Dept. of Marketing & Management

In this article we present an analysis of global youth cultural consumption based on a multisited empirical study of young consumers in Denmark and Greenland. We treat youth culture as a market ideology by tracing the emergence of youth culture in relation to marketing and how the ideology has glocalized. This transnational market ideology is manifested in the glocalization of three structures of common difference that organize our data: identity, center-periphery, and reference to youth cultural consumption styles. Our study goes beyond accounts of global homogenization and local appropriation by showing the glocal structural commonalities in diverse manifestations of youth culture.

We live in a time with increasing focus on the body and its perfection. The marketing environment is replete with products and services catering to the health, well-being, and beauty of bodies and, it is implied, of our souls. One of the more drastic and consequently also much debated and, at times, tabooed type of service and consumption within this field is cosmetic surgery. This article is based on interviews with 15 women who have had cosmetic operations. It examines what motivated their decision to have surgery; some of their thoughts and feelings before, during and after the process; and the ways in which the operation has influenced their life and self-identity subsequently. The material is analysed within a theoretical framework resting mainly on Anthony Giddens' work on self-identity in late modernity. This implies that cosmetic surgery is understood to be part of the individual's reflexive construction of self-identity, and leads to a focus on issues such as self-determination, self-esteem, and the relationship between body and identity. Finally, some relations between self-identity and the marketing institution are discussed. ᭧

In terms of consumer resistance and marketplace ideologies, consumer researchers have called for a more nuanced conceptualization of consumption moralism in order to avoid the simplistic trope of inside/outside the marketplace (e.g. Peñaloza and Price, 1993;. With the aim of contributing to this quest, this article brings together two originally separate ethnographic studies on food consumption and brands in Scandinavia in order to provide new insights regarding the increasingly complex arena of consumer morality. Instead of focusing on highly pronounced consumer resistance -such as activist communities or specific brand antagonists or protagonists -we focus on ordinary Scandinavian consumers whose identities are not centered around resisting the marketplace. Through a pluri-methodological combination of field observations, interviews, symbol elicitation, photo diaries and artefact collections, we propose an empirically informed model illustrating the paradox of ordinary consumers' brand resistance: embracing myths of craftsmanship. We show how ordinary middle-class consumers bridge 'bad' with 'good' brand consumption in various ways to legitimize the former, and how they make the evaluations according to traditional work ethics rather than (post)modern consumption ethics.

This paper proposes a framework of discourses regarding consumers' healthy eating as a useful conceptual scheme for market segmentation purposes. The objectives are: (a) to identify the appropriate number of health-related segments based on the underlying discursive subject positions of the framework, (b) to validate and further describe the segments based on their socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards healthy eating, and (c) to explore differences across segments in types of associations with food and health, as well as perceptions of food healthfulness.316 Danish consumers participated in a survey that included measures of the underlying subject positions of the proposed framework, followed by a word association task that aimed to explore types of associations with food and health, and perceptions of food healthfulness. A latent class clustering approach revealed three consumer segments: the Common, the Idealists and the Pragmatists. Based on the addressed objectives, differences across the segments are described and implications of findings are discussed.

(UWIC), is delighted to be holding the first research conference since the formation of the Institute of Consumer Sciences (ICSc) incorporating Home Economics. This professional body was formed by the amalgamation of the SCCS (Standing Conference in Consumer Studies), IHEc (Institute of Home Economics) and the UKHEF (United Kingdom Home Economics Federation) in 2000. Before this, 19 successful and enjoyable research conferences had been held in the UK, the last in 1999 in Belfast. Cardiff makes a fitting return to the international research in consumer science scene, as it is 21 years since it last hosted such a conference. The Institute and UWIC are pleased to acknowledge the sponsorship of the Welsh Development Agency, Food and Agri-Partnership, who are sponsoring the social activities and food during the conference.

This special issue explores the role of portion sizes in food consumption, and the ways in which portion sizes may be used to regulate or reduce consumption. The papers address three sub-themes: consumer responses to portion sizes, the effect of partitioning a portion, and portion size cognitions and perceptions. This collection of papers is offered to assist both researchers and practitioners better understand how portion size affects food consumption. More importantly, the papers are offered so as to encourage and enable marketers to contribute positively in the fight against the growing prevalence of obesity.