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Luxury consumption as identity markers in Tallinn: A study of Russian and Estonian everyday identity construction through consumer citizenship

Polese, Abel and Seliverstova, Oleksandra (2019) Luxury consumption as identity markers in Tallinn: A study of Russian and Estonian everyday identity construction through consumer citizenship. Journal of Consumer Culture, 20 (2). ISSN 1741-2900

Abstract
While the importance of consumption of luxury goods as a mechanism accompanying upwards movement in a social hierarchy has been well acknowledged, attention to the role and perceptions of luxury in multicultural societies has been scarce so far. It is nonetheless intriguing that ethnic groups inhabiting the same territory, and exposed to a same culture, might develop substantially different notions of luxury, which may end up affecting the integration, or isolation, of one of the groups. Our article addresses this deficiency in the literature by exploring the case of Estonia, a multi-ethnic society where Russians make up almost one-fourth of the population. Much has been written about the integration, and lack thereof, of ethnic Russians into Estonian society. We contrast these views by looking at inter-ethnic relations in the country from a different angle and by a) looking at consumption of luxury in the country through the concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’; b) endorsing Foster’s concept of consumer citizenship. This allows us to shed light on an under-explored tendency and maintain here that, in a significant number of cases, ordinary citizens challenge official identity narratives by the state through counter-narratives centred around consumption of luxury at the everyday level. The identified counter-narratives end up translating into (consumer behaviour)
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Consumer citizenship, Estonia, identity, Russians, luxury
Subjects:Social Sciences > Geography
Social Sciences > Political science
Social Sciences > Sociology
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Publisher:Sage Publications Ltd.
Official URL:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/146954051...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:31820
Deposited On:11 Nov 2025 14:49 by Abel Polese . Last Modified 11 Nov 2025 14:49
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