Moral Habitus and Status Negotiation in a Marginalized Working-Class Neighborhood

2013/07/02 by Bige Saatcioglu, Bige Saatçioğlu, Julie L. Ozanne · 157 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Conceptualization #Context (archaeology) #Culinary Culture and Tourism #Cultural capital #Foregrounding #Gender studies #Geography #Habitus #Identity (music) #Negotiation #Psychology #Social and Cultural Dynamics #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology #Wine Industry and Tourism

paper · doi:10.1086/671794

published in Journal of Consumer Research 40(4), 692-710 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 2013/07/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Examinations of the moral and ethical dimensions in identity construction are scant in consumer research. This ethnography of a trailer-park neighborhood investigates how different moral dispositions shape low-income, working-class residents' consumption practices and status negotiations. Drawing from Bourdieu's conceptualization of habitus and cultural capital, the authors extend this theory by foregrounding the moral aspects of habitus and demonstrate how morally oriented worldviews are enacted through consumption practices and social evaluations within everyday communities. The study reveals five moral identities that shape the residents' social construction of status within the microcultural context of a trailer park. These findings point to the multiplicity and richness of social-class-based dispositions as well as the importance of studying micro-level contexts to better understand macrodynamics.

Citations

• On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology
• Toward a Theory of Consumer Choice as Sociohistorically Shaped Practical Experience: The Fits‐Like‐a‐Glove (FLAG) Framework
• 13 "DOES CULTURAL CAPITAL STRUCTURE AMERICAN CONSUMPTION?" (1998)

Cited by

• Space as a Resource in the Politics of Consumer Identity
• Alice in Wonderland: Consumer Peril in Navigating the Antipoverty Service Ecosystem
• Identity Management as a Coping Strategy for Stigmatization: The Case of Indian Sex Workers in a Libidinal Market
• Moralizing Everyday Consumption: The Case of Self-Care
• Rethinking scarcity and poverty: Building bridges for shared insight and impact
• A Tutorial in Consumer Research: Process Theorization in Cultural Consumer Research

Related

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• A Will to Interpret: Embodied Moral Reflexivity Under Misrecognition
• Recognizing Moral Identity as a Cultural Construct
• Intersectionality and the role of place in ethnographic research on informal recyclers’ livelihoods
• Open Forum: Factors and Ethical Values that Foster a Sense of Belonging Toward the Host Society: The Case of South Asian Communities in Montreal’s Parc-Extension Neighbourhood (Canada)