Disco Jalebi : an ethnographic exploration of Gay Bombay

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 368-401).Gay Bombay is an online-offline community (comprising a website, a newsgroup and physical events in Bombay city), that was formed as a result of the intersection of certain historical conjectures with the disjunctures caused via the flows of the radically shifting ethnoscape, financescape, politiscape, mediascape, technoscape and ideoscape of urban India in the 1990. Within this thesis, using a combination of multi-sited ethnography, textual analysis, historical documentation analysis and memoir writing, I attempt to provide various macro and micro perspectives on what it means to be a gay man located in Gay Bombay at a particular point of time. Specifically, I explore what being gay means to the members of Gay Bombay and how they negotiate locality and globalization, their sense of identity as well as a feeling of community within its online/offline world. On a broader level, I critically examine the formulation and reconfiguration of contemporary Indian gayness in the light of its emergent cultural, media and political alliances. I realize that Gay Bombay is a community that is imagined and fluid; identity here is both fixed and negotiated, and to be gay in Gay Bombay signifies being 'glocal' - it is not just gayness but Indianized gayness. I further realize that within the various struggles in and around Gay Bombay, what is being negotiated is the very stability of the idea of Indianness. I conclude with a modus vivendi - my draft manifesto for the larger queer movement that I believe Gay Bombay is an integral part of, and a sincere hope that as the struggle for queer rights enters its exciting new phase, groups like Gay Bombay might be able to cooperate with other queer groups in the country, and march on the path to progress, together.by Parmesh Shahani.S.M

Managing the Paradox of Growth in Brand Communities Through Social Media

The commercial benefits of online brand communities are an important focus for marketers seeking deeper engagement with increasingly elusive consumers. Managing participation in these socially bound brand conversations challenges practitioners to balance authenticity towards the community against corporate goals. This is important as social media proliferation affords communities the capacity to reach a scale well beyond their offline equivalents and to operate independently of brands. While research has identified the important elements of engagement in brand communities, less is known about how strategies required to maximise relationships in these circumstances must change with growth. Using a case study approach, we examine how a rapidly growing firm and its community have managed the challenges of a maturing relationship. We find that, in time, the community becomes self-sustaining, and a new set of marketing management strategies is required to move engagement to the next level

Managing the Paradox of Growth in Brand Communities Through Social Media

The commercial benefits of online brand communities are an important focus for marketers seeking deeper engagement with increasingly elusive consumers. Managing participation in these socially bound brand conversations challenges practitioners to balance authenticity towards the community against corporate goals. This is important as social media proliferation affords communities the capacity to reach a scale well beyond their offline equivalents and to operate independently of brands. While research has identified the important elements of engagement in brand communities, less is known about how strategies required to maximise relationships in these circumstances must change with growth. Using a case study approach, we examine how a rapidly growing firm and its community have managed the challenges of a maturing relationship. We find that, in time, the community becomes self-sustaining, and a new set of marketing management strategies is required to move engagement to the next level

CIMODE 2016: 3º Congresso Internacional de Moda e Design: proceedings

O CIMODE 2016 é o terceiro Congresso Internacional de Moda e Design, a decorrer de 9 a 12 de maio de 2016 na cidade de Buenos Aires, subordinado ao tema : EM--‐TRAMAS. A presente edição é organizada pela Faculdade de Arquitetura, Desenho e Urbanismo da Universidade de Buenos Aires, em conjunto com o Departamento de Engenharia Têxtil da Universidade do Minho e com a ABEPEM – Associação Brasileira de Estudos e Pesquisa em Moda.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Brand management y tribu consumidora: un estudio de marcas de surf.

La presente tesis doctoral tiene como principal objetivo conocer las implicaciones que las tribus consumidoras constituyen para las marcas en general, y para el brand management en particular. Concretamente este trabajo toma como objeto de estudio los surfistas españoles y sus posibles implicaciones respecto a las marcas relacionadas con el deporte del surf que consumen. Con ello se persigue examinar si la existencia de las tribus consumidoras afecta verdaderamente a las marcas, a su conceptualización y a su gestión y, en ese caso, describir qué tipo de consecuencias y relaciones se establecen entre las marcas y las tribus. Para ello, además de revisar la literatura académica disponible acerca de brand management, branding tribal y surf, se han combinado diferentes métodos de investigación de carácter cualitativo con objeto de contrastar las hipótesis planteadas y dar respuesta a las preguntas de investigación. Por un lado, se han llevado a cabo 11 entrevistas en profundidad a expertos en la gestión de marcas de surf que operan en el mercado español, y, por otro, se han celebrado 4 focus groups con un total de 29 participantes procedentes de aquellas zonas españolas donde la práctica del surf tiene mayor presencia, esto es, la zona de la costa norte española. No obstante, y con objeto de ofrecer un estudio lo más representativo posible, se escogió la zona norte occidental de España en La Coruña, la zona norte central del cantábrico en Asturias y la zona norte más oriental del cantábrico en el País Vasco. Asimismo, se ha contemplado la representatividad de Andalucía con un grupo celebrado en la playa de El Palmar (Cádiz), que, debido a su amplia exposición al océano atlántico, supone la playa que recibe mayor oleaje favorable para la práctica del surf al año de todo el sur de la península ibérica. Los resultados indican que el estudio de los consumidores surfistas españoles bajo la perspectiva conceptual de la tribu consumidora resulta inadecuada. El principal motivo de esta inadecuación es que los surfistas españoles no se configuran en torno a un vínculo emocional que ponga de manifiesto la existencia de un linking value. En este sentido, es posible que los surfistas españoles puedan estudiarse bajo un enfoque sociológico cercano a su configuración como tribu urbana, al manifestar características propias de este concepto como un estilo propio presentado a través de unos rasgos identificativos concretos, y un sentido de lo ritual evidenciado en las acciones rutinarias de los individuos a la hora de practicar surf.The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to understand the implications that consumer tribes constitute for brands in general, and for brand management in particular. Specifically, this project studies the Spanish surfers and their possible implications regarding the brands related to the surfing sport that they consume. The aim is to examine whether the existence of consumer tribes truly affects brands, their conceptualization and their management and, in that case, describing what kind of consequences and relationships are established between brands and tribes. To this end, in addition to reviewing the academic literature available on brand management, tribal branding and surfing, different research methods of a qualitative nature have been combined in order to contrast the hypotheses and answer the research questions. On the one hand, 11 indepth interviews were conducted with experts in the management of surf brands operating in the Spanish market, and, on the other hand, 4 focus groups were held with a total of 29 participants from those Spanish areas where the practice of surfing has a greater presence, that is, the area of the north coast of Spain. However, and in order to offer a study as representative as possible, we have chosen the north western area of Spain in La Coruña, the north central area of the Cantabrian in Asturias and the northernmost eastern part of the Cantabrian in the Basque Country. Likewise, the representativeness of Andalusia has been contemplated with a group held on the beach of El Palmar (Cádiz), which, due to its wide exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, is the beach that receives the most favorable waves for surfing in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The results indicate that the study of Spanish surfing consumers under the conceptual perspective of the consumer tribe is inadequate. The main reason for this inadequacy is that Spanish surfers do not configure themselves around an emotional bond that reveals the existence of a linking value. In this sense, it is possible that Spanish surfers can be studied under a sociological approach close to their configuration as an urban tribe, to manifest characteristics of this concept as their own style presented through specific identifying features, and a sense of ritual evidenced in the routine actions of individuals when it comes to surfing