Consumption between market and community: evidence from the Bookcrossing case

The paper deals with consumption communities and consumer resistance: literature will be reviewed from both research streams and a framework to interpret resistant consumption communities will be outlined. Empirical analysis will be presented about the case of Bookcrossing.com, an example of consumption community with explicit traits of resistance and emancipation. Netnography and traditional qualitative methods were employed. Results show that consumption communities can be regarded as a means for consumer resistance, but this does not imply a fierce antagonism toward the market; on the contrary, some aspects and activities of this community appear to be deeply integrated within the market system. In this sense, consumption communities can be seen as mechanisms for market self-adjustment and evolution.