Working to Consume the Model Life: Consumer Agency Under Scarcity

Abstract

Prior research on consumer agency has tended to focus on contexts where there are few restrictions on the type or number of people who can consume a desired object, provided they have adequate resources. This study develops theoretical insights into the modes of consumer agency adopted by consumers who desire a commodity that is in scarce supply, and to which access is restricted by powerful agents. Based on interviews and archival data from the fashion modeling industry, and drawing on Bourdieu's praxeology, this paper identifies distinct modes of consumer agency that are manifest in a context characterized by enforced scarcity. Depending in part upon initial human capital endowments, in part upon conditions in the field, and in part upon deliberate choices, models adopt different modes of agency in order to survive, thrive in a highly restricted aesthetic field and ultimately consume the coveted good, which we refer to as the “model life.” This paper thus contributes not only to our understanding of consumer agency in an under-studied type of context, but also to our understanding of the seemingly burgeoning phenomena of the quest for fame, celebrity, and status.

Citation

Parmentier, M.-A. and Fischer, E. (2007), "Working to Consume the Model Life: Consumer Agency Under Scarcity", Belk, R.W. and Sherry, J.F. (Ed.) Consumer Culture Theory (Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 23-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2111(06)11002-9