The consumer acculturative effect of state-subsidized spaces: spatial segregation, cultural integration, and consumer contestation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although extant consumer acculturation research has investigated the acculturative effect of various ideological and institutional contexts, it has devoted minimal attention to how spatial structural conditions, in particular state-subsidized spaces, affect the consumer acculturation experiences of poor immigrants. This study builds on spatial governmentality theory to investigate the creation and consumption of a racialized gated community in Italy. Specifically, it reveals three state-sponsored spatial governmentality strategies (race-restrictive zoning, domestic space standardizing, and technological self-surveilling) used to transform perceived norm-breaking Roma immigrants (derogatorily referred to as “Gypsies”) into acculturating consumers to regional sedentary norms, as well as the accompanying Roma consumer resistance responses (community-protective insulating, domestic space rearranging, and behavioral boundary testing) used to partly contest the imposed consumer acculturation and preserve some of the minority’s nomadic culture. The article concludes with implications for research on consumer acculturation, consumer resistance, and spatial governmentality.