Consumption culture and furniture: An analysis of two Turkish housing spaces

Abstract

Today, with the influence of globalization, the diversity of consumer groups with different consumption habits has increased and producers have had to offer products to a much wider range of consumers. The changing consumption patterns of different groups have enabled identification of lifestyles, leading to products now being a status symbol and identity statement. Consumption, thus, emerges as a concept that is not only dependent on the basic needs of the individual but also on their social and cultural needs. While the concepts of culture and sub-culture, which are highly influential in individuals' preferences, emerge as an important factor in purchasing behaviours, by reflecting its user's social habits and cultural group to which they belong, furniture provides clues about the individual's consumption habits. The individual transfers their message and messages of the group to which they belong with the help of the furniture that they use to others and does this in the most powerful way, in their living space, which is the window to the outside world. Two housing spaces belonging to two different culture groups in the province of Trabzon that host several different cultural layers were selected as the study area. One of these sites hosts users from local cultural groups, and the other hosts users from the global cultural group. Within the scope of the study, furniture consumption habits of the houses belonging to local and global culture groups were questioned. It was found that users showed consumption habits of the culture to which they belong while purchasing furniture like they did for other products, and therefore, consumption habits of the culture influenced furniture purchasing behaviours too.