understanding consumption within a care home: an interpretation of george's experiences of life...

Understanding consumption withina care home: an interpretation ofGeorge’s experiences of lifeand deathTim Stone*University of Aberdeen Business School, Edward Wright Building, Dunbar Street, Old Aberdeen,

Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 3QY, UK

� We are witnessing perhaps the most important shift in the history of mankind – the rapid

ageing of the earth’s population. This trend raises such issues as elderly care giving and

living arrangements in old age. By virtue, the author suggests that managing service

provision for elderly consumers within care homes is going to become an increasingly

important issue as more consumers live longer and require care. Moreover, given the

paucity of literature related to elderly consumers’ understandings of such institutions this

research aims to illuminate and distil this issue. Based on interpretivemethods the author

reveals that elderly consumers such as George actively consume life and death related

experiences in order to create a meaningful existence within the context of a care home.

Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction

We have been witnessing perhaps the mostimportant demographic shift in the history ofmankind – the rapid ageing of the earth’spopulation. Today there are approximately 600million people over the age of 60 living on thisplanet. By the year 2050 this figure is expectedto quadruple to 2 billion (United Nations,2001, p. 1).In one sense, population ageing represents a

human success story as societies now have theluxury of ageing (Kinsella and Velkoff, 2001).However, the steady sustained growth of

elderly populations affects just about everyoneon the planet (Moschis et al., 2003) and bringsmyriad challenges to policy makers and serviceproviders in many societies. As Kinsella andVelkoff (2001, p. 516)write, ‘[t]his trend is alsoaffecting families and raises issues such aselderly care giving [and] living arrangements inold age’. To these ends, policy arrangementsregarding the care of elderly consumers in carehomes is likely to become an increasinglycontentious issue (see, for example, Wagner,1984; Andrews and Phillips, 2000; Departmentof Health, 2000) as more consumers live longerand require care in old age.

The care homes market is comprised of 678providers – running 1763 care homes (CareCommission, 2004). In addition, the Office ofFair Trading (1998) estimates that there are

Journal of Consumer BehaviourJ. Consumer Behav. 8: 166–178 (2009)Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.280

*Correspondence to: Dr Tim Stone, University of Aberd-een Business School, Edward Wright Building, DunbarStreet, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 3QY, UK.E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, July–August 2009

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about half a million people in care homes in theUnited Kingdom. Viewed through this lens, itcould be argued that significant opportunitiesexist to better understand elderly consumersin order to facilitate effective formulation ofspecialist care services. These care services areprovided by organisations operating withinboth the public and private sectors. Forexample, Southern Cross Healthcare is thelargest provider of care homes for the elderly inthe United Kingdom operating 727 care homeswith 37 000 beds at 18 March 2008 (see http://www.schealthcare.co.uk/). This operationgenerated £ 431.2m in revenue for the26 weeks ended 30 March 2008 (SouthernCross Healthcare, 2008, p. 1). Looking to thefuture, in an ageing population it is reasonableto expect that demand for care places in boththe public and private sectors will increasesignificantly. However, whilst these markettrends suggest that organisations operatingwithin this sector could witness substantialgrowth, on a local level the Department ofHealth (2000) state that individual care homesshould ensure that ‘residents are treated withrespect [and]. . .that their dignity is preservedat all times’ (ibid: 7). Set within this scenariolies the rationale for context of this study –ensuring that elderly consumers’ voices areheard in such a way that enables under-standings to emerge that could be used toformulate marketing strategy that is sensitiveto the needs of elderly consumers. Thefollowing paragraph forwards a discussionthat identifies why it is of value to studyelderly consumers.‘For many years after the second world war

scientific research into old age was extraordi-narily restricted, and only latterly has funda-mental enquiry begun to assume a critical andwide ranging and hence more constructivecohesion’ (Townsend, 1981, p. 5). This senti-ment, derived from sociological literature, hasbeen echoed more recently within the realmsof marketing and consumer research byGoulding (1999, p. 177 in line with Masonand O’Beardon, 1978; French and Fox, 1985;Greco, 1989; Lumpkin and Hite, 1988; Fitzger-ald-Bone, 1991) who states that ‘there is a

