al. (2015: 212).
Critical incidents, syntagms, and moments of consumption experiences.
Analysis and discussion of results
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” […] suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her (Carroll, 2015: 31).
This opening quote was taken from a literature classic: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This character was chosen to pay homage to our respondent because we established some analogies between her discoveries and the enchanted world of Carrol’s story. In this study, we will affectionately call her Alice, not only to preserve her anonymity, but out of gratitude, admiration, and respect for the richness of her narrative, as well as her spirit of discovery, which is similar to that of the novel’s protagonist.
Our results will be presented in a narrative form, telling the relationship established with the Commercial Center of Caruaru and the history of Alice’s consumption of experiences. From the nine critical incidents retrieved in the temporal experience of narration, our analysis revealed eight syntagms. These were coded and indicated six guiding directions. We will tell this story from these six moments, discriminating in parentheses the existing, occurring, functions, and indications. We lead the reader through this story by avoiding the typical lengthy NRT logs. At each moment, we evidenced how the toolkit of ontological theories enriched this study (Hill et al., 2014).
Once upon a time… A life project shapes the consumption of experiences in the consumer’s journey
It was the end of the 1990s and a fierce passion was arousing. The affective relationship of Alice (existing protagonist) was triggered by a school project she had prepared some time before. Alice started her career as a teacher and throughout her trajectory, she took up a position as coordinator (occurrence of participation) of the school where she worked (informant of physical space). As she faced the challenges of her new position and since she was always a creative and initiative-taking professional (existing protagonist), Alice developed some projects (occurrence of participation) with her fellow teachers (existing accessories). One of them aimed to take students (existing accessories) to visit some cities in the state of Pernambuco, to allow them to observe, collect information and study several aspects of these locations in an interdisciplinary way (occurrence of participation).
In one of these excursions with students and teachers (occurrence of participation, philosophy index), Alice knew the Polo de Confecções do Agreste de Pernambuco (“Clothing Hub of Pernambuco’s Agreste”) for the first time (transformative catalytic function). At first, she visited two of the main cities of this clothing industry hub: Toritama and Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. At that time, these cities had no shopping malls, only street fairs (informant of chronological time), where many gathered to sell and buy clothes (informants of physical and social space). The first shopping center to be inaugurated in the complex was the Parque das Feiras (“Fair Park”) in Toritama, followed by the Moda Center in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, and Alice visited both. The Polo Comercial de Caruaru was opened at a third moment, in what came to be the third and most representative city of the clothing and apparel hub, which soon became her favorite place for shopping.
However, in her very first visit, Alice was overwhelmed by a feeling of euphoria for knowing something new (occurrence of desire) and was charmed (feeling index) by these (physical and social) spaces. First, because of the possibility of carrying out a bold learning project, which would be a milestone in her trajectory as a school coordinator (philosophy index and occurrences of desire and participation); second, because she could organize groups of people with an interest in shopping (existing accessories), which is one of the things she enjoys most (cardinal function) and in this case, at an extremely affordable cost; third, because of the opportunity to build and/or strengthen her friendship with those involved in this endeavor (social space); and finally, because the experiences lived in the tours took the form of incitement for Alice (occurrence of desire), who saw in it an opportunity to play the role of a tutor, that is, a responsibility she embraced professionally out of her skills (strategic and transformative cardinal functions).
The discovery of “a wonderful world of shopping” came from Alice’s personal projects. Alice’s experience involved, in a continuous flow, broad relational networks of actants: bodies, spaces, and objects, which together made her emerge (Hill et al., 2014). On her journey, she negotiated meanings and values (Miller, 2013) and built an affective bond with the space, from which she began to care for and publicize her products and benefits. And that’s how a work project boosted this story of shopping experiences, which is told from five more moments, rescued from the narration.
A passion is born: the feeling of longing and the desire to meet again
In November 2004 (informant of chronological time), the Polo Comercial de Caruaru (physical space) was inaugurated. It became yet another shopping center in the Agreste region of the state of Pernambuco, equipped with hundreds of stores. When Alice learned about that space, she wanted to go there and see it with her own eyes (occurrence of desire). As it was located in a city near other points of interest of the route she had planned, she included it as a destination in her tours (transformative catalytic function). When she saw the Polo Comercial de Caruaru for the first time, Alice was mesmerized. There was something about the region’s history that caught her attention (feeling and atmosphere indices) and boosted her taste for those visits: My first experience sparked a desire for going on shopping tours, that was it. Everyone would say, “Oh, that’s the Polo! The clothing and apparel hub of the Agreste region was born here.” Then I was charmed because I thought it was so beautiful; my sister recalls that to this day.
