Consumer Timework

Abstract

This article unpacks time as a cultural consumption resource and introduces the concept of consumer timework. Consumer timework refers to marketplace stakeholders’ negotiation of competing interpretations of how the past and the future relate using a wide range of consumption objects and activities. Building on the theory of temporalization, we argue that social tensions, conflicts, and breaks drive the past and the future apart in multiple incompatible ways that individuals and societies must contend. We theorize four fundamental dynamics of consumer timework in which market stakeholders engage: integrative, disintegrative, subjugatory, and emancipatory. Integrative and disintegrative consumer timework respectively harmonize and rupture the multiple temporal orientations (past, present, and future) to create shared communities or counter-communities of time through consumption. Subjugatory and emancipatory consumer timework respectively enforce and disrupt temporal hierarchies of power through consumption. We delineate these temporal dynamics using examples from extant consumer research. We conclude by establishing a future research agenda on consumer timework.

Mundane emotions: Losing yourself in boredom, time and technology

“…The concept of boredom serves as an all-purpose register of inadequacy’. But as much as individualisation places focus on the inadequacies of our ‘inner lives’, research points to how standardisation and spatial and temporal homogenisation also leaves consumers disinterested by their routines and the general ‘sameness’ of contemporary life (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019; Scott et al, 2017; Robinson et al, 2021; Rosa, 2013; Thompson, 1996) And finally, studies investigating the nature of the digital age (Kozinets, 2008) alert us to the potential that modern technology can ‘displace established traditions and meaningful practices’ (Belk et al, 2021: 39), reflecting literature that critiques modern screen-based technology as encouraging a passive relationship to culture (Hand, 2017; Svendsen, 2005; Turkle, 2015)…”

“…As a result of the relation between boredom and time, we also situate our analysis within marketing and consumer research that explores temporality (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019; Robinson et al, 2021; Woermann and Rokka, 2015). Central to our analysis is the idea that time is a resource that individuals have, to which they can allocate specific activities (Festjens and Janiszewski, 2015; Robinson, et al, 2021).…”

“…As a result of the relation between boredom and time, we also situate our analysis within marketing and consumer research that explores temporality (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019; Robinson et al, 2021; Woermann and Rokka, 2015). Central to our analysis is the idea that time is a resource that individuals have, to which they can allocate specific activities (Festjens and Janiszewski, 2015; Robinson, et al, 2021). However, how consumers plan their lives, allocate activities to chunks of time, is determined by the temporal demands of work, family life, childcare, and public transport schedules, and so on (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019; Robinson, et al, 2021; Thompson, 1996).…”

“…Central to our analysis is the idea that time is a resource that individuals have, to which they can allocate specific activities (Festjens and Janiszewski, 2015; Robinson, et al, 2021). However, how consumers plan their lives, allocate activities to chunks of time, is determined by the temporal demands of work, family life, childcare, and public transport schedules, and so on (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019; Robinson, et al, 2021; Thompson, 1996). This research highlights how the length and sequence of daily tasks are never something people have choice over (Rosa, 2013), but are instead prescribed by ‘temporal regimes’, or the ‘socio-historical forms by which time is materialised, organised and distributed’ (Torres, 2021: 35).…”

Uncertain consumption practices in an uncertain future

“…In the middle of this complex scenario, many of us questioned the very notion of time and, perhaps, more than ever, felt its relativity (Robinson, Veresiu, & Rosario, 2022). The time spent with our beloved ones may be too short for life is unpredictable, so is the coronavirus (Losada-Baltar et al, 2021).…”