consensus within the field of marketing thatthe consumer behaviours of the elderlywarrants greater attention’.To this end, marketing and consumer

researchers have illuminated issues related toan ageing population through studies of theconsumption of care services and livingarrangements in old age. Such studies include,targeting the mature consumer market(Moschis et al., 1996), exploring the inter-generational caregiver market (Mathur andMoschis, 1999) and influencing mature con-sumers (Moschis et al., 2003). However,critical review of such a body of literaturereveals that no studies exist that relate toelderly consumers’ understandings of theconsumption of care (Wilson, 1997, 1991)within care homes. With the related issue ofliving arrangements in mind, this discussionnow turns to the archives of marketing andconsumer research to reveal this body ofliterature.With studies of living arrangements in old

age in mind, the notion can be forwardedwherein a small amount of scholarly insight isdirected into the related archives of marketingand consumer research in the form of elderlyconsumers’ attitudes relating to the decision tomove into retirement housing (Gibler et al.,1997, 1998), and the impact of senior citizens’lifestyle on the choices of elderly housing (Kimet al., 2003). However, whilst issues surround-ing the lived experiences of elderly consumersin care homes are debated within socialgerontology and anthropology (see, for exam-ple, Wilson, 1991; Means and Smith, 1994;Wilson, 1997; Oldman and Quilgars, 1999;Andrews and Phillips, 2000; Marcoux, 2001)no such studies currently exist within therealms of marketing or interpretive consumerresearch.Given the continued relevance of Goulding’s

(1999) call, it is argued that there is a distinctabsence of studies that attempt to give elderlyconsumers a voice (Wilson, 1997, 1991) tocommunicate what it means to be a consumerwithin a care home. Perhaps the reason whythere is a lack of scholarly endeavour can beattributed to the notion that ‘residential care in


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Understanding consumption within a care home 167

Britain has always been seen as a provision oflast resort’ (Oldman and Quilgars, 1999, p. 363in line with Means and Smith, 1994). There-fore, it can be argued that the supposed uneaseassociated with such a proposition may havemanifested itself in such a way that has ensuredthat consumer researchers lack the desire topursue scholarly research within such institu-tions. With such a lacuna in mind, thefundamental question that this paper seeksto address is: How do elderly consumers makesense of their lived experiences within carehomes?

Methodological approach

Contemporary understandings of consumerresearch have identified that an increasingnumber of scholars have adopted interpretiveresearch designs in order to shed new light onconsumption. To this end, consumer research-ers use such interpretive tools as existential-phenomenological interviews to obtain firstperson descriptions of particular consumptionexperiences. Existential-phenomenology, as amethodological approach, has been frequentlyused in interpretive consumer research toexplore and understand the complexities ofconsumption in a variety of contexts (see, forexample, Thompson et al., 1990; Thompsonand Hirschman, 1995; Thompson, 1996;Thompson and Haykto, 1997; Eccles, 2002;Woodruffe-Burton et al., 2002). In linewith thepreceding authors, existential-phenomenologycan be viewed as an appropriate interpretivemethodological approach for illuminating anddistilling elderly consumers’ understandings ofcare homes.To this end, letters were written and

addressed to the owners and/or managers ofseveral care homes in the United Kingdom.Such letters contained information about thenature of the research project and enquiredwhether it would be possible to conductexploratory interviews with suitable elderlypeople within that particular institution. Tothese participatory ends, the following carehomes were targeted: Fenton Lodge, Robinlew

House, Bridgesview, The Flowers and CedarView (names changed). Following on fromthis, the managers of Robinlew House andCedar View contacted the researcher andinvited him to visit their respective institutionsat a mutually convenient time. The researchervisited the care homes in question in order toidentify potential participants who would bewilling and able to speak to the researcher,given a suitable opportunity. With this in mind,it was necessary towork around the routines ofdaily living, such as meal times, visiting healthcare professionals or social activities in anattempt to ensure that any interviewwould notdisrupt the social and/or care needs of thepotential participant. As a consequence, whilstvisiting Cedar View, the researcher wasinitially introduced to George (name changed)who seemed most keen to take part in thestudy. Moving forward to the day of theinterview, the researcher invited George togive a relatively unrestricted account of his lifewithin such an institution as Cedar View.George was invited to talk about some of thethings in his room with the goal of obtainingfirst person descriptions (Thompson et al.,1989) of these things through in-depth probing(Saunders, 1982).

