Toward a spatial theory of taste formation

This paper argues for the development of a spatial theory of taste formation. In consumer research, taste has provided a valuable tool and it has mostly been utilized as the theoretical apparatus of our aesthetic choices, preferences, lifestyles and identity projects. However, there is no consensus on how taste is formed and performed in the contemporary marketplace. Consumer researchers have engaged more with the functions and consequences rather than with spatial processes of taste formation. Existing theories of taste are limited due to their primary focus either on consumption practices and/or on postmodern assertions about the fluidity and fragmentation of consumers’ tastes. Based on a review of previous literature on aesthetics, theories of taste and aesthetic consumption experiences, we illustrate how taste might be understood as being spatially formed and performed through consumers’ aesthetic experiences at various consumption places. We highlight the importance of consumers’ aesthetic experiences and their spatial context to the formation of tastes. Inspired by a phenomenological interpretation of Bourdieuian theories of taste and their subsequent use within consumer research, we argue for the development of a spatial theory of taste formation. This reveals the importance of consumption places, which are culturally embedded within certain fields of consumption, and the diversity of ways that consumers’ aesthetic experiences and identity investments within these places might be related to their tastes and identity projects. Accordingly, we argue that a spatial theory of taste offers consumer researchers the possibility to investigate the topoanalytic relationality of consumers’ tastes and also place their identity projects within a physical, socio-cultural, and historical frame. We conclude by illustrating how a spatial theory of taste formation might be of relevance to diverse streams of consumer research. We also explain why such a theoretical shift toward a spatial conception of taste would be useful for contemporary marketing theory and practice.