Chaosmosis: French Thought Styles and the Possible Reactivation of Consumer Culture Theory

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the work of leading French and emerging French social scientists, this paper attempts to reactivate the field of Consumer Culture Theory throughout the proposal of alternative notional tools.

Methodology/approach

This paper takes a conceptual orientation that is based on the selection and organization of concepts, methodologies, and insights borrowed from French philosophers and social scientists.

Findings

The paper first points out the various French thought styles. Next, it highlights key intellectual ideas in French intellectual tradition that have arisen over the last 30 years and promote their implications for possible future researches on consumption and for a better political activism which would give more voice to consumption studies.

Originality/value

The paper attempts to categorize with a semiotic methodology, the panorama of French thought styles and proposes new concepts and angles to refound the analysis of consumption. Based on the questioning on common categories of CCT, it proposes original ideas, methods, and concepts borrowed from the French tradition to break up conventional and ethnocentric approaches by considering consumption beyond the sheer notion of culture.

Citation

Heilbrunn, B. (2015), "Chaosmosis: French Thought Styles and the Possible Reactivation of Consumer Culture Theory", Consumer Culture Theory (Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-211120150000017002