Furthermore, and with issues of analysingthe interview data in mind, it is of value to raisea fundamental question; what is the mostappropriate approach to interpret the inter-view data? Thompson et al. (1989) argue thathermeneutic interpretation enables consumerresearchers to focus on consumer experience

within a particular context through circularreading of the text. Furthermore, this processis enhanced through bracketing theorywhereby the researcher attempts to graspthe inherent meanings contained within theinterview text. By virtue of this atheoreticaldescriptive aim, the interpretive objective is todescribe experiential patterns emerging from acontext (Thompson et al., 1989; Pollio et al.,1997). With similar issues in mind, Pollio et al.(1997) claim that ‘atheoretical interpretationdoes not imply that a neutral view is adopted;on the contrary, all interpretation is renderedfrom some perspective. Descriptive approaches,


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168 Tim Stone

while atheoretical, require their own assump-tions, and their goal is not to support an a prioritheory or to coerce phenomena into categoriesthat conform to theory’ (ibid: 36). To theseinterpretive ends, this research project alsoadopts the foundational interpretive process ofThompson et al. (1989) in order to illuminateGeorge’s understandings of his lived experi-ences within a care home.

The case of George

Given the exploratory nature of this researchpaper, and in line with Thompson (1998), asingle case study description will be presentedin an attempt to provide an emic account of theconsumption experiences that shape George’severyday consumption experiences. To thisend, the text derived from the interview withGeorge is presented in such a form that usesGeorge’s own terms and category systems(Thompson et al., 1989). As such, theseinterpretations do not contain any externalverifications, inferences and conjectures thatexceed the evidence provided by the tran-script. Furthermore, the entire interviewtranscript has been read on many occasions,and individual passages have been related tothose preceding and proceeding in order toimprove interpretive vision. It is difficult toilluminate the interpretive process beyond thischaracterisation because ‘the process is more amatter of tacit knowledge than explicitapplication. The process has a fundamentalambiguity to it in that the researcher must‘‘know’’ how to interpret’ (Pollio et al., 1997,p. 50). Moreover, the actual practice ofinterpretation ‘may also be a non-represent-able form of knowledge’ (ibid).At the time of the interview George was 94

years old. The interview lasted for about 1 hourand 15minutes. Three extracts from thisinterview will now be revealed together withresultant interpretations.

Extract 1: A Telegraph newspaper

Interviewer: Why don’t we start by talking

about some of the things in your room?

G: Although I am severely incapacitated

now, I still read my Telegraph from cover

to cover. I try to keep up to date with

business, sport, and all the rest of it. You

see? You’ve got too. The trouble is, old

people tend to relax and not do anything,

which is a tragedy. I try to stimulate these

old boys but I can’t get anywhere.1There

are one or two ladies that I talk to, and I

stimulate them a bit, and I get a bit out of

it. I get a response.

Interviewer: How often do you read The

Telegraph?

G: Seven days a week. I like the Telegraph

because I can cover the sport, I can cover

the markets. I check the markets everyday.

This is the way you keep alive isn’t it?

Interviewer: Have you been following the

movements of the markets recently?

G: They are stabilising you know. I think, I

think, erm, taking a broad view, our

economy is fairly stable. People don’t

realise the millions upon millions involved

in the markets and all the rest of it. It’s a

very complicated thing.

Interviewer: It’s certainly not something

that I can claim to fully understand.

G: Although I was a YMCA secretary, I was

in Manchester where I had four assistants

you know. My senior assistant was a

qualified accountant and so I have had

a pretty big business experience. That’s all

helped to stimulate one’s interest in life.

I’ve had a wonderful life and I am very

thankful. I am very sorry for people who

have no outside interest. That’s a great

pity; I would just fold up. That’s what

happens. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m

enjoying my life as much as is possible

1Reflection upon the researchers’ field notes reveals thatGeorge pointed to his newspaper to indicate that this waswhat he used to try to stimulate his fellow residents.


