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CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
to those in more urban areas in the Faroe
Islands.
Finally, to conduct child-centric research
on consumption specifícally (as well as
more general topics) would promote under-
standing of what it means to be a child grow-
ing up in the Faroe Islands. This means at-
tempting to understand how children in the
Faroe Islands relate to, understand and ap-
propriate consumption into theirworlds. By
furthering understanding of children’s
worlds adults can start to question the taken-
for-granted assumptions of children’s posi-
tion in the Faroese society.
Conclusion
It is clear that children are active construc-
tors of consumption meanings, yet the
meanings that children attribute to con-
sumption are diverse. In their cultures they
creatively appropriate these meanings into
their worlds and use them in identity con-
struction. Time, place and situation impacts
on whether consumer goods or indeed which
consumer goods are important/highly val-
ued by the children. Furthermore, social
context, age, gender and individual differ-
ences all account for the fluidity and change-
ability of meanings present in children’s cul-
tures of consumption. This leads us to the
conclusion that there are certain identities
which are more powerful than others and
therefore, more likely to impact on chil-
dren’s consumption.
The study provided evidence that chil-
dren are more competent as consumption in-
terpreters than previous literature would
suggest. Throughout the entire research
process it was clear that children were by
no means passive recipients of meanings
conveyed or “fed” to them through adver-
tising and other agents of socialization.
However, the manner in which children of
different ages used and constructed their
identities through consumption varied. In
other words, the significance of develop-
mental factors cannot be ignored - rather it
is obvious that children’s abilities cannot be
neatly categorised into stages, cognition and
age.
On another note, more research is nec-
essary which explores consumption in child-
hood from an ethnographic perspective - in
a range of social settings and different con-
texts. The fíndings from this study have re-
vealed that it is timely more research was
conducted from a child-centred perspective
- of which ethnography is an appropriate (al-
beit not the only) approach. Such micro-
analysis enables a gradual building of re-
curring pattems that emerge as signifícant
in children’s cultures of consumption and
provides a greater understanding of the dy-
namics and interactions that take place
amongst children.
References
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Archard, D. 1993. Children: Rights and Childhood,
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Aydt, H. and Corsaro, W.A. 2003. Differences in chil-
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Amerícan behavioural scientist, 46 (10): 1306-
1325.
Bannister, E.N. and Booth, G.J. 2005. Exploring in-
novative methodologies for child-centric con-
sumer research, Qualitative market research: An
internationaljournal, 8 (2): 157-175.
Bartholomew, A. and O’Donohoe, S. 2003. Every-
thing under control: A child’s eye view of adver-