Chair
Antonio Maturo, Università di Bologna
Discussants
Rossella Ghigi, Università di Bologna
Piergiorgio Degli Esposti, Università di Bologna
Pierluigi Musarò, Università di Bologna
How does conspicuous consumption unfold in situations? This talk challenges the interpretation of conspicuous consumption as a static feature of elites by developing an interactional approach to explain pecuniary display as situated collective accomplishment. Drawing from a multi-sited ethnography conducted in the global VIP party circuit from New York and Miami to Cannes, I show how nightclubs mobilize elites into conspicuous consumers with staged spending rituals akin to the potlatch in economic anthropology.
Ashley Mearsis an Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University. Her research, at the intersection of cultural and economic sociology and gender studies, documents processes of valuation and evaluation primarily in market settings, showing how cultural logics of worth shape social inequalities. She received her PhD in Sociology from New York University.