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Ulf Johansson. Photo.

Ulf Johansson

Professor

Ulf Johansson. Photo.

Nerdery, Snobbery and Connoisseurship : Developing conceptual clarity within the area of refined consumption

Author

  • Carys Egan-Wyer
  • Sofia Ulver
  • Jon Bertilsson
  • Marcus Klasson
  • Ulf Johansson

Summary, in English

As consumers in Western consumer culture have increasingly turned from high cultural to low cultural consumption categories to cultivate themselves, the meanings of the traditional and socio-cultural concepts used to represent different forms of consumer expertise have been blurred or altered. Drawing upon sociocultural literature on taste and distinction we attempt to provide theoretical clarity to the concepts of connoisseurship, snobbery, and nerdery; concepts that are often used interchangeably and without rigor in both (contemporary) popular and academic discourse. The outcome of our conceptual analysis is concretised using a semiotic square to illustrate how the concepts differ from each other. Our analysis suggests that the democratisation of consumption through the imprinting of status meanings upon traditionally illegitimate cultural objects may lead to the “bastardisation” of taste regarding those same illegitimate cultural categories – a performance formerly restricted to high culture.

Department/s

  • Marketing

Publishing year

2014-06

Language

English

Document type

Conference paper

Topic

  • Business Administration

Conference name

Consumer Culture Theory

Conference date

2014-06-26 - 2014-06-29

Conference place

Helsinki, Finland

Status

Published