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Marketing Theory, Vol. 8, No. 3, 227-252 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1470593108093555

Weaving a web: subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television

Rohit Varman

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, rohit{at}iimcal.ac.in

Russell W. Belk

Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, r.belk{at}schulich.yorku.ca

Cultivation analysis suggests that television influences local cultures through its complex repertoire of images and narratives, which constitute a representation. Through a discursive analysis of television content in India we contend that rising material aspirations and consumer culture are significantly influenced by this medium. Dialectics of turmoil and tranquility mark this development for the working class population. On the one hand, there is domestication of unrest among subaltern groups, as they withdraw from collective political struggles to narrower and more tranquil forms of emulation and economism. On the other hand, these attempts at emulation have resulted in the poorer sections of society devoting their limited resources to aping a lifestyle well beyond their reach and further compromising their quality of life. The other pole of the dialectic is the increase in turmoil that results from tearing the traditional social fabric and support systems. This turmoil progressively manifests itself in increasing materialism and greater monetization of relationships for these subaltern groups.

Key Words: consumer culture • cultivation analysis • subaltern consumption • television


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