Navigating Vulnerabilities: A Case Study Approach to Explore the Resilience Route Among Marginalized Urban Consumers

Abstract

This article explores how marginalized urban consumers navigate multilayered vulnerabilities to enhance their psychological capital and transcend economic constraints amid systemic barriers. Socio-economic inequality intensifies vulnerabilities, fostering powerlessness, social alienation and perpetuating stigma. Drawing on positive psychology, the study examines how marginalized consumers cultivate resilience amidst dire adversity. Employing a case study approach, the research moves beyond socio-economic indicators to uncover participants’ everyday struggles and adaptive market-mediated strategies. This methodological integration enables the study to capture the transformative potential of psychological capital to address structural inequalities. Case studies, we argue, generate nuanced insights into human behaviour that often elude reductionist models of causality. Despite its multidisciplinary applicability, case study methodology remains underutilized in consumer research—a gap this study addresses through abductive inference. By linking empirical observations with theoretical constructs, this approach enables an optimal framework when alternative models fail to address the complexity of marginalized consumer experiences.