Abstract

CHAVEZ AMAVIZCA, Ania  and  ORTEGA RUBI, María Estela. Social representations of lifestyles and wellbeing in the context of a consumer society: Monterrey and its Metropolitan Area. Cultura representaciones soc [online]. 2018, vol.13, n.25, pp.76-102. ISSN 2007-8110.  https://doi.org/10.28965/2018-25-03.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the social representations of the lifestyles and well-being of a group of parents from Monterrey’s Metropolitan Area, as well as to explore whether these representations have elements that guide material consumption. The data was collected using the focus group technique complemented with free association. Four samples comprising a total of 29 mothers and fathers of school children from Monterrey’s Metropolitan Area were used. Through the organization and categorization of the information three lifestyles were identified: competitiveness, social image and hedonistic- materialism. Two life categories that go through the three different lifestyles were also identified: family and faith-religion. The sample’s social representation of welfare was organized in a figurative nucleus comprised by the family and health and by a periphery constituted mainly by love and respect. The results enable us to argue that in the social representations of the lifestyles and well-being of the group, consumption is dynamized by peripheral elements.

Keywords : social representations; lifestyles; wellbeing; consumption society.