INTRODUCTION
“Consumer culture” is a culture and lifestyle where personal social status and individual values are based around the consumption of goods and services, with an extremely large area of what you do, what you value and how you are defined and recognised in society all revolving around the consumption of goods. The article that will be discussed in this literature review is: “Low-income families and coping through brands: Inclusion or stigma?” which is written by Dr Kathy Hamilton, from the University of Strathclyde, in 2012.
This article outlines research that was implemented and carried out in order to view the struggles that people encounter every day to avoid being socially stigmatised, and focuses primarily on low-income families …show more content…
30 families within the UK, 18 of which were single parent households, and each household had at least one child that was younger than 18 years old. It is stated within the article that the entire family as a whole is affected when it comes to social exclusion and poverty, meaning that any child over the age of 11 was asked to also participate in the investigation. All interviews were conducted within the family home in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the ‘insider’ family life and topics such as finance circumstances, overall budget/saving strategies, family backgrounds and coping with everyday life. Hamilton (2012) defines the word “coping” as an overall attempt to manage and maintain stressful and emotional components while making changes to the surrounding environment that is causing these …show more content…
(Page, 1992) The article firstly discusses the feelings of approval and empowerment that these families gain from obtaining goods, such as brand names and clothing for their children. This increased individual’s feelings of self-worth and dignity which contributed to the idea of a ‘coping’ strategy. The parents that were investigated were found to feel obliged to spend the money that they had on certain brand items and clothing in order to keep their children in-line with the most up-to-date and modern trends of the world. Parents’ fear of bullying and ridicule for their children was one of the main reasons stated in the article for conspicuous consumption, and another reason comes from the idea that parents themselves will spend in order to free themselves from the stigma and the shame of being a single-parent or living with a low-income wage. The mass media play a large part in increasing and heightening the stigma that surrounds low-income or single parent households, and the word “chav”, defined as a ubiquitous term of abuse for the white individuals living in poverty, is mainly targeted at single mothers. (Tyler, 2008) The article uses the word ‘chav’ to portray the fact that the media is
“Consumer culture” is a culture and lifestyle where personal social status and individual values are based around the consumption of goods and services, with an extremely large area of what you do, what you value and how you are defined and recognised in society all revolving around the consumption of goods. The article that will be discussed in this literature review is: “Low-income families and coping through brands: Inclusion or stigma?” which is written by Dr Kathy Hamilton, from the University of Strathclyde, in 2012.
This article outlines research that was implemented and carried out in order to view the struggles that people encounter every day to avoid being socially stigmatised, and focuses primarily on low-income families …show more content…
30 families within the UK, 18 of which were single parent households, and each household had at least one child that was younger than 18 years old. It is stated within the article that the entire family as a whole is affected when it comes to social exclusion and poverty, meaning that any child over the age of 11 was asked to also participate in the investigation. All interviews were conducted within the family home in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the ‘insider’ family life and topics such as finance circumstances, overall budget/saving strategies, family backgrounds and coping with everyday life. Hamilton (2012) defines the word “coping” as an overall attempt to manage and maintain stressful and emotional components while making changes to the surrounding environment that is causing these …show more content…
(Page, 1992) The article firstly discusses the feelings of approval and empowerment that these families gain from obtaining goods, such as brand names and clothing for their children. This increased individual’s feelings of self-worth and dignity which contributed to the idea of a ‘coping’ strategy. The parents that were investigated were found to feel obliged to spend the money that they had on certain brand items and clothing in order to keep their children in-line with the most up-to-date and modern trends of the world. Parents’ fear of bullying and ridicule for their children was one of the main reasons stated in the article for conspicuous consumption, and another reason comes from the idea that parents themselves will spend in order to free themselves from the stigma and the shame of being a single-parent or living with a low-income wage. The mass media play a large part in increasing and heightening the stigma that surrounds low-income or single parent households, and the word “chav”, defined as a ubiquitous term of abuse for the white individuals living in poverty, is mainly targeted at single mothers. (Tyler, 2008) The article uses the word ‘chav’ to portray the fact that the media is