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ABSTRACT
‘Prepping’ – the storing of food, water and weapons as well as the development of self-sufficiency skills for the purpose of independently surviving disasters – is an emerging market as well as an expression of generalised anxiety about existential threats (e.g. technological collapse and catastrophic climate change). Whilst accounts of eccentric prepping are common in mainstream media, there is little empirical investigation into how consumers imagine and prepare for a temporary or permanent halt to functioning market systems, and with it, a consumer society. A netnography of European preppers reveals prepping to be an anticipatory mode of practicing for a post-market, post-consumer society before it becomes a reality. We find that preparation is a struggle for cognitive legitimacy through four different modes: vulnerabilising the market, common-sensing market signals, othering civilian consumers and unblackboxing objects.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Norah Campbell
Norah Campbell is a Lecturer in Marketing in Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests are in nano-bio-info-cogno markets, and climate change. This work has been published in both science journals (Nature Nanotechnology) and social science journals (Science, Technology and Human Values, Organization Studies).
Gary Sinclair
Gary Sinclair is a Lecturer in Marketing in Dublin City University. His research interests are in consumer behaviour and technology, particularly consumer communities, music consumption and ethical consumption. This work has been published in European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Macromarketing, Leisure Studies and Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
Sarah Browne
Sarah Browne is a Lecturer in Marketing in Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests are in strategy, managerial cognition and practice-based studies. Recently her focus has turned to strategic social marketing (exploring strategic marketing practice beyond commercial contexts for behaviour change intervention and informing public policy). Her work has been published in the Irish Marketing Review, Journal of Business Strategy and the Journal of Marketing Management.