Short answer
Shift focus from designing products for ownership to designing experiences and access systems that confer status.
- Field
- Innovation & Markets
- Source
- Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks (2020)
- Method
- Conceptual analysis and literature review
- Evidence
- Strong effect
As digital technologies and the sharing economy advance, traditional markers of status based on material ownership are diminishing, replaced by value placed on access, experience, and intangible assets. This innovation & markets research insight is drawn from a 2020 study published in Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks. Using Conceptual analysis and literature review, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Shift focus from designing products for ownership to designing experiences and access systems that confer status.
Dematerialization Shifts Status from Ownership to Access and Experience
As digital technologies and the sharing economy advance, traditional markers of status based on material ownership are diminishing, replaced by value placed on access, experience, and intangible assets.
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2020
Key Findings
- 01Digitization and the sharing economy reduce the necessity and desirability of direct material ownership for status signaling.
- 02Status is increasingly derived from access to experiences, services, and curated digital identities.
- 03Future technological advancements (AI, robotics, transhumanism) may create new forms of status hierarchies based on technological augmentation and access to life-extending or enhancing technologies.
Application
Design takeaway
Shift focus from designing products for ownership to designing experiences and access systems that confer status.
How to apply
When developing new offerings, consider how users will gain status not by possessing the item, but by using it, sharing it, or experiencing its benefits.
Project actions
- 01Consider how your design project can offer access to a service or experience rather than just a physical product.
- 02Think about how users might signal status through their use of your design, not just their ownership of it.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Provides a forward-looking perspective on evolving consumer values.
- +Connects technological trends to fundamental human desires for status.
Limitations
This research is conceptual and doesn't provide specific quantitative data on the degree of status shift.
Reliability & validity
The study's validity lies in its synthesis of broad societal and technological trends, but its reliability as a predictive tool for specific market behaviors is limited due to its conceptual nature.
Think critically
To what extent will future technological advancements like AI and transhumanism create entirely new, potentially more extreme, forms of status and inequality that designers must address?
Design Principles
"Design for access and experience, not just ownership."
Designers and strategists must recognize this fundamental shift in consumer values. Understanding how status is now communicated through experiences, curated digital identities, and access to services rather than physical possessions is crucial for developing relevant products, services, and brands.
What This Means for Your Design
In today's world, owning lots of stuff isn't as cool as it used to be for showing off. Now, it's more about what you can do, what experiences you have, and what digital things you can access, like subscriptions or online achievements.
How to use in your project
- 1.Reference this study when discussing how user values have shifted away from traditional materialism towards experiential consumption and digital access in your design project's context analysis.
Add to My Project
Quick Cite
Paragraph starter
The increasing dematerialization of the global economy, driven by digitization and the sharing economy, is fundamentally altering traditional notions of materialism and status. As explored by Belk (2020), status is shifting from ownership of physical goods to the value placed on access, experiences, and intangible assets, necessitating a re-evaluation of how design communicates social standing and desirability.
Source
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
The changing notions of materialism and status in an increasingly dematerialized world
journal · 2020
View sourceQuestions About This Research
- What does the research say about dematerialization shifts status from ownership to access and experience?
- Shift focus from designing products for ownership to designing experiences and access systems that confer status. Evidence: Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks (2020).
- Why does "Dematerialization Shifts Status from Ownership to Access and Experience" matter for design?
- Designers and strategists must recognize this fundamental shift in consumer values. Understanding how status is now communicated through experiences, curated digital identities, and access to services rather than physical possessions is crucial for developing relevant products, services, and brands.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Shift focus from designing products for ownership to designing experiences and access systems that confer status.
- What were the main findings?
- Digitization and the sharing economy reduce the necessity and desirability of direct material ownership for status signaling.. Status is increasingly derived from access to experiences, services, and curated digital identities.. Future technological advancements (AI, robotics, transhumanism) may create new forms of status hierarchies based on technological augmentation and access to life-extending or enhancing technologies.
- What research method was used?
- Conceptual analysis and literature review.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Strong effect, based on a 2020 journal from Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- When developing new offerings, consider how users will gain status not by possessing the item, but by using it, sharing it, or experiencing its benefits.
- What are the limitations?
- The study is primarily theoretical and does not present empirical data from new experiments.