From Identity Construction to Consumer Alienation: A Conceptual Review of Sustainable Consumption as Reconnection

Consumption has long been understood as a means through which individuals express identities, communicate social positions, and construct a sense of self. Drawing on classical perspectives on alienation and subsequent developments in consumer research, this conceptual review argues that consumption may function not only as a vehicle of identity construction but also as a potential source of consumer alienation. The article traces the intellectual development of alienation from classical philosophical and sociological accounts to psychological conceptualizations and consumer behavior research, and integrates these traditions with theories of identity, the extended self, symbolic consumption, and social distinction. Building on this synthesis, the review proposes three complementary pathways through which identity-oriented consumption may become alienating: a psychological pathway centered on pseudo-freedom and internalized market imperatives, a symbolic pathway grounded in sign-value, and a structural pathway shaped by habitus and social distinction. Consumer alienation is therefore conceptualized as a dynamic disruption within the identity-construction process rather than as consumption’s opposite. The review further proposes reconnection across four domains—the self, others, material possessions, and nature—as a multidimensional process potentially associated with more meaningful and sustainable forms of consumption. The first three domains are most closely related to the psychological, structural, and symbolic pathways, whereas reconnection with nature represents a broader ecological extension of the framework. Rather than defining sustainable consumption solely in behavioral or environmental terms, the proposed model reframes it as a relational process involving autonomy, meaning, belonging, and renewed connections with material and ecological worlds.