Infantalized adults or confident consumers? Enterprise discourse in the UK retail banking industry
Nayak, A. and Beckett, A. (2008) Infantalized adults or confident consumers? Enterprise discourse in the UK retail banking industry. Organization, 15 (3). pp. 407-425. ISSN 1350-5084
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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508408088537
In this paper we examine the implications of enterprise discourse within the context of a culture of consumption. Drawing on empirical work on the UK retail banking industry we demonstrate how retail banking in the UK is central to constructing ‘confident consumers’ in a consumerist society and demonstrate how enterprise and consumption have reframed the interaction between banks and the consumer. We identify a rhizomic network that spans across diverse activities and electronic traces, and a variety of data sources and statistical techniques that mediate between the industry players. We argue that there has been a fundamental shift in rationality from ‘social obligation’ to ‘confident consumers’ which leads to a tension between confident consumers and infantilized adults.