This dissertation combines an assemblage theory ontology of urban sociology with the concept of Bauman's 'liquid modernity' (2000, 2012). It subsequently incorporates the nascent "liquid" constructs of liquid retail, liquid legitimacy, and liquid community to analyze consumers, community, and retailscapes in a violent and impoverished inner city area that has experienced constant and dramatic change. Through this lens, ethnographic fieldwork reveals a construct called consumption lifelines, which explains how consumers and communities use market-facing resources to find and create relative stability in the midst of turbulence, whether they choose to enter, stay in or leave a highly territorialized community with contested boundaries. The study adds complexity to Bauman's concept of liquidity and the construct of urban assemblages, and it has implications for other inner city communities that are similarly affected by changing times and challenging circumstances.

The study aims to gain insights on whether the use of online resale platforms alter the relationship that consumers have with their clothes and how that - as a consequence - leads to a changed consumption pattern. With the awareness of the significance of resale, potentially causing wide-scale industrial changes, the aim is also to examine the possible environmental effects resale can have. In seeking to explain this phenomena, this study undertakes a qualitative research strategy with an abductive approach. The primary data consists of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with respondents from a younger consumer group who are or have been frequent users of online resale platforms and holds a noticeable interest in fashion. A thematic analysis was then conducted as a framework to analyse the interview data, resulting in a structure of first order and second order concepts as themes. The findings indicate that the use of resale platforms enables the consumer to engage with garments at a higher level of pace, quantity, and variety. The convenience with which the user can purchase and dispose of garments causes a continuous inflow and outflow of clothes. This - consequently - may call attention to the possible negative environmental effects resale platforms may lead to. This study adds value to the intersection of fields concerning fashion consumption and sustainability.

La liminalité est classiquement définie comme un état de transition entre et entre-deux positions sociales. Ce concept fondamental dans la recherche en marketing est utilisé pour explorer les transitions de vie des consommateurs, les rituels de consommation, et les expériences de marché extraordinaires. Cette thèse évalue la théorisation de la liminalité, identifie des hypothèses insuffisantes dans son traitement actuel et propose des outils conceptuels pour avancer sa théorisation à l’ère de la modernité liquide en étudiant deux modes de vie contemporains qui marient contingence, incertitude et ambiguïté. Le premier essai est un article conceptuel qui réexamine le traitement de la liminalité dans la recherche sur le comportement du consommateur. Contestant l’hypothèse d’unidimensionnalité, deux formes distinctes, la liminalité transformationnelle et la liminoïdité, sont identifiées. A l'inverse du traitement laudatif usuel, les dangers de la liminalité, lorsqu’elle fait partie d’une transition dépourvue de sens, sont soulignées. Cet essai contribue à la littérature en résolvant des ambiguïtés définitionnelles, en soulignant les limites du concept et en indiquant des directions de future recherche. Le deuxième essai étudie le mode de vie flexible, défini comme la tendance à embrasser à dessein l’instabilité, le changement et l’adaptabilité dans l’ensemble de sa vie via la précarité professionnelle. En mêlant entretiens longs, techniques projectives et observations participantes, cet essai interroge la façon dont les diverses et fréquentes transitions qui caractérisent le mode de vie flexible sont gérées par les consommateurs. S’écartant de la littérature existante, cet essai contribue à la recherche sur la liminalité des consommateurs en illustrant que la liminalité permanente est insoutenable pour les individus, qui ont besoin d’être libérés de la pression écrasante de sa poursuite. De plus, le capital de flexibilité est identifié comme ce qui leur permet d’accomplir avec succès ce mode de vie et ainsi de créer une échappatoire à la structure sociale qui, sinon, les contraindrait à des positions dominées. Le troisième essai étudie le parcours liminal des consommateurs qui traversent des transitions interculturelles répétées. Des entretiens en autodriving et longs explorent la mobilité ouverte, un type de mobilité internationale caractérisée par une forte incertitude quant à la durée du séjour à l’étranger et à la prochaine destination. Le parcours liminal des consommateurs les expose à un risque de déracinement et de perte de soi qui doivent être compensés par une consommation solide, ancrant le récit identitaire des consommateurs dans des expériences de consommation cristallisées, des objets matériels et des marques symboliques. / Consumer liminality is a vital concept in marketing research, usually defined as a transitional state of betwixt and between social positions. It enlightens life transitions, extraordinary experiences, and consumption rituals. This dissertation assesses the conceptualization of consumer liminality and advances its theorization in liquid modernity by exploring contemporary consumer lifestyles which embrace contingency, uncertainty, and ambiguity. The first essay conceptually reexamines the treatment of liminality in consumer research. I identify two distinct forms, transformational liminality and liminoidity, thus challenging the unidimensionality assumption. Countering its celebratory treatment, I highlight the dangers of liminality when it is part of a meaningless transition. This essay contributes to the literature by resolving definitional ambiguities, outlining the concept’s scope, and delineating research directions. The second essay explores the flexible consumer lifestyle, defined as purposefully embracing instability, change, and adaptability in every aspect of life through professional precariousness. Using a combination of long interviews, projective techniques, and participant observation, I question how the frequent life transitions which characterize the flexible lifestyle and could be conceptualized as an experience of permanent liminality, are handled by consumers. Departing from prior literature, this essay contributes to consumer research on liminality by illustrating that permanent liminality is unsustainable for individuals, who need a release from the overwhelming pressures of its pursuit. Further, I identify flexibility capital as what enables consumers to perform successfully this lifestyle and thus, create an escape from the social structure which otherwise compels them to dominated precarious positions. The third essay studies the liminal consumer journeys of consumers who experience repeated cross-cultural transitions. I combine autodriving and long interviews to explore open-ended mobility, a type of international mobility characterized by a high uncertainty regarding the duration of the stay abroad and the next destination. This essay contributes by emphasizing liminal dangers. I identify that liminal consumer journeys put consumers at risk of rootlessness and self-loss and must be compensated by solidifying consumption, which anchors consumers’ identity narratives in crystallized consumption experiences, material objects, and symbolic brands.

