From Ways of Life to Lifestyle

Abstract

This article attributes the popularity of lifestyle to the contemporary shift from civic to consumer culture. At the local level, `lifestyle' is replacing the traditional `way of life'. The media, culture and leisure industries have a vested economic interest in encouraging the transition to lifestyle — hence the increased popularity of lifestyle programming in British primetime television. Since the mid-1990s, however, garden lifestyle media products have multiplied alongside a concomitant growth in consumer spending on garden merchandise. This article analyses the `ordinari-ization' strategies garden lifestyle programmes use to urge ordinary gardeners to invest in lifestyle projects. Viewers witness the embrace of more ordinary subjects and garden experts are `personalityinterpreters', translating lifestyle ideas from the symbolic repertoires offered by consumer culture.