“One day you’ll buy a Rolex from me”: reflexivity and researcher decoding positions in luxury research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Looking back on completed fieldwork for interdisciplinary research exploring the discursive construction of luxury by those producing and promoting it, I noticed that I – a putative expert in consumer culture – had my own sense of self, critical distance and belonging challenged and negotiated by the object of study. This paper theorises reflexivity in luxury research, showing how luxury worked on me while I worked on luxury. I present a conceptual framework for reflexivity in luxury research using Stuart Hall’s classic model of decoding: oppositional-critical, negotiated-playful and hegemonic-aspirational. First, the researcher may act as an outsider who rejects luxury; second, the researcher may experience the pleasurable workings of luxury marketing strategies, and finally researchers may explore the possibilities of luxury acquisition. These shifting positions in critical distance highlight researcher authority, neoliberal power and the role of reflexivity in interdisciplinary luxury research.