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under these conditions. I’m so grateful

for the wonderful support you get here.

They are a wonderful crowd. It’s loving

care. . .and of course there are over thirty

people involved here in one way or

another.

A notable aspect of these opening passagesis that George’s descriptions reveal that hisexperiences within ‘Cedar View’ can be seento include such figural elements as loving care,a severely incapacitated body, memories ofbeing a YMCA secretary and a Telegraphnewspaper which is used to ‘stimulate’ bothGeorge and other residents in an attempt tokeep alive. These latter experiences can beseen to play a significant role within George’slife and can be clearly seen in the interviewtext. To this end, the dialogue indicates thatGeorge read the Telegraph newspaper on adaily basis, with particular attention directedtowards the business and sport sections,amongst others.Reading the Telegraph newspaper could be

interpreted as an important element of livedexperience that directs George’s thoughtstowards life affirming issues. This interpreta-tion is strengthened in the light of theinterview text wherein George appears toattempt to direct other residents’ attentionstowards such issues by discussing reports ofbusiness, the movement of the markets andsport that are contained within his newspaper.For example, when describing fellow residentswho do not appear to regularly read news-papers and/or have no outside interestsGeorge used phrases like ‘I feel sorry for

people with no outside interests. That’s a

great pity. I would just fold up’. As such, theinterview text reveals that George creativelyappropriated his Telegraph newspaper inorder to construct social meaning within andthroughout his everyday lived experiences of‘Cedar View’. Viewed through this lensperhaps George’s newspaper is not merelyan object that ‘stimulates’ his interest in life,nor is it something for solely making life morebearable within his residential care home.Rather, George’s newspaper can be seen as ‘an

enabler of social meaning’ that provides himwith an opportunity to ‘stimulate’ his fellowresidents through his understandings of arange of different topics (that most likelychange on a daily basis) that could beassembled in different combinations to bringabout desired social interaction with his fellowresidents.

The foreground of George’s lived experi-ence then changed to include discussions ofmemories relating to some of his pre-careexperiences as a rector, as the followingpassages reveal.

Extract 2: Memories of buryingpeople and bereavementcounselling

Interviewer: So what other things do you

do to keep in contact with the outside

world?

G: I’ve worked with a lot of very interesting

people. I was a rector for over forty years. I

used to take my services and even bury

people. I always remember my great

nephew at the christening, he said ‘‘Uncle

George can bury people but he can’t

christen them [laughter].’’ I couldn’t per-

form a sacrament you see, but I buried

quite a lot of people.

Interviewer: Did you bury people for

many years?

G: I retired at sixty-five you see, and I was

heavily involved with the church, and,

erm, and very often when one of our old

people died the vicar said ‘‘George, this is

one of yours, you’ve been their minister, I

haven’t, and so you must bury them’’

[laughter].

Interviewer: How did you feel when you

buried people?

G: I was so happy. I rendered their last

service, you see. I had one chappy that I


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170 Tim Stone

visited for nearly a year. Some people take

bereavement terribly, and Bill just couldn’t

get over it, and I am certain that he

eventually died of a broken heart. I was

convinced of that. Now, others, you can

stimulate them and encourage them to do

things. Oh, one rather interesting case I

had, he was in his forties and lost his wife,

tragically you see, and he couldn’t do

anything. I said, ‘‘Bill I think you remem-

ber from our early days when you and

your wife decided to change your car?’’ He

said ‘‘yes.’’ ‘‘Well’’ I said, ‘‘why haven’t you

done so?’’ ‘‘Well’’ he said, ‘‘there is no point

is there?’’ I said, ‘‘Bill, you and your wife

were going to have a new car’’. ‘‘Now’’ I

said, ‘‘you go and change and get the car

that you and your wife were going to buy,’’

and do you know that lifted the latch. It

sounds stupid but it just broke the bereave-

ment. It’s a difficult job dealing with

bereavement, isn’t it? The vicar we had,

had a burial, and the vicar said ‘‘go and

visit this old chap,’’ so I did this for two or

three times. Eventually I received a letter

saying ‘‘thank you, I’ve decided that I don’t

want you to come again, I’m not interested

in religion.’’. He died a week after [laugh-

ter]. Oh dear, yes, yes. I’ve enjoyed working

with other people very much, but I miss

them verymuch. It’s so rewarding working

with other people.

