Relational Gifting: Conceptual Frameworks and an Agenda for a New Generation of Research

Relational gifts are given among known social connections and are oriented towards relationship work and care. An abundance of gifting research over the past 50 years has focused on gift selection and reception, most recently on variables driving mismatches between what givers and recipients think make good gifts. That work lays an essential foundation. However, important opportunities remain to deepen understandings by broadening the focus to view gifting as a relational, social, and often longitudinal process that is intertwined within evolving social and cultural contexts. This paper conceptualizes three under-researched areas of opportunity on relational gifting: 1) understanding the evolving and contextualized experience of a gift in recipients’ lives, 2) tracing the gift circuit, the dynamics of gifting within social relationships over time, and 3) mapping relational gifting as a dynamic gift system that reflects and reinforces social structure and networks of care. Together, these three areas present important ground for future psychological, sociological, and anthropological consumer research that deepens understanding of when, how, and why relational gifts matter and the relational work that these gifts enable. Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to set an agenda for a new generation of relational gifting research.