Consumption, crisis, and coping strategies of lower class families in Brazil: A sociological account

Extant research on the dispositional dimensions of coping strategies emphasizes the personality determinants behind the different ways through which individuals seek to tolerate, minimize, and overcome stressful situations. We offer a sociological complement to this perspective. To do so, we conducted a qualitative inquiry of Brazilian new middle-class consumers who are facing the current economic crisis after having experienced more than a decade of expansion in consumption. We identify five sets of coping strategies through which consumers minimize the effects of the crisis and remain invested in consumer culture. We also demonstrate how such strategies are differently informed by dispositional elements that stem from primary and secondary socializations. We contribute to a sociological account of the shaping of the cognitive, emotional, and social resources individuals deploy to cope with the crisis as well as with an empirical account of the lived effects of current Brazilian crisis.