IMCA Research seminar- Thomas Derek Robinson - Bayes Business School

Abstract

Had It Happened Otherwise: Imagined Consumer Identities in Male Midlife Crisis

Consumer identity incorporates multiple interests, projects and lifestyles across, past, present, and future temporal orientations. The aim is to weave a cohesive narrative about the self. However, virtual time – a distinct form of time that is purely imagined and appears from playful, yet logical, if-then manipulations of past events – generates the potential for wistful extrapolation of alternate narratives about identity and paths not taken in life. Virtual time allows consumer identity work to draw on counterfactual reasoning to challenge assumptions about who we are in the market. In extension, this paper asks: What is the role of virtual time in consumer identity work? In-depth interviews with 40–60-year-old heterosexual, white-collar, British men (n=35) experiencing a midlife transition – or ‘midlife crisis’ – reveal three stages of what we term imaginary consumer identity work: 1) Temporal Breakdown, where a paradoxical escalation of social demands combined with personal stagnation catastrophically disrupts long lasting consumer identity projects and commitments towards the future; 2) Reassessment of the past through an explosion of counterfactual narratives in virtual time leading to the formation of imagined consumer identities that could have been, but never actually manifested. This process disrupts ontological anchoring of norms, taste, and sensemaking in the market; 3) Navigating an endurable future by importing imaginary consumer identities from alternate virtual timelines, leading to radical market digressions. The discussion of imaginary consumer identity suggests a fourth lateral temporal orientation beyond past, present, and future. This lateral temporal orientation reveals how consumers, in addition to narrative weaving, must also continuously negotiate and balance the demands from multiple imagined selves. This latter process provides a metaphorical loom upon which traditional narrative weaving depends.

Key words: Masculinity, Midlife, Identity, Temporality, Crisis, Narrative Weaving

Bio

Thomas Derek Robinson is a Senior Lecturer at Bayes Business School, City St.George University, London. His research focuses on understanding the role of time and technology in marketing and consumer behaviour. His research has explored the structuring effect of energy management in portable devices, legitimacy and institutions, sustainability, market crisis, sleep, nostalgia, and developing novel methods in marketing research. Often focusing on conceptual approaches, he has published in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Advertising. Thomas is the Associate Dean of Student Experience at Bayes Business School and has extensive experience managing student journey and designing service provision in Higher Education.