The making of negative being: Religion, humiliation, and consumer vulnerability
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This study draws upon the lived experience of Sharankumar Limbale, a Dalit, as depicted in his autobiographical memoir, ‘The Outcaste’. Through Limbale’s narratives, we aim to understand how religion morphs consumption into a site of humiliation for Dalits. We examine Limbale’s caste-based market interactions and consumption to illuminate the reduction of Dalits to negative beings, subjected to interpellation as polluted individuals and to degrading consumption of waste. These negative beings endure ontological wounds and exist as degraded appendages to dominant social groups. This study calls attention to the recognition of the category of negative being within consumer research, as without it, the extreme vulnerability faced by certain consumer groups remains incomprehensible. Ultimately, this research advances the theoretical understanding of how religion plays a role in perpetuating and reinforcing conditions of extreme consumer vulnerability.
Source: Marketing Theory
Authors: Rohit Varman, Kanika Meshram
Institutions: University of Birmingham, The University of Melbourne
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,700
OpenAlex ID: W4401783222