Alice identified with and developed positive feelings about the place (feeling index). It was captivated by the story of overcoming it, conquered by the courage and entrepreneurship of its residents (atmosphere index). The Caruaru Commercial Hub was special, different from the others she had visited. The clothing fair, nicknamed “sulanca,” was born from the production of simple clothes, produced by low-income families, from scraps of fabric (elanca) acquired as leftovers from factories in the south of the country (IPHAN, 2009). The city grew around the fair, along with it and because of it. Small and medium businesses pass from generation to generation, and it is common to involve the whole family in production. The fair has become one of the main drivers of local social, cultural, and economic development (IBGE, 2021). The model continues to exist, now in parallel with the commercialization of the mall.
Alice declared her preference (feeling index): So, what came up as an option? Something that I enjoy, that I’m crazy about, something that I love! Not just because of the trip, not just because of the shopping, but something called Polo Comercial de Caruaru. For me, it’s the best of the best. I think Moda Center in Santa Cruz is too big, you have to sleep over for one night and come back the next day. To go all the way there and come back on the same day is very tiresome, it’s exhausting, you have to shuffle back and forth.
Excited about her discovery, Alice set out to make the tour special for herself and the group of travelers. As a result, the demand for new registrations to the travel group increased. The trips were taken in rented vans and the journey was relatively long. Santa Cruz do Capibaribe was the farthest city from the state capital, Recife, some 337 km away, whereas Caruaru, which is where the tour started, was the closest, 139 km away. Alice turned the tour into a playful experience and strived to help the group of travelers have a fun time (occurrence of participation and philosophy index). Indeed, she stated: “I was happy to play [with the participants] because during the journey we played Secret Santa, bingo, and all. I’d do everything to get people to come along and get excited about their shopping, just like me.” By creating an atmosphere of excitement among the participants, she somewhat created a favorable mood for consuming as well.
Alice realizes that her investment in spreading the story and promoting the attributes of the space is starting to have an effect. She says that the products follow fashion, have quality and affordable prices. One of her friends compares the offerings of the commercial center (existing protagonist) with those of the trendiest, upscale shopping malls: “These days we see a lot more people going to Caruaru to do their shopping. Look, I bought this there and it wasn’t for sale at the mall yet.” This comment indicates that people approved her recommendations (occurrence of communication, symbolic catalytic function, and philosophy index). Alice tells us that in the previous 15 days alone, five friends told her that they only found what they were looking for at the Caruaru center. This approval assured Alice of the assertiveness of her choices and justified her taste, strengthening her involvement with that place. Moreover, it also pointed out that other people, as much as her, were becoming entangled in the web of advantages and opportunities of that shopping center (formative symbolic cardinal function). Thus, the experience leads Alice to stand out as a carrier of expertise. When directing tours, Alice, now retired, rediscovers her role in public life (Miles, 2010). The practice provided him with a repertoire for both self-representation and self-knowledge (Sassatelli, 2007).With time, Alice began to experience a nostalgic feeling, a void, an increasingly intense desire to relive her experiences in that place (cardinal strategic function). Two trips a year no longer seemed to be enough to cope with her nostalgia (atmosphere index), so she started to organize up to five tours a year (occurrence of participation). She describes it as something similar to a love relationship that grows stronger over time (philosophy index): “[…] I may have been there in January, I go every January, but now I go in March, June, October, and I every December, too. I always go there four or five times a year.” Alice’s anxiety is justified, as these spaces provide an opportunity to escape from the daily routine and also promote a sense of self-fulfillment and satisfaction (Miles, 2010).
Such a close bond fills her heart with joy and makes the visiting days the happiest of the week (feeling and atmosphere indices). She has reasons to come back (occurrence of desire, philosophy index): “[…] It’s a feeling of joy: it’s going to be a good day; it’s going to be a positive day. Before we finish, we’re already saying: ‘I’m going home, but I’ll come back to buy more stuff.’ And everyone who joins me on the excursion is part of this story, you see?
