#BecomingYou: discourses of authenticity, work, and success in South African consumer culture

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dc.contributor.authorDe Jong, Michelle
dc.contributor.authorPlüg, Simóne
dc.contributor.authorCollins, Anthony
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-07T12:44:04Z
dc.date.available2025-05-07T12:44:04Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractAuthenticity is now being used to describe things as diverse as politicians, wallets and holiday packages, and claims to authenticity have become increasingly marketable. Media sources from magazines to social media blogs are all inundated with a persisting, recurring message: that tapping into the “real you” will be the liberating force allowing you to live a happy and successful life. This paper draws on a social constructionist theoretical framework and discourse analytic method to critically analyse three interconnected discourses of personal authenticity (as success, change and work) explored in 10 marketing campaigns prominent in South African media. The constructions found in these media are important not just as reflections of current subject positions available in a particular context, but also in the (re)construction of these particular identities and the (re)production of particular social systems. More specifically, in this case, by closely tying authenticity to notions of success, work and change, these discourses produce “good neoliberal subjects”- ambitious, self-regulated, proactive and productive citizens committed to personal progress and contributing to a “functioning” society. In other words, through these discourses, individuals’ personal aspirations (e.g. self-improvement or happiness) become inextricably linked with capitalist modes of being (work and consumption).
dc.identifier.citationPlüg, S., Collins, A. and De Jong, M., 2024. # BecomingYou: Discourses of authenticity, work, and success in South African consumer culture. Journal of Consumer Culture, p.14695405241248085.
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1177/14695405241248085
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/20389
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSAGE
dc.subjectAuthenticity
dc.subjectconsumer culture
dc.subjectdiscourse analysis
dc.subjectidentity
dc.subjectindividualism
dc.title#BecomingYou: discourses of authenticity, work, and success in South African consumer culture
dc.typeArticle

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