What is it about?
We are clearly in a world suffused with consumer culture; and we are also -- even more clearly -- disenchanted with most aspects of it. In this paper, we explore the world beyond the consumer, the post-consumer subjectivity. This is the start of a long quest, and our paper is a first step, but we believe an important one. We hope to receive comments from thoughtful readers on how to advance the ideas presented here.
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Why is it important?
Many ideas similar to the construer -- the 'produser', the maker, etc. -- have been advanced in recent years. With this paper, we start providing an integrative theoretical frame. Much more work needs to happen, in theory and in practice, and we invite like-minded folks to help advance the construer idea(s).
Perspectives
Fuat and I have struggled with the underlying challenges of this paper for decades and with the specific 'construer' concept for about five years. With the publication of this paper, we hope to advance the discussion of these ideas; and in fact to work toward a world where the consumer subjectivity is but one of many; and a world were creative human energies are truly unshackled.
Dr Nikhilesh Dholakia
University of Rhode Island
The 'construer' is only one of the new constructs we have to generate in order to escape from historical baggage carried by constructs born from and used to have insights into past and passe orders of organizing life. To have a better understanding of the new and potential orders of organizing life we need new constructs that enable recognizing new and potential phenomena that otherwise remain hidden.
Dr. A Fuat FIRAT
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From consumer to construer: Travels in human subjectivity, Journal of Consumer Culture, January 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1469540515623605.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Google Scholar Page: Fuat FIRAT
Portal into this author's scholarly works.
Google Scholar Page: Nikhilesh Dholakia
Access this author's scholarly works via this portal.
ResearchGate: Nikhilesh Dholakia
Research portal where several published and working paper copies of papers are available.
ResearchGate: Pre-Pub of THISpaper
A pre-pub working paper copy is here.
ResearchGate: Fuat FIRAT
This portal provides many full text versions of this author's publications.
Axel Bruns: Produser concept
A cognate concept from the Media Studies field that is very closely related to the Construer concept.
Axel Bruns: Interview by Henry Jenkins
Transmedia guru Henry Jenkins interviews Axel Bruns, creator of the 'Produser' concept.
Axel Bruns: Rerview by Snurblog
Review and linkages to various works on Produser by Axel Bruns.
Maker Movement: Huff Post
A construer-style phenomenon, the 'maker movement' has swept America.
Maker Movement: Time magazine
Time magazine on the tinkerer-maker movement in America.
Maker Movement: New Yorker magazine
New Yorker magazine on the 'revolutionary' potential of the maker movement.
Maker Movement: Deloitte
Set of resources on the maker movement, at consulting firm Deloitte.
Maker Movement: Newsweek
Focuses on the impact of the maker movement on education.
Maker Movement: Recode
March-2016 update on how the maker movement is going mainstream.
J. van Dijk: Social media, UGC
In this scholar's extensive works on new media, there are some important pieces dealing with "user-generated content" (UGC), the produser idea, and more.
J. van Dijk: Review of Connectivity book
Brief but very useful review of the book "Culture of Connectivity" of author van Dijk, the first major critical (yet practice-rich) account of social media.
J. van Dijk: Another review of Connectivity book
Quote: "... the most startling problem that the book highlights is the difficulty of opting out of social media. Is it possible, the book asks, not to participate while simultaneously garnering digital literacy and critical thought about the historical present? ... [we are] at a moment in which the connectivity of social media feels ubiquitous and relational connectedness seems, sometimes, like a utopian aspiration or obsolete desire of a now-distant twentieth century."
George Kelly: The Original Construer?
Psychologist George Kelly, influential in multiple ways in social sciences, also developed the ideas of 'construing' in interesting ways.
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - A
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case A here...
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - B
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case B here... [Advocacy FOR the Gigs]
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - C
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case C here... [A strong critique from the Left]
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - D
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case D here... [Not that 'giggy' an economy, some data indicates]
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - E
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case E here... [Practical advice for 'giggers']
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - F
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case F here... [The F is a serendipitous mis-label here, this is an enthusiastic support of the gig economy]
Gig Economy: Construers or Conscripts? - G
Is the so-called Gig Economy creating opportunities for creative construers or merely conscripts for the network-owning mega-corporations? Case G here... [A balanced look?]
Postconsumers
Group created to help consumers move to the next stage of postconsumers... where satisfaction is the rule and the quest for ever-more is extinguished.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