Alice’s effort to bring the group together, promote fun trips, and disseminate the history and attributes of the space, that is, the sharing of her experience, made the atmosphere emerge that permeated, touched the bodies, and intensified (Hill et al., 2014). After each visit, the desire to return seems to be reaffirmed (occurring), because, in a way, it is kept alive. The very materiality of the clothes acquired lends itself to reliving the experience and awakens the desire to return. At each departure, Alice already schedules the next excursion, as she knows that nostalgia will set in (feeling index).
Cost-effectiveness: The attributes shape the experience
Alice talks about the good things about polo, enumerating a range of positive aspects of space (physical and social). The consumer refers to the variety of products available in one place—quality and inviting prices, a place of adequate size, pleasant and very familiar, as it offers other attractions for families, such as masses (Figure 1). And, as she dedicates herself to getting to know it and keeping herself informed (philosophy index, psychological space), she has a domain of knowledge that gives her the opportunity to present it to the visitor (communication event), managing the construction of impressions about the experience. Missa no Polo. Recovered from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHU-aLxoWCp/
Among the advantages, the low prices caught their attention. This was the case of the blouses with sun protection, considered by her to be essential items (strategic catalytic function), as she lives on the coast and always goes to the beach with her family. In addition, the more affordable price becomes the opportunity for her to buy “gifts” for her acquaintances (philosophy index). Such prices are always advertised by the polo’s official channels (see Figure 2). Alice remarks: […] You can buy an item for 15 or 20 reais and with 200 reais you can give gifts to 10 people, I mean, you can buy something for everyone. You don’t need to buy a French perfume bottle for three hundred reais and give it to a single person, it’s cost-effective. Notícia do portal oficial do Polo Caruaru. Recovered from: https://www.polocaruaru.com.br
However, this involves a series of aspects. If the product is regarded as of superior quality (occurrence of desire, philosophy index), she pays more for it, even if equivalent products can be found in other stores. For Alice, high-quality encompasses following fashion trends, being beautiful, well-finished, durable, made of certain materials, or even manufactured by a brand she trusts (strategic catalytic functions). Indeed, she uniquely assesses cost-effectiveness (occurring of participation): “I buy a lot of things; some 20 blouses and 10 dresses, at least. I buy them for myself, and I buy other stuff to give as presents [to other people]. I don’t always do that, but I do it when the patterns are nice”.
Therefore, innovations and materials (evocative symbolic catalytic function) are important indicators of quality, and Alice (the existing protagonist) states how this attracts her attention (psychological time), exemplifying her interest (feeling index) for items of “a jersey fabric that doesn’t need ironing,” and those made of Lycra or spandex, which “make blouses more stylish and fancier.”
Here we not only see how non-human materials participated in the relational atmosphere involving their own scales (Franco et al., 2022), but also include Alice’s personal motives. It refers to what Hill et al. (2014) refer to as Translation, that is, Alice aims to generate relevant meanings of use for the individuals presented, through the physical (aesthetic) quality of the products. By making these objects valuable to people, they recognize her as a good buyer and, if they like the product, they start placing orders, generating reasons for Alice to come back. With the gift-giving action, Alice not only makes excuses to return, but she conquers more and more sympathizers for space.
An affective curatorial experience? Taking care of oneself, other people, and the shopping center
Alice claims to love the commercial center, but she is not selfish. As such, she wants as many people to enjoy the shopping advantages as possible (occurrence of desire). In other words, to get to know the place, experience similar emotions, and develop positive feelings for that space (philosophy index). After all, she discovered something special (social and psychological space) and takes pleasure in sharing her knowledge (occurrence of communication, philosophy index) with other individuals (transformative catalytic function and occurrence of participation). By doing so, she exercises one of her best relational skills: mentoring. She mentors the practice of both consumers and salespersons, aiming to professionalize them and improve their performance.
Alice was a teacher (philosophy index) and knows that transmitting knowledge with confidence is crucial to enable the shoppers with good shopping experiences (evocative, formative symbolic, and transformative cardinal functions). This is how Alice became a reference and is now requested by other people (strategic and transformative cardinal functions). She feels challenged to make purchases that will be appreciated because as Miller (2013) states, this represents the recognition of her skills. Sassatelli (2007: 96) calls “new cultural intermediaries” those individuals who, through their habitual practices and accumulated experiences of consumption, produce a certain structure of standardization of taste. Alice seems to occupy this specialist position, as she guides the choices, creates “small specialized tastes,” whose senses organize the world of those involved. Its consumer capital, despite its “marginal” (non-elite) origin, seems to be widely recognized by tour group participants.
