(Re)conceptualising consumer interdependency of care: Persistent struggles with dependency and responsibility

Abstract

This conceptual paper explores how consumers become entangled in persistent struggles of care in consumption. While extant marketing theory focuses on the neoliberal responsibility of care as an autonomous and independent act, we problematise and extend the current theorisation of consumers’ struggles of care by examining the interrelated struggles of consumer responsibility of care and market relations of care. Building on marketing and interdisciplinary insights, we develop a novel lens of consumer interdependency of care to capture how a consumer responsibility is negotiated within varied relations of care. We contribute to a holistic and critical understanding of care in consumption as a problematic interplay between a responsibility of care and a dependency of care. By examining three types of consumer interdependency across consumption contexts, we discuss challenges and future research direction in the provision, mediation, and positioning of care, and bring critical attention to the power imbalances of care and consumer vulnerability.