Consumption through an ideological lens an exploration of sustainable frames within the dominant social paradigm
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thesis
posted on 2017-05-19, 03:19authored byPhipps, Marcus James
This thesis investigates ideological change in Melbourne's household water marketplace.
Drawing from consumer culture theory, macromarketing, anti-consumption and social
marketing literature, the research explored a paradigm shift that occurred in how individuals
used and consumed water. Using a grounded theory approach, data collection involved
historic secondary sources, newspaper articles, Google Trends, photographs, field notes as
well as in-depth interviews with three groups of respondents. These respondents included
seven experts from the water industry, three innovator consumers who used minimal mains
water and 26 mainstream consumers who had made smaller but significant reductions in their
water consumption. Analysis used constant comparing and contrasting, with a number of
theories found to resonate with the developing frameworks. It emerged from the findings that
the dominant social paradigm of the marketplace inhibited the use of alternative water
sources to the mains water supply. However, severe drought was revealed to have provided a
significant shock to the marketplace, which had shifted this paradigm. A metaphoric analysis
enabled the research to uncover the innovators' cultural frames, and illustrated how the
individual barriers the innovators had encountered, led to these respondents seeking to
communicate solutions to the wider marketplace. Framing theory distilled how the
innovators' alternative ideological frames resonated with collectives of mainstream
consumers. From a macro perspective the findings illustrated how drought, law, education,
public discourse and marketing, contributed to a reduction in the average household water
consumption in Melbourne. The antecedents of the marketplace interplayed with one another
to enable and reinforce this change in the dominant social paradigm. Contributing to
transformative consumer research this study used theoretically driven research to solve
practical problems.