Alice encourages people to consume. She is not a financially wealthy person, as is the group of people who follow her. Many sign up for the tour just to have fun with the tour, but without any pretensions or even possessions for shopping, at least that day. However, even though many hikers start their journey with no intention of spending, Alice lends her credit card (incurring participation), writes down debts and installments in a notebook (philosophy index), and her action ensures that everyone buys (cardinal function transformative and strategic): […] I have my little notebook, and I jot down their names on it. Alison got two shorts for this and that price and paid in X installments. When someone needs to buy something but doesn’t have cash, I write down the debt and they’ll pay me back, free of charge.
Note that the consumer argues that they “need” to buy, so they borrow the card. Alice is persuasive, suggests the importance of consumption for each individual, and naturalizes the practice in the group, directing the experience that is supported and related to networks of the macro sphere, since the subjectivity determined by consumption is supported by autonomous choice and individuality as normative hegemonic (Sassatelli, 2007).
However, the practice of borrowing the card made him sometimes reach his purchase limit, which made it impossible for Alice to use it for her own demands, at the time. In this case, her practice was similar to that of the housewives studied by Miller (2013), who do their best to promote the well-being of family members, sometimes at the cost of refusing to enjoy the same pleasure. According to her: There’s no greater satisfaction than doing what you enjoy. I often tell people, “Put your problems aside, as well as your debts, and we’ll work it out. Let’s focus on what we like, create pleasure for ourselves.” I like to shop for myself, but I get more pleasure out when I see people carrying all those shopping bags. People get happy and excited because they like it. I usually spend more than I should, but when I see people saying that they loved it, I get happy, too, because it was good for me and those who came along.
The fact that it is good for everyone shows how buying is linked to emotional well-being (Miles, 2010). Alice confesses that she enjoys seeing people shopping (feeling index). For Fiske (2005), pleasure is a social and political activity at the same time. It resides in the production and circulation of meanings, as it refers to the production of popular culture that naturally resists order, turning to fulfill particular interests. As pleasure is centered on the body and sensations, it is located in a terrain where the hegemony of the system does not reach it. Therefore, for the author, bodily pleasure is the tactic of subordinates. Thus, for Fiske, as we experience everyday life, we generate and circulate meanings, we produce popular culture and we generate pleasure. This being inherently political, it is always accompanied by attempts at control. Alice reports this. At a certain point in the narration, Alice’s dedication and interest seemed to be tied to the construction of validation to explain her habits (occurrence of desire). Since she loves to shop and does so quite often, she is frequently accused of being a consumerist. The incrimination is made by her husband and close relatives, who blame her for spending all their money on shopping. Indeed, she acknowledges that, by saying that “[…] I am such a consumerist, I like new clothes, I like different things; if I like a blouse and I want to match it with an earring, I’ll buy it […] Oh, boy, I like that!”
Experiential disappointments and educational reprimand
Alice experiences disappointments in the scope of her relationship with the Polo Comercial de Caruaru (existing protagonist). The people working at the shopping center sometimes incur mistakes that bother her (formative symbolic catalytic function) because they are harmful to customers. However, she is always trying to help correct them (occurrence of participation).
One of the things that bother her most (feeling index) is bad customer service (transformative catalytic function, atmosphere index). Alice compares neglecting customers to sins and considers it a transgression of good business principles (feeling and atmosphere indices). She states: “I tell the owner that I come here because I’m naughty because I like to buy things here, but the truth is that there are people here who don’t know how to treat [customers].” Another aspect that triggers disappointment (feeling index) directly concerns the forms of payment practiced by some stores (existing accessory). She claims to go through awkward situations frequently (transformative cardinal function) when she makes purchases using a credit or debit card because shopkeepers charge higher amounts compared to purchases paid in cash. However, as she knows the provisions of the Consumer Protection Code, she explains: There’s something that nobody questions: there’s a price for paying in cash and another one for paying by credit card […] According to the Consumer Protection Code, this thing about a five-reais mask costing seven bucks if you want to pay by credit card is nonsense! You should only pay if you want to!
Furthermore, most stores in the shopping center do not offer extra-large items: The biggest problem is that everything is harder for chubby people. The skinny folks find everything they’re looking for! Sometimes you hear them saying “Hey, but this is XL, lady!” However, the way garments are designed, the XL won’t fit us. It would have to be XXL, you know?
