Branding the Social: Leisure, Consumption, and the Corvette Community

Abstract

This study explores the social world of Corvette car clubs and their membership based on social ties formed through common interests centered on consumption and leisure practice. This study contributes to the limited literature on brand communities that provide social capital in a postindustrial economy of intensified individualism that has experienced a decline in participation in voluntary associations. I address these factors through the framework of Robert Putnam's classification of `bridging' social capital or weak social ties that can be good for getting ahead. The cultural significance of the Corvette as America's sports car is used as a unit of analysis in this ethnographic study of the brand community and its role in creating social capital for its members. The broad implication of this research reveals how the meaning assigned to consumer objects facilitates strong social networks that are productive in constructing identity and cementing relationships among fellow consumers and their communities. Ethnographic research methods were employed to design this sociological research. The data for this study was taken from 30 structured interviews with Corvette enthusiasts and 18 months of participant observation research. This study will fill a gap in the research on brand communities as organized leisure structures that facilitate social capital and renewed civic engagement in the public sphere.