Performing the Self: identity, individualism and lifestyle Globalisation, Culture and Lifestyle Lecture XI Daniel Turner and Jenny Flinn
Lifestyle Warde (1994) – 5 uses of ‘lifestyle’ Market Research Characteristics of a social grouping Set of practices A life-project A set of ethics Stylization of everyday life (aesthetics) Style (consumer or resistant) The key currency of contemporary life (Cote, 1996) Pre-modern – human capital Modern – cultural capital Late-modern – identity capital
The Communicative Body The body as a canvas for communicative action (similar to consumption of goods/services/experiences) Performance of desired characteristics (lifestyle sports) Valorisation of ‘youth’ The body as a project (mental and physical)
The paradoxical self Appollo vs Dionysus ‘Hedonistic consumer’ (Clarke, 2003) vs Puritan desire for ‘discipline’, ‘control’ Pay on Sunday for Saturday’s excess? The cult of narcissism – public display of private withdrawal - but an inevitability of the society of the spectacle? Instant gratification – assisted via the market solution!