The preceding passages highlight thatGeorge’s life experiences at this point in theinterview can be seen to include ‘happy’ or‘stimulating’ memories of conducting burialservices and bereavement counselling. Tothese mortal ends, George described hismemories of burial services and bereavementcounselling using phrases like ‘I’ve enjoyed

working with other people very much’ and‘It’s so rewarding working with other people’.Seen in this ‘rewarding’ light, the interviewtext subsequently reveals that George’s mem-ories consisted of attempts to ‘stimulate’ thegrieving ‘and encourage them to do things’ tohelp them through the experience of bereave-

ment. As such, the interview text underexamination brings to the fore an examplewhereby George encouraged a parishioner(named Bill) to purchase a car in order to cometo terms with the bereavement associated withthe tragic death of his wife. Furthermore, thetext suggests that the purchase of the car couldhave enabled Bill to objectify ephemeral orfleetingmemories of his wife in such a way thatenabled him to keep her memory alive. Byvirtue, the purchase of the car could haveenlivened comforting webs of meaning thatmay have otherwise faded or been left towither and die.Seen in this light, George’s experiences of

bereavement counselling seem to be based onthe notion of encouraging such people as Billto objectify their grief in a way that mediatesthe relationship that exists between the livingand the dead through specific consumptionexperiences. Furthermore, perhaps theseobjectified memories recur each time Billdrives his car and that these patterns ofconsumption unfold within interconnectedand shifting social contexts that enabled Billto come to terms with the death of his wife.Therefore, George’s experiences of dealingwith bereavement could place him in aposition that mediates feelings of grief throughencouraging people to utilise market mechan-isms to purchase such a big ticket item as a car.Despite the success associated with the

aforementioned example, George thoughtthat, in general terms, it was a very difficultjob to mentally and/or emotionally ‘stimulate’the grieving. The text also reveals thatGeorge’s memories of this time in his lifeconsisted of an offer to help someone throughthe grieving process that was rejected, and thatthis person, coincidentally, died a week later.Despite this unfortunate experience, the textseems to suggest that, in the main, Georgeenjoyed working with other people. Viewedthrough this lens, both of these death-relatedmemories could be interpreted not as a sourceof trauma, but rather as a source of comfortwithin and throughout his everyday livedexperiences within ‘Cedar View’.


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Extract 3: A chiropodist, anartificial leg and a wheelchair

[Knock on door] G: Come in. . .come. This

is my chiropodist.

Male: It’s OK I can pop back. I’m here all

day.

G: OK then, come again.

Male: I’ll catch you after lunch.

G: Alright, lovely. Thank you.

Interviewer: Is that OK? I don’t want to

inconvenience you in any way.

G: That’s fine, he’s here all day. I’m really

very lucky you know. He comes once a

fortnight and I’ve only got one foot to deal

with of course. This is an artificial leg

[demonstrates by pointing toward left leg,

clenching fist and knocking on leg]. I’ve

carried an artificial leg all my life.

Interviewer: Really?

G: Yes [laughing]. I drove through Austria

and Italy, and all sorts, during the war

[laughing].

Interviewer: When you said you only had

one leg to deal with I was somewhat

confused.

G: It annoys me; I pay five pounds to have

my feet done. I haven’t got the cheek to say

it should only be two pounds fifty [laugh-

ing]. I’ve just got two nails on the one foot. I

just can’t get there to do it myself.

Interviewer: So, how long have you had

your artificial leg then?

G: 1932, Motorcycling.

Interviewer: How did you feel when you

lost your leg?

G: Well, it was a damn nuisance. My

surgeon, who took my leg off, refused to

allow me to use crutches. He said, ‘‘You’ve

got to learn to walk on two sticks, you’ll

learn to get balance,’’ and of course it was

absolutely true. Now, of course, this leg is

getting dodgy and I can’t rely on this one,

so I have to be terribly, terribly careful. . . Ican walk a little way with two sticks, but I

can’t walk too far. I have to use my chair.

Interviewer: Is that your chair?

