Buying into motherhood? Problematic consumption and ambivalence in transitional phases

Abstract

Current theory on transitional consumption seems to rest on the premises that (1) consumption facilitates role transitions; (2) consumers know how to consume their way through these transitions; (3) consumers are motivated to approach new roles; and (4) consumption solves liminality. This perspective, however, offers an incomplete picture of consumption’s role in the management of major life transitions. This article explores the ways in which ambivalence is woven through consumption experiences in times of liminality. It reviews prior research on consumption, role transitions, and ambivalence in the context of women’s transition into motherhood. Findings are presented from an international interpretive study of women’s consumption experiences during their transition to motherhood. This paper’s findings suggest that while consumption can indeed play a positive role during role transitions, it can also, at other times, make transition a complicated, complex and confusing process.

Keywords:

• consumption
• ambivalence
• transition
• identity
• motherhood
• uncertainty
• resistance
• responsibility
• constraints
• aspirations

Acknowledgements

This project was partly funded by a UCD President’s Research Fellowship awarded to Andrea Prothero and a grant from The University of Edinburgh’s San‐Ei Gen Research Fund to Stephanie O’Donohoe. All other authors acknowledge their respective universities for financial support of this project. The authors also thank the reviewers for helpful and insightful comments.

Notes

1. About the author group. This article is the result of collective, collaborative research undertaken by members of VOICE Group – Voicing International Consumption Experiences. The members of this group, in alphabetical order, are Andrea Davies (Leicester University), Susan Dobscha (Bentley University, USA), Susi Geiger (University College Dublin), Stephanie O’Donohoe (The University of Edinburgh), Lisa O’Malley (University of Limerick), Andrea Prothero (University College Dublin), Elin Brandi Sørensen (University of Southern Denmark) and Thyra Uth Thomsen (Copenhagen Business School).