Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-213). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-213). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis, and Business Law. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jeanne Heitmeyer, Florida State University, College of Human Sciences, Dept. of Textiles and Consumer Sciences. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 14, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 122 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This interpretive consumer research study interrogates the idea that people turn to consumption as a means of self-determination. Proceeding from the understanding that the consumer enacts the development of their identity within the marketplace, it takes as its subject those in transition. Its context is a support group community of people brought together by an illness - multiple myeloma. Here, through a phenomenological approach designed to explore the lived experience of illness, the thesis discovers community to be the enabling context for the consumer’s negotiation of both selfhood and the market. Conclusions are drawn about the incremental, complex nature of identity work, and the collective practices that empower it. It is found that the marketplace requires significant mediation, but that the social resources of the community can equip the consumer to navigate its challenges. This transformation is manifested in the newly-diagnosed patient’s journey from dislocation and passivity to the empowered status of ‘skilled consumer’. The importance of the often-overlooked emotional texture of exchange within consumption communities is highlighted. In conclusion, it is offered that this study extends the concept of communities of practice into the field of consumption.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, 2008. / Thesis by publication. Bibliography: leaves 124-133.