Os pobres e o consumo: uma teoria substantiva da experiência de consumo de eletrônicos

Abstract

As the studies which examine the experience of consumption from a social perspective are incipient, and coupled with the perception that little research has been done on low-income, urban consumers, the general objective of this work was to investigate the interaction of the experiences of consumption of electronics by low-income consumers with the cultural and symbolic system involved in the flow of everyday social life. Through an interpretative and constructivist research approach and based on a three movement epistemological-methodological outline in which are joined together phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory this qualitative research attempted to discover how low-income consumers from one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city of Belo Horizonte experience consumption of electronic goods, from a symbolic and socially-constructed perspective. To this end, the research, which was inspired by ethnography in order to assess the consumers day-to-day in their natural setting, was carried out by way of in-depth interviews, observations, and field notes. The empirical data were submitted to content analysis. With the intention of going beyond description, a substantive theory was developed by way of constructivist grounded theory, as proposed by Strauss and Corbin (2008) and Charmaz (2006). The substantive theory which was generated revealed an intense relationship between the cultural and symbolic system and the experience of consumption of electronic goods of the investigated low-income consumers. Because of the strong symbolic appeal of electronic goods, the choice of Symbolic Questions as the central category of this study was deemed appropriate. Nevertheless, various other categories emerged in this study and contributed to explain this phenomenon: identification with the neighborhood, violence and drug dealing, social influence, the role of relationships, sharing of objects and spaces, possession and use of electronic goods as a distinction. For the elaboration of the theory, the categories of electronics purchase, buying experiences, dilemmas of up-front and installment payment methods, use of credit, low-income consumer perception, and consumption desires were also important. These results based on the elaboration of a substantive theory are expected to contribute to filling in the literature gaps on the relationship between consumption experiences and poor consumers.