Infantilized Adults or Confident Consumers? Enterprise Discourse in the UK Retail Banking Industry

Abstract

In this paper we examine the implications of enterprise discourse within the context of a culture of consumption. Drawing on empirical work on the UK retail banking industry we demonstrate how retail banking in the UK is central to constructing `confident consumers' in a consumerist society and demonstrate how enterprise and consumption have reframed the interaction between banks and the consumer. We identify a rhizomic network that spans across diverse activities and electronic traces, and a variety of data sources and statistical techniques that mediate between the industry players. We argue that there has been a fundamental shift in rationality from `social obligation' to `confident consumers' which leads to a tension between confident consumers and infantilized adults.