Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURKIYE ILETISIM ARASTIRMALARI DERGISI-TURKISH REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES, sa.36, ss.53-76, 2020 (ESCI)
Spiritual meanings and practices within the consumption culture that propose alternative experiences and quests can be seen as "original" and "exotic" areas of experience and lifestyle, and this process can present important conceptions in terms of problematizing contemporary aspects of consumption culture. This process, which we can argue that spirituality has turned into an area where individuality is expressed, becomes more comprehensible when it is read in the context of dynamics such as postmodern consumption conceptualizations, New Age culture, individualization, economic structure, fantasy and quests about daily life. This study aims to conduct a conceptual discussion about the dynamics and current aspects of this process and to follow a metatheoretical method. The study aims to continue this discussion on three levels: a) Holiness as an area of individuality; b) cultural consumption and reproduction of spiritual symbols and meanings; c) The place of sacred, spiritual meaning, symbols and practices in the consumer market as a commodity-object. This paper argues that in contemporary consumer culture, spiritual meanings and contents can become popular spiritual forms of individual mythology, of creating a distinctive style and that the sacred can be reinterpreted around a new look and subjective interpretation that corresponds to today's quests and fantasies. The postmodern forms of holiness that offer the ways and methods of feeling "perfect", and of a physical and spiritual "wisdom" add a spiritual dimension to an individualized narrative of a lifestyle, and on the other hand can be objectified in the consumer markets through a commodity circulation.