Desafiando conceptualizaciones clásicas sobre el lujo: una visión disruptiva en la sociedad de consumo contemporánea = Challenging classic conceptualizations of luxury: disruptive perspectives in contemporary consumer culture

Abstract

The aim of this doctoral research is to explore the meaning of luxury in contemporary consumer society. This investigation departs from traditional approaches to the study of luxury focusing on luxury goods and luxury brands by o ering new socially constructed notions of luxury connected to philanthropic giving and freedom. In order to investigate the phenomenon of luxury from a consumer perspective, a phenomenological research approach was applied. In particular, consumers’ multifaceted constructions of luxury were elicited by means of phenomenological interviews in a multisited empirical eld covering four European capital cities: Stockholm, London, Berlin, and Madrid. The ndings show that philanthropic giving may be perceived as luxury when giving triggers signi cant transformations of non-related others (outward transformations), transforms the sense of self in relation to others (onward transformations), elevates the status of the self (upward transformations), and ultimately, transforms the self (inner transformations). In addition, this research argues that consumers may place luxury in the realm of freedom, whether in terms of liberation (freedom from), license (freedom to) or both. Furthermore, it illustrates that some possessions hold the power of providing consumers with both freedom and slavery. These contributions extend the traditional conceptualizations of luxury as inextricably bound up to having, by arguing that luxury can also be embedded in rationales of sharing out and being free. In addition, the ndings highlight that transformational value is germane to the disruptive views of luxury presented in this research and that meaningfulness permeates the consumers’ discourses of luxury as philanthropic giving and freedom.