Reinventing Everyday Life: Consumption Practices Analysis under Certeau's Optics

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand how the frequency of attendance at outdoor exercise gyms by elderly people shapes their consumption practices and reinvents their daily lives. As a theoretical support, we adopted an interdisciplinary approach between postmodernism and consumer culture studies using Michel de Certeau’s theory of everyday practices. Data for this qualitative study was collected through participant observation and interviews with elderly people who attended an outdoor exercise gym. Analysis followed the concept of interpretative research for organizing and categorizing information. The frequency of attendance at outdoor exercise gyms was shown to be a starting point for the reinvention of the daily life of elderly people. This reinvention of everyday life comes from new consumption practices that emerge by means of a new dynamic in their lives. Finally, we present a new possibility of theoretical investigation in consumer studies related to consumption practices.

Keywords

• consumer culture
• post modernism
• michel de certeau
• elderly
• outdoor exercise gyms