‘If I could, I would’: Desire Among Low Capital Consumers

Abstract

This interpretive research studies consumer desire in low cultural capital consumers. Previous studies on the practices and decision-making processes of these consumers described functional tastes for the necessary due to a culturally shaped habitus. In depth interviews focused on desires revealed three key findings.  Participants had sophisticated tastes that directly contrasted to their cultural capital and actualised consumption. They were willing to commit to the act of self-seduction, even when hope of completing consumption was slim to non-existent. Finally, desires were influenced by the portrayal of goods and lifestyles in the media more so than the desire to compete with the socially elite, as previous studies have argued. Desires were not framed by cultural capital or habitus; participants were simply unable to actualise desires due to economic limitations. This inability to recreate desired lifestyles resulted in a frustration between actual and desired consumption.