The Interplay of Culture(s) of Freedom in the Bazaars of Italy and Turkey

Abstract

This research explores the concept of freedom through the inclusion of consumer perceptions/experiences of freedom and other social/cultural forces that are influential in its construction. Offering an alternative framework to the structure/agency and choice frameworks by consumer researchers, which emphasized the freedom of choice, we adopt a consumer-centric approach to the construction of freedom and exemplify how freedom is experienced by consumers in Italy and Turkey in the recently transformed retail consumption venues: the bazaars. Findings articulate the institutional and social structures and daily routine of life, which lead to feelings of imprisonment, whereas the rather chaotic atmosphere of the bazaar generates a feeling of freedom. Paradoxically, little nuances exist, such as finding freedom within the structure and feeling entrapped within chaos. Consequently, a conceptual framework of consumer freedom is developed after a semiotic analysis of textual data from in-depth interviews, and themultidimensional nature of consumer freedom is articulated with implications for marketing theory and practice.