G: I bought it. I took the footrests off

because they took up such a lot of room. I

canmanage without it. Actually, it’s a little

bit hard going with the arms you know. I

use it as a Zimmer to go round to one of the

other rooms. I manage to keep active,

that’s the thing.

The text relating to the fortnightly visit ofthe chiropodist to service George’s toenailsindicates that George has mixed feelings aboutthis service provider, in the form of feelings ofhappiness and annoyance. The feeling ofhappiness seems to be associated with theregularity of the chiropodist visit, and pre-sumably with the quality of the service that thisprofessional provides to meet George’s careneeds. However, in discussing the aforemen-tioned the text indicated that George only hadone natural foot complete with two toenailsthat needed to be cared for, and he feltannoyed that he had to pay the full price.

Set within this pattern of lived experience, itbecame apparent that the most significantobject within George’s life was his artificial leg.The description reveals that he had owned anartificial leg since a motorcycle accident in1932 and that this object had significantmeaning associated with it from the outlinedpoint in time through to the day of theinterview. Given George’s descriptions of theimmediate post-operative period, it seems as ifhe experienced feelings of frustration when heinitially attempted to use his walking sticks.Returning to the time of the interview andwithGeorge’s increasingly frail body in mind, the


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172 Tim Stone

text indicates that issues of mobility havestructured George’s lived experiences formany years prior to the interview and thatGeorge had come to accept this figural elementof his lived experience. As such, the texthighlights that George’s body, and, particu-larly, his legs have changed and adapted overtime. Following on from this the notion couldbe forwarded that George is becoming increas-ingly physically vulnerable and slow and thatthese feelings may impact on the amount ofenergy available to George’s mind. In the lightof this physical frailty, perhaps this is the mainreason why he places such significance onstimulating his mental faculties, as George’sbody can no longer cope with the complexityof every day life and the inevitability of ageing.Moving on from this, George seemed to

suggest that he had accepted that he wasbecoming increasingly immobile to the extentthat he had recently purchased a wheelchair.George’s description of his chair indicates thathe had customised this object to reflect hisneeds by removing the footrests. However,whilst this object should facilitate a moremobile lifestyle, the text seems to imply that itis too heavy to meet his needs effectively.Whilst weighing up this issue George seems tohave been motivated to remove the footrestsbecause they took up somuch room. However,bearing in mind that he found the wheelchairto be too heavy perhaps a further reason formodifying this object was also to make itlighter. This shows that George was willingand able to assess the object-related merits ofhis wheelchair before choosing to customise itin an attempt to ensure personal relevance.However, despite his best efforts, it seems as ifGeorge’s efforts to successfully customise hiswheelchair had only been partially successfulas the text indicates that he primarily used it asa kind of Zimmer frame that enables him tomaintain his social ties.

Summary of extracts

With the three preceding extracts in mind, itwas revealed that George’s meaningful every-

day experiences within ‘Cedar View’ could beseen to include the following figural elements:(1) a Telegraph newspaper that enabledGeorge to direct his attention, and that ofothers, towards such life affirming issues asbusiness, the markets and sport; (2) Memoriesof burying people and successful and unsuc-cessful bereavement counselling and (3) Thevisit of a chiropodist, an artificial leg and acustomised wheelchair. Moreover, reflectionupon these experiences reveals that George’slife world within Cedar View appears to becomprised of understandings of a collection ofoddments that enable patterns of meaning tobe created that embrace both life- and death-related phenomena.These issues will be discussed in more detail

in the following section, together with sometentative insights for the formulation of careservices for people like George, within such aresidential care home as Cedar View.

Discussion

An insightful account of the findings andinterpretations of the interview with Georgehas been offered. Beginning with a discussionof George’s everyday lived experiences withinCedar View, it emerged that a Telegraphnewspaper enabled George to direct hisattention to particular life affirming issues ona daily basis. As such, perhaps the notion canbe forwarded whereby this relatively small,hand-sized and flexible material artefact isgiven attention, drawn into relevance (Dant,1999) and constituted as a highly meaningfulelement of George’s life despite his increasingfrailty. Or, in the words of Hebdige (1979)and Hawkes (1977), objects such as George’sTelegraph newspaper ‘explain the worldand make it able to be lived in’ (Hawkes,1977 in Hebdige, 1979, p. 103). Such amaterialartefact can perhaps be theorised as a sociallyrelevant sense making device (Grafton-Small,1993, 1987) that acts as a life affirminglandmark around which social culture isexplained, given attention, structured andmade meaningful.


