Army wives’ consumer vulnerability and communities of coping

Abstract

Purpose The spouses or partners of serving members of the UK Armed Forces are often subject to similar constraints to those of enlisted personnel. This paper aims to examine the experiences and wellbeing of a group of army wives. In particular, it focuses on their shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and related challenges, exploring the extent to which membership of military wives’ communities can help them to cope. Design/methodology/approach Using an interpretivist approach, data were collected through four focus group discussions involving 30 army wives, and seven individual in-depth interviews. Findings The paper highlights shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and demonstrates how army wives’ approaches to coping incorporate both individual and community-based approaches. It proposes that communities of coping develop within the army wives community, providing women with both practical and emotional support. Research limitations/implications The paper acknowledges that there is a range of factors that will impact military spouses’ experiences of consumer vulnerability and strategies for coping. This heterogeneity was difficult to capture within a small exploratory study. Practical implications The UK Government should consider their duties towards military spouses and children. This would entail a significant cultural shift and recognition of military personnel’s caring responsibilities. Originality/value This research contributes to understandings regarding the potentially shared nature of both consumer vulnerability and coping strategies. The study introduces the relevance of communities of coping to consumer contexts, highlighting how members can benefit from both practical and emotional support.

Coping with Coping: International Migrants’ Experiences of the Covid‐19 Lockdown in the UK

“…Findings show how initial coping strategies were enacted to solve anxieties caused by the crisis. Findings confirm previous works (Baker and Baker, 2016;Bruce and Banister, 2019) showing that individual coping strategies are relational because coping for the self is in relation to household members, neighbours and distant others (from the community of migrants in the UK, to the family in the home country). In fact, there are constant interactions and negotiations of coping strategies between the individual, household and community levels.…”

“…While previous works on communities of coping are often conducted in the work environment (Jiang and Korczynski, 2016;Tervonen and Enache, 2017), our findings reveal that during a crisis situation, collective coping strategies at the community level are also enacted outside of work. In contributing to the growing number of studies advocating for a contextual and collective understanding of coping (Bruce and Banister, 2019;Szmigin et al, 2020), we show how complex coping strategies materialize via consumer practices, where individual aims are intertwined with collective ones.…”

“…Others have also shown the existence of communal coping strategies where community members adopt strategies incorporating both individual and more collective approaches to their daily enactments of coping (Baker and Baker, 2016). Such approaches provide members with practical and emotional support which make their networks a community of coping, in which relational strategies become very effective at individual and collective levels (Bruce and Banister, 2019). This seems to be echoed by studies showing how community support is key in strengthening the coping strategies of migrants, who have been victims of racism (Jiang and Korczynski, 2016;Mak and Nesdale, 2001;Tervonen and Enache, 2017).…”

Social media discussion forums, home country and immigrant consumer acculturation: the case of Iranian immigrants in Australia

“…Expressing and reflecting on the experiences of related challenges can be used by consumers as coping strategies for dealing with various forms of challenges (Bruce and Banister, 2019; Dietrich et al , 2017). This social media platform provides immigrant users with a social space in which they can reflect and communicate their experiences with other immigrant users who may share such experiences, and with non-immigrant users who are eager to know about life in Australia.…”

Guest editorial

“…This research has greatly contributed to an understanding of family and consumption and to broader debates on consumption by rebalancing the notions of “rational consumers”, “happy consumers” and lately “reasoned consumers”. Combining interpretive methodologies with theoretical concepts including self-sacrifice, sharing and parental devotion but also marginality and exclusion, these studies have shown the political implications of the interpretive turn (Bruce and Banister, 2019; Cappellini et al , 2019; Hamilton, 2009; Hutton, 2019; Lindridge et al , 2004). Indeed, they have shown the importance of reflexivity by bringing to light the varieties of injustice in the marketplace, particularly around experiences of exclusions and marginalities.…”