Who Am I When I Buy Organic? Identity Construction Through Sustainable Consumption in Emerging Markets

Organic consumption is often examined through functional, environmental, and health-related motivations, yet less attention has been paid to how consumers use it to construct and negotiate identity. This study examines how organic consumption becomes part of consumers’ identity work in an emerging-market context. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative design, the study combines 22 semi-structured interviews, three focus group discussions, and ethnographic observation across four organic-consumption settings in Kerala, India. Analysis identified five interconnected themes: ethical engagement and everyday activism; health, body management and self-care; social signaling, distinction and lifestyle identity; authenticity, trust and moral boundary work; and local markets, community and regional identity. The findings show that organic consumption provides symbolic resources through which consumers enact identities associated with responsibility, care, consciousness, authenticity, and belonging. Such identities are reinforced by self-consistency, social recognition, trust, and community relationships, but are also destabilized by price, accessibility, authenticity concerns, and perceptions of elitism. The study understands the consumption of organic as continuous identity work where symbolic goals are enacted, identities are reinforced, and practices are continuously negotiated in relation to material and social frictions. The present research contributes to the literature on symbolic and sustainable consumption by offering a more dynamic understanding of identity formation within the framework of an emerging market.