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Accounting for Materialism in Four Cultures

Bilkent University, Turkey, ger{at}bilkent.edu.tr

Russell W. Belk

University of Utah, USA, mktrwb{at}business.utah.edu

Accounts for materialism are examined based on qualitative research in Romania, Turkey, the USA, and Western Europe. Various spontaneously offered accounts reconcile the discrepancy between the belief that materialism is bad and materialistic consumption behavior and aspirations. These accounts include justifications - passionate connoisseurship, instrumentalism, and altruism - and excuses - the compelling external forces, the ways of the modern world, and deservingness. The differences in accounts can be understood culturally and historically. In negotiating the ‘bad’ material world with their own consumption worlds, informants draw from various ethics prevalent in their cultures to moralize their personal materialistic consumption. Our findings suggest ways in which materialism, moralized by local accounts, is able to grow globally in spite of its condemnation.

Key Words: accounts • consumption • cross-cultural research • justification • materialism • morality of consumption

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 4, No. 2, 183-204 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/135918359900400204


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