Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Market Wonderland: An Essay about a Statist Individualist Consumer Culture

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Nordic Consumer Culture

Abstract

In this essay I reflect on myths and movements in Swedish consumer culture through the culture-historical theoretical lens of Berggren and Trägårdh’s (2015) statist individualism, a concept holding that Sweden is a paradoxical nexus of historically taught independence from other individuals, state dependency, and elitarian equality. What does a consumer culture in such a statist individualist context typically harness, celebrate, and encourage, and why does it thrive? I discuss specific consumer cultural trends from the literature-historical and socio-political perspective of Berggren and Trägårdh, and come to the conclusion that few other socio-political and culture-historical contexts could probably be as sensitive to market-mediated trends and consumer culture as that of Sweden.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Trigger warning for sensitive readers! “Trend” is often used by pop management consultants for commercial purposes, but is here reappropriated.

References

  • Arsel, Z., & Bean, J. (2012). Taste Regimes and Market-Mediated Practice. Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 899–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arvidsson, A., & Caliandro, A. (2015). Brand Public. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(5), 727–748.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Askegaard, S., & Linnet, J. T. (2011). Towards an Epistemology of Consumer Culture Theory: Phenomenology and the Context of Context. Marketing Theory, 11(4), 381–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. W., & Costa, J. A. (1998). The Mountain Man Myth: A Contemporary Consumer Fantasy. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(3), 218–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berggren, H., & Trägårdh, L. (2015). Är Svensken Människa? Gemenskap och oberoende i det moderna Sverige. Stockholm: Norstedts Förlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booth, M. (2014, January 27). Dark Lands: The Grim Truth About the ‘Scandinavian Miracle’. The Guardian, Online. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-miracle-brutal-truth-denmark-norway-sweden.

  • Booth, M., Price, A., Bolsø, A., Bergmann, E., Stubb, A., & Trägårdh, L. (2014, February 5). The Grim Truth Behind the ‘Scandinavian Miracle’ – The Nations Respond. The Guardian, Online. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-miracle-denmark-finland-iceland-norway-sweden.

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrkjeflot, H. (2001). The Democratic Challenge to Capitalism: Management and Democracy in the Nordic Countries (H. Byrkjeflot, S. Myklebust, C. Myrvack, & F. Seijersted, Eds.). Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cederström, C., & Thanem, T. (2018, March). The Swedish CEO Who Runs His Company Like a Cross-Fit Gym. Harvard Business Review, Online. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-swedish-ceo-who-runs-his-company-like-a-crossfit-gym.

  • Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egan-Wyer, C. (forthcoming). PhD Thesis in Progress, Lund University Press, Lund, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frykman, J., & Löfgren, O. (1987). Culture Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle-Class Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuentes, M. (2016). Hemmets kommersialisering driver inredningskonsumtionen. In M. Roos (Ed.), Konsumtionsrapporten 2016 (pp. 41–52). Gothenburg: Göteborgs Universitet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gullestad, M. (1997). The Home as an Expressive Statement. In H. Mackey (Ed.), Consumption and Everyday Life. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, D. B. (1998). Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption? Journal of Consumer Research, 25(1), 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holt, B. D., & Thompson, C. J. (2004). Man-of-Action Heroes: The Pursuit of Heroic Masculinity in Everyday Consumption. The Journal of Consumer Research, 31(2), 425–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Illouz, E. (2007). Cold Intimacies – The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Itu, A. (2018, September). Talent in the Land of Fire & Ice – What Makes the Icelandic Athletes So Good? Boxrox, Online. Retrieved from https://www.boxrox.com/crossfit-strongman-icelandic-athletes/.

  • Johansson, J. (2017). Sweat Is Weakness Leaving the Body – A Study of the Self-Presentational Practices of Sporty Top Managers in Sweden. PhD Dissertation, Department of Business Administration, Stockholm University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. (2010). Foodies. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klasson, M., & Ulver, S. (2015). Masculinising Domesticity: An Investigation of Men’s Domestic Foodwork. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(15–16), 1652–1675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leer, J. (2016). The Rise and Fall of the New Nordic Cuisine. Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 8(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maliranta, M., Määttänen, N., & Vihrlälä, V. (2012). Are the Nordic Countries Really Less Innovative than the US? VOX, CEPRS Portal Online. Retrieved from https://voxeu.org/article/nordic-innovation-cuddly-capitalism-really-less-innovative.

  • McCracken, G. (1989). ‘Homeyness’: A Cultural Account of One Constellation of Consumer Goods and Meanings. In E. C. Hirschman (Ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research (pp. 168–183). Provo, UT: Association of Consumer Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moynihan, M. (2016, July 8). Stockholm Syndrome. The Wall Street Journal, Online. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/stockholm-syndrome-1468008681.

  • Muniz, A. M., & O’Guinn, T. (2001). Brand Community. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4), 412–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuman, N. (2016). Stories of Masculinity, Gender Equality, and Culinary Progress: On Foodwork, Cooking, and Men in Sweden. PhD Dissertation, Uppsala University, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Östberg, J. (2005). The Linking Value of Subcultural Capital: Constructing the Stockholm Brat Enclave. In B. Cova, R. V. Kozinets, & A. Shankar (Eds.), Consumer Tribes (Vol. 2007, pp. 93–107). Oxford: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Partanen, A. (2016). The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, R., Cayla, J., & Cova, B. (2017). Selling Pain to the Saturated Self. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(1), 22–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statistiska Centralbyrån. (2010). Tätorter 2010 Befolkningsstruktur-Befolkning, ålder och kön.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver-Sneistrup, S. (2008). Status Spotting – A Consumer Cultural Exploration into Ordinary Status Consumption of the “Home” and Home Aesthetics. PhD Dissertation, Lund Business Press, Institute of Economic Research, Lund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver, S. (2015). Encouraged Intrusion and the Entering of a Subordinate Consumption Field – Exploring Changing Gender Distinctions in the Foodie Consumer Culture. NA – Advances in Consumer Research, 43, 415–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver, S. (2017). Restaurangens nya guldålder. In M. Roos (Ed.), Konsumtionsrapporten 2017 (pp. 31–46). Gothenburg: Göteborgs Universitet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver, S. (2019, January). From Mundane to Socially Significant Consumption: An Analysis of How Foodie Identity Work Spurs Market Formation. Journal of Macromarketing, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver, S., & Klasson, M. (2018). Social Magic for Dinner? The Taste Script and Shaping of Foodieness in Netflix’s Chef’s Table. In Z. Arsel & J. Bean (Eds.), Taste, Consumption and Markets: An Interdisciplinary Volume. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulver-Sneistrup, S., Askegaard, S., & Kristensen, D. B. (2011). The New Work Ethics of Consumption and the Paradox of Mundane Brand Resistance. Journal of Consumer Culture, 11, 215–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unicorn Articles. Retrieved from https://techsavvy.media/in-the-north-everyone-lacks-behind-swedish-fintech/; http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-stockholm-became-a-unicorn-factory/.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Sofia Ulver

Authors
  1. Sofia Ulver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sofia Ulver .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Søren Askegaard

  2. Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jacob Östberg

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ulver, S. (2019). Market Wonderland: An Essay about a Statist Individualist Consumer Culture. In: Askegaard, S., Östberg, J. (eds) Nordic Consumer Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04933-1_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation