CONSUMPTION AS IDENTITY INVESTMENT IN THE CITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOEL STILLERMAN

Abstract

Joel Stillerman is Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University. Author of The Sociology of Consumption: A Global Approach (Polity, 2015) and Identity Investments: Middle-Class Responses to Precarious Privilege in Neoliberal Chile (Stanford University Press, 2023), he received the Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA) for his latest book. His research addresses labor and street vendor protests, consumer culture, and cultural capital in Chile. In this interview, Stillerman discusses the identity that arises through consumption choices in the city, and how consumers’ ethical resistance to various market-related situations is articulated today.