© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.

© 2020 American Council on Consumer Interests In the poverty-ridden settings in neo-liberal India, we explore how subsistence consumers construct their quality-of-life (QOL). Drawing on the concepts of chronotope and futurization, we posit two additional dimensions of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL namely, chronotopefication and futurization. Our findings suggest that chronotopefication and futurization are defining processes of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL perceptions; their sacrifices, efforts, and costs, however painful they may be, would be perceived as QOL enhancing from the prism of chronotopefication and futurization; and subsistence consumers chronotopize and futurize QOL for the whole extended household within the intergenerational temporal space by focusing on stable input–outcome pathways. Based on the evidence, we propose QOL as chronotopefication and futurization framework (QOL-CFF). The framework suggests that subsistence consumers construct QOL as chronotope building, futurized and having a symbolic effect. They consider current agonies as a foundation for future building.

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.

© 2020 American Council on Consumer Interests In the poverty-ridden settings in neo-liberal India, we explore how subsistence consumers construct their quality-of-life (QOL). Drawing on the concepts of chronotope and futurization, we posit two additional dimensions of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL namely, chronotopefication and futurization. Our findings suggest that chronotopefication and futurization are defining processes of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL perceptions; their sacrifices, efforts, and costs, however painful they may be, would be perceived as QOL enhancing from the prism of chronotopefication and futurization; and subsistence consumers chronotopize and futurize QOL for the whole extended household within the intergenerational temporal space by focusing on stable input–outcome pathways. Based on the evidence, we propose QOL as chronotopefication and futurization framework (QOL-CFF). The framework suggests that subsistence consumers construct QOL as chronotope building, futurized and having a symbolic effect. They consider current agonies as a foundation for future building.