Alice assumes the position of “sovereign consumer” (Olsen, 2019). According to the author, this concept is the result of a historical production of neoliberal thought, an invention of economists to reproduce that order. The idea was to give the consumer a position of authority—being a consumer became a social value, and at the same time it naturalized the act of shopping as a right to free choice, subordinating democratic values and the role of the citizen to the market. Again, here we see the influence of the macro sphere reproduced in a non-reflective way in the consumer’s practice.
The experience reaches the limit of fragility: An extended love lesson
As she moved through the ups and downs, Alice nurtured a relationship with the space and recognized its value to her life (philosophy index). After all, the affective connection (feeling and atmosphere indices) established with the Polo Comercial de Caruaru (physical and social space) was related to the development of a life project. During almost 30 years of coexistence, Alice developed deep emotional connections with the shopping center (physical and social space), which were accompanied by the emergence of a caring relationship (occurrence of participation, transformative cardinal function, atmosphere index). Inspired by Miller (2013), to signify such a relationship we use the term “love” in a broad way because, more than an affectionate affirmation, it involved devotional practices.
Being part of an experiential journey, the affective atmosphere involved macro-social spheres, such as the structural ideologies that demarcate what it is to “be a consumer” and what are their “civic” duties toward the system, involving feelings of obligation, responsibility, and resentment. In its microspherical relational arrangement, it legitimized ways of being, relationships, and shaped behaviors (Canniford and Badje, 2016; Hill, 2015; Hill et al., 2022), while shaping the shopping experience through the atmosphere or affective force (Becker, 2018; Hill, 2015; Hill et al., 2014), which affected the material elements involved (Hill et al., 2022). As Miles (2010) states, consuming is more than buying, and it is in these practices that individuals produce their reality, culture, and life narratives.
However, with the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, a critical moment (psychological time) set in for the shopping center, the shopkeepers, and the employees, who came to be threatened by the economic crisis. Alice’s concern increased, for now, it was no longer a matter of seeking solutions to improve her functioning; this posed a threat to her very livelihood. Despite organizing tours with fewer participants, she did not stop visiting the center during the moments when it was opened. Her speech reveals her zealous feeling: I’m betting on that! I think it’s the habit. To be loyal to the things we like, it’s a ride we can’t help but go on. What scares me most at this time is unemployment and the fact that people are actually going bankrupt. I keep asking myself: “Today I’ve come here, it’s December 8. Will that store be open in February when I come back?”
The consumer shows how these practices and intensities involve and/or become habitual actions (Hill et al., 2014). Alice demonstrates her concern for everyone’s well-being, which she usually knows by name and/or knows details of the families (forming symbolic catalyst function). These are businesses and people whose survival is being threatened: There is a bunch of people behind this, people who work in manufacturing, people who cut fabrics, design, and sell. I mean, this whole group of people could lose their jobs, couldn’t they? That was my biggest feeling.
Nonetheless, Alice believes that better days are ahead (atmosphere index, chronological and psychological time) and that things must change. One of the things that make her hopeful is the strengthening of online service. However, Alice considers that the shift is still small to face the crisis: What we see today is a huge part of the aisles with closed stores. Nobody knows what is going to be done on that other side; there is a huge section closed at this point.
Thereby, Alice remains worried yet does not lose hope (philosophy index). As a “sovereign consumer” (Olsen, 2019), she assumes her role as a citizen and torments herself. She tries to imagine feasible ways out of the hardships that are hers and the commercial space.
Final remarks: The moral of the story
We propose to comprehend how the support of a method rarely used in NRT—the narrative interview together with participant observation, could generate clarifications about how affective bodies navigate around a consumption experience. We evince that the features of the biographical study naturally open space for capturing the sensitivities present in the continuous flows that constitute everyday life. Listening to Alice was essential to show how institutional arrangements, resources, and mechanisms influenced the way she lived and meant such an experience. The sequence of regular interviews allowed us to access the incorporated habits.
We note that the focus on the atmosphere of consumption was essential to ascertain the complexity and intensity of what was lived: the experience promoted self-escape from routine, enchanted, amused, made people suffer, conquered and loyal customers. As the atmosphere aggregates all the elements of the arrangement, we highlight the roles of the network elements, illustrating how it arises, intensify, and shape behaviors and modes of consumption. Alice narrated how a consumption process can be motivated by personal daily demands, which are constituted in the dynamics of social liaisons. She showed how objects are transformed in the processes of assemblages; how the relational atmosphere involved objects and their scales forming networks to stabilize assemblages; and how some elements of the network were capable of action.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.
