The search for self images in consumption society of shopping malls in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area

This dissertation concerns how people use material possession, primarily fashion, style and other aspects of material culture, to create their self-image. The research study, which was conducted between years 1995 and 2002, concentrated on consumption issues of the shoppers in several shopping districts in Baltimore, Maryland. Self-image is not something that is just given, but occurs as a result of the continuities of the individual's action system and is something that has to be routinely sustained in the reflexive activities of the individual, such as buying clothes, selecting accessories and choosing lifestyles.; One issue of significance is the shopping mall; of interest to anthropologists because of the way they identify social status through symbolic objects. Malls attract a broad audience amongst young adult generations of consumers with higher disposable incomes, for whom fashion and style are an expression of images and status.; Shopping is not merely the acquisition of things; it is buying of images, an aesthetics of self that establishes one's social being. Shopping malls become the consumption sites where such images can be purchased as ready-to-wear masks. Self-image is therefore seen to balance the social tendency towards imitation with the personal desire for differentiation.