Accepting and Resisting Insecurity: Using Consumer Culture to Have it Both Ways?

How does consumer culture shape the way we respond to increasing insecurity? Trends in many developed countries point to increasing insecurity at work and at home, and thus increasing opportunities for other people to fail us in our close relationships (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 1995). In this chapter, I explore the ways in which adults manage uncertainty through consumer culture, based on in-depth interviews with 80 parents who are part of a larger research project on commitment and flexibility in postindustrial society (Pugh 2015).1