National market communities: bicycle use and civil society in France and the United States, 1867–1910

Abstract

Ethnographic studies within consumer culture theory examine the cultural and personal aspects of consumer communities, often focusing on brands. While fascinating, such studies often ignore market-oriented communities spanning national states. To address these gaps, the author introduces the concept of “national market community.” Using comparative–historical methods, I examine how bicycle consumers organized national, market-oriented communities in France and the USA around 1880. These communities consisted of social networks and voluntary associations on multiple geographic scales, and publications that integrated consumers into an imagined national community. State institutions and market characteristics shaped these social structures. Communities provided consumers a mix of public, quasi-public, and private goods and services that improved product use. As the markets changed over time, national communities changed with them. When the two markets diverged, communities continued to support leisure use of bicycles, but abandoned utilitarian use. This concept offers opportunities for further comparative, historical, and ethnographic research.