Submitted by WEBERT JANNSEN PIRES DE SANTANA (webertjannsen@gmail.com) on 2018-03-24T15:21:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação+ficha.pdf: 1239132 bytes, checksum: 5157f4c103e0f21c7c426ef9a832e972 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Nunes Ferreira (debora.nunes@fgv.br) on 2018-03-27T18:46:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação+ficha.pdf: 1239132 bytes, checksum: 5157f4c103e0f21c7c426ef9a832e972 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-03-28T14:07:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação+ficha.pdf: 1239132 bytes, checksum: 5157f4c103e0f21c7c426ef9a832e972 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-28T14:07:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação+ficha.pdf: 1239132 bytes, checksum: 5157f4c103e0f21c7c426ef9a832e972 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-27 / Based on an interpretive approach, it was used the ethnographic methods of ‘following the thing’ and ‘following the people’ to track the movements of consumers and objects during a Catholic pilgrimage in the Northeast Region of Brazil. The findings revealed a system of movement of artefacts that exemplifies how pilgrims use their liquid and solid attachments to objects to relate to God and to saints on four types of itinerary: (1) objects taken to the sacred site; (2) objects used at the sacred site; (3) objects taken back to the pilgrim’s home; and (4) objects taken to the sacred site and then taken back to the pilgrim’s home. The findings have implications for the concepts of solid and liquid attachment in consumption during the movements of pilgrimage / Com base em uma perspectiva interpretativista, foi utilizada uma abordagem etnográfica para investigar o contexto de uma romaria católica no Nordeste do Brasil. Encontrou-se um sistema de movimento de artefatos que destaca como os romeiros usam attachment líquido e sólido aos objetos para se relacionarem com Deus e santos em quatro tipos de itinerários: (1) objetos que vão ao local sagrado; (2) objetos usados no local sagrado; (3) objetos que voltam para a cidade do romeiro; (4) objetos que vão para o local sagrado e voltam para a cidade do romeiro. Os resultados têm implicações sobre o conceito de attachment líquido e sólido no consumo durante os movimentos da romaria.