Faces of the New Consumer: A Genesis of Consumer Governmentality

Abstract

This paper is less concerned with discussing the reality of the new consumer than in discovering how researchers and consultants construct this through their marketing discourses. A genealogical approach uncovers the three major faces of the new consumer that have emerged over the past twenty years: individualistic consumers in the early 1990s; hedonistic consumers at the turn of the millennium; and creative consumers in the mid-2000s. The paper then shows how these faces interact within a consumer competency structure in which individualistic dialogue competencies combine with hedonistic play competencies and creative resource integration competencies. The conclusion focuses on the existence within these different marketing discourses of a governmental process pressuring today's citizens to see and think of themselves first and foremost as consumers.