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Furthermore, and with George’s livedexperiences of his Telegraph newspaper inmind, perhaps it can be suggested that such arelevant landmark of social culture can bethought of as a relatively small and hand sized‘enabling device’ that can be used by such afrail consumer as George, to stimulate interestin life within a care home like Cedar View.However, it should be noted that, as Latour(2000) argues, such artefacts of materialculture (or enabling devices) do not meanany one thing as they shape, and are shaped, bypeople’s ever changing beliefs, motives, pur-poses and reasons. This is especially relevantwhen considering George’s newspaper as thiswill be shaped, on a daily basis, not only byGeorge, but also by the beliefs and motives ofseveral key powerful people; from the ownersof the paper, down to the editor, reporters,columnists and so on, before reaching George.As Chomsky (1989, p. 8) comments, ‘the majormedia, particularly the elite media. . .set theagenda that others generally follow’. Viewedthrough this lens the agenda of the elite mediacan perhaps be seen in a positive light as thisappears to take the form of life affirmingmeaningful landmarks of social culture thatenable George to stimulate his interest ineveryday life, sport and the markets, withinCedar View. Or, in his own words ‘this is theway you keep alive, isn’t it?’The findings and interpretations also shed

light on some of George’s meaningful experi-ences in the form of memories of his pre-careexperiences of life as a church rector, withparticular focus devoted to burial services andbereavement care. These passages of text areinteresting in that they seem to indicate thatGeorge used to encourage his parishioners topurchase consumer goods in order to come toterms with death. Considering that ‘a majorthreat to a person’s identity is the death of aloved one’ (Bonsu and Belk, 2003, p. 42), andthat ‘consumption has become an effectivevehicle for refining identities through socialsymbolic dialogue’ (ibid), perhaps George canbe thought of as a kind of thanontologicalmarketer who helped vulnerable consumers(such as Bill) who were trying to re-establish a

sense of identity at a time when the ‘experi-ences and sufferings associated with deathshape the social identities of those personsliving through the process that surroundsdying’ (Laviolette, 2003, p. 216).

Moreover, in the light of these experiencesthe notion can be forwarded whereby, ratherthan viewing memories of death relatedphenomena as ‘a mirror that reminds viewersof their fleshly fragility, an unavoidablepresence who dances amongst the living, awithered skeleton, a seductress’ (Guthke,1999, in Hallam and Hockey, 2001, p. 28), aterrifying phenomena (Soloman et al., 1991), adisruptive presence (Willmott, 2000) or assomething that is traumatic, offensive andhorrifying (Bauman, 1992), George appears toderive strength and be comforted by his death-related memories of certain people in a slightlysimilar way to those people who haveexperienced the death of a loved one (seeRees, 1971; Zisook and Schucter, 1986; Turley,1995; Grimby, 1998; Hallam et al., 1999;Bennett and Bennett, 2000). Possibly, George’scomforting memories can be thought of assome sort of intangible ‘aid to living’ thatshapes, and is shaped, by the people whom hehas buried or has helped (or tried to help) toovercome their grief. Moreover, it wouldappear as if involvement in religion (Oxmanet al., 1995) has enabled George to focus onlife affirming issues in the shadow of death for anumber of years prior to the interview, andthat such religious involvement may have alsogiven him the strength to survive (ibid) withinCedar View.

