Smart consumers come undone: breakdowns in the process of digital agencing

Abstract

While digitalisation is a widespread technological, social and economic process, shaping markets and consumers, not all efforts to produce digitalised smart consumers are successful. The aim of this paper is to explore and explain failures in the digital agencing of consumers. Making use of the market studies literature on consumer agencing, and drawing on an ethnographic study of ethical shopping apps, the paper explores how as well as under what conditions efforts to enact smart ethical shoppers fail. Results show that it is the immutability of apps that leads to breakdowns in the process of digital agencing. While these apps were scripted to configure consumers, they can seldom be configured by consumers. Because of this, the apps could not be adjusted to specific situations and consumer-assemblages.