ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a critical reading of lifestyle research in marketing with specific attention to the cultural approach which emerged in the late 1990s. It provides a general overview of the history of lifestyle research in marketing. The chapter determines the most prominent themes and key theoretical takeaways that have emerged in the cultural approach. It discusses future research directions, highlighting possible critical scholarly trajectories that can arise from the study of the linkages between globalization, political ideologies, broader institutional factors, and consumer lifestyles. The chapter groups cultural lifestyle research into three research programs. The first concerns the ways in which symbolic boundaries between collectivities are expressed/recreated through consumption patterns. The second research program concerns consumer strategies to legitimate new lifestyles. The third research program offers a theoretical understanding of institutional contexts and consumer lifestyles.
