Why Can’t They Behave? Theorizing Consumer Misbehavior as Regime Misfit between Neoliberal and Nordic Welfare Models

Abstract

The Nordic welfare model has enjoyed recent popularity among critics of free-market neoliberal social systems. The Nordic population has an idealized view of a Nordic hybrid market, which is well understood in the cultural context. However, the nuances of the model are lost on visitors who violate the spirit of the Nordic social contract, while not actually violating statutes and rules. Be they German families traveling in caravans or French backpackers setting up tents adjacent to Norwegian homes, these visitors are deemed to be misbehaving. Consumer misbehavior theorizing relies heavily on psychological or micro-level explanations. This chapter extends the literature with a macro-level exploration of consumer misbehavior.