The findings also suggest that George hasbecome increasing immobile over the yearsand more dependent on his false leg andwheelchair/Zimmer to maintain his social tieswithin such an institution as Cedar View.Furthermore, the interview text also suggeststhat George’s social ties appear to be relativelylimited. Or, in the words of Bauman (2000,p. 171), George has ‘absolutely no choice butto choose the specific group to which. . .hebelongs’ in order to create a meaningfuleveryday lived experience within Cedar View.Viewed through this lens, George’s social ties


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174 Tim Stone

do not appear to be primarily held together bya collective unconscious (Maffesoli, 1988),‘we’ feelings (Turner, 1989), tribal common-alities (Cova and Cova, 2002) or a certainambience and state of mind (Goulding et al.,2002); rather these ties appear to be heldtogether, at least in part, by such relativelyunique and socially relevant sense makingdevices (Grafton-Small, 1993, 1987), as a falseleg, and a partially customised wheelchair thatis used as a Zimmer frame.Furthermore, it would appear as if George’s

social ties can be seen to be maintained, notonly by these relatively unique objects ofmaterial culture, but also by the presumedoccasional flexing of his relatively weakmuscles (Bauman, 2000). As a consequence,the notion is forwarded that ‘[i]n [his] nightdreams [George] may fashion [himself] in thelikeness of [a] consumer, but it is physicalsurvival, not consumer revelry that fills [his]days’ (Bauman, 2004, p. 59). This would seemto suggest that George’s social ties appear to becharacterised by increased physical frailty andthe provisional nature of his life within CedarView. Following on from this, perhaps Georgecan be thought of as a kind of frail bricoleur(Levi-Strauss, 1966), that conjures up differentcombinations of meaning through a relativelylimited amount of ‘whatever is at hand’ (ibid:17) in order to ensure his physical survival.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although this research paperis exploratory in nature, it raises someinteresting thoughts relating to living arrange-ments (Gibler et al., 1997, 1998; Kim et al.,2003) and especially the provision of careservices (Moschis et al., 1996; Mathur andMoschis, 1999; Moschis et al., 2003) that aretargeted towards such elderly consumers asGeorge within a care home like Cedar View.For instance, should George, be viewed as arelatively inactive consumer who finds itdifficult to create meaningful everyday livedexperiences? The findings seem to suggest thatwhilst George may struggle to remain physi-

cally active due to his mobility problems, heappears to be very active in the way that hecreates meaning. Or, in the words of Geertz(1973, p. 5), George appears to be ‘suspendedin the webs of significance he himself hasspun’ over a number of years prior to theinterview and that these have become, in away, ‘the bare necessities of living’ (Levi-Strauss, 1977, p. 12). This would seem tosuggest that elderly consumers like George canbe seen to organise their lives and createmeaning through such tangible and intangibleenabling devices as particular aids to living inthe form of a Telegraph newspaper, death-related memories, a false leg, a customisedwheelchair and religious beliefs.So, what are the marketing strategy implica-

tions for such a care home as Cedar View? Thefindings seem to suggest that George is able tolive in and create meaning within relativelysparse material conditions whilst still beingmoved by a need or desire to understandthe world around him (Levi-Strauss, 1977).Furthermore, it should be recognised thatelderly consumers such as George appear to bequite adept at addressing themselves to ‘what-ever is to hand’ (Levi-Strauss, 1966, p. 17) tocreate meaningful living arrangements withinthe context of a care home. Following on fromthis which care services should be targetedtowards George? It would appear that the careservices that stimulate his mind can be seen tobe a priority. As such, great value would bederived from continuing to provide Georgewith a daily newspaper of his choice. Inaddition, considering George appeared toderive great pleasure from participating in thisresearch project it follows that he (and perhapsother residents) would welcome the opportu-nity to speak to other gerontological consumerresearchers. Moreover, and perhaps moreradically, the managers of Cedar View mightlike to consider including George within theircare service strategy as a casual part-timeemployee. The rationale for this suggestion isbased on the notion that George seemed to havedeveloped some highly sophisticated care skillsand competencies. These could prove to be aninvaluable resource that could be directed


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towards stimulating his fellow residents tocome to terms with the death of fellowresidents within Cedar View and/or theirown family members. Indeed, as George com-mented, ‘[I]t’s so rewarding working with

other people’.

Biographical note

Dr Tim Stone (BA HONS, PhD, MAM) is aLecturer in Management and Marketing atthe University of Aberdeen. His research inter-ests primarily lie within the area of transforma-tive consumer research. As such, he hasconducted research that focuses on the every-day lives of elderly consumers in care homes,the sustainable consumption of aquatic pro-duce, the development of environmentallyfocussed school grounds and the potentialmarketing strategies of tobacco companies.

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