TY - JOUR

T1 - Product, Competence, Project and Practice DIY and the dynamics of craft consumption

AU - Watson, Matthew

AU - Shove, Elizabeth

PY - 2008/3

Y1 - 2008/3

N2 - Studies of ordinary (as distinct from spectacular) forms of consumption have generated new questions and new ways of thinking about mechanisms and processes of change and about the conceptual status of consumer goods. No longer exclusively framed as semiotic resources deployed in the expression and reproduction of identities and social relations, products are increasingly viewed as essential ingredients in the effective accomplishment of everyday life.In this article, we examine the recursive relation between products, projects and practices with reference to do-it-yourself (DIY) and home improvement - an important area of craft consumption and a field in which consumers are actively and creatively engaged in integrating and transforming complex arrays of material goods. Interviews with DIY practitioners and retailers point to a circuit of interdependent relations between the hardware of consumption (tools, materials, etc.); distributions of competence (between humans and non-humans); the emergence of consumer projects and, with them, new patterns of demand. In elaborating on these practical and theoretical linkages we develop an analysis of the material dynamics of craft consumption that bridges approaches rooted in science studies, material culture and consumption.

AB - Studies of ordinary (as distinct from spectacular) forms of consumption have generated new questions and new ways of thinking about mechanisms and processes of change and about the conceptual status of consumer goods. No longer exclusively framed as semiotic resources deployed in the expression and reproduction of identities and social relations, products are increasingly viewed as essential ingredients in the effective accomplishment of everyday life.In this article, we examine the recursive relation between products, projects and practices with reference to do-it-yourself (DIY) and home improvement - an important area of craft consumption and a field in which consumers are actively and creatively engaged in integrating and transforming complex arrays of material goods. Interviews with DIY practitioners and retailers point to a circuit of interdependent relations between the hardware of consumption (tools, materials, etc.); distributions of competence (between humans and non-humans); the emergence of consumer projects and, with them, new patterns of demand. In elaborating on these practical and theoretical linkages we develop an analysis of the material dynamics of craft consumption that bridges approaches rooted in science studies, material culture and consumption.

KW - home improvement

KW - materiality

KW - skill

KW - technology

U2 - 10.1177/1469540507085726

DO - 10.1177/1469540507085726

M3 - Journal article

VL - 8

SP - 69

EP - 89

JO - Journal of Consumer Culture

JF - Journal of Consumer Culture

SN - 1741-2900

IS - 1

ER -