Since “norms” are subjective and dependent on a particular time, place, and culture, an interpretive approach is essential for understanding the nuances of this phenomenon based on lived experiences. Using interpretive lenses will allow you to better understand clothing consumption norms by determining commonalities of these experiences and perceptions within a particular group.
In qualitative research, interpretive approaches reject positivist outlooks, believing there is only one answer or objective truth. Instead, it believes in multiple truths made possible through a constructivist standpoint, and thus knowledge is dependent on how the observer constructs meaning. The concept of interpretivist is rooted in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy (German Idealist Tradition) as well as Edmund Husserl’s introduction of phenomenology, or the study of lived experiences and perceptions of a particular individual or group. Other interpretive research traditions include symbolic interaction (emphasis on linguistic and gestural communication), hermeneutics (theory and methods of interpretation, especially texts), dramaturgy or dramatism (interactions dependent on time, place, and audience), ethnomethodology (use of conversations and gestures to construct a common sense view), and ethnography (situated study of peoples and cultures), which has been used by many researchers to better understand consumption norms and the reasons why people choose to dress themselves in a certain way.
While exploring the resources below, try asking yourself these questions:
1. How do these works help to make consumption norms “visible” and provide meanings?
2. Is there a way to objectively observe consumption norms, or will it always be filtered through the researcher or writer’s own language, social class, race, etc.?
3. How does your own subjectivity affect how you read these works?
Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
McIntyre, M. P. (2019). Shame, blame, and passion: Affects of (un)sustainable wardrobes. Fashion Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1676506
Pellandini-Simányi, L. (2014). Consumption norms and everyday ethics. Palgrave Macmillan.
Venkatesh, A. (1995). “Ethnoconsumerism: A new paradigm to study cultural and cross-cultural consumer behavior” in Costa, J. A. and Bamossy, G.J. (eds) Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity, (pgs. 26–67) Thousand Oaks, Ca., Sage Publications, Inc. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228528725_Ethnoconsumerism_A_New_Paradigm_to_Study_Cultural_and_Cross-Cultural_Consumer_Behavior
Woodward, S. (2007). Why women wear what they wear (English ed., Materializing culture). Oxford; New York: Berg.
Zeynep, O.E., Atik, D., & Murray, J. B. (2020). The logic of sustainability: Institutional transformation towards a new culture of fashion. Journal of Marketing Management. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1795429
