Young motherhood and consumption : an exploration of the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in Bristol

This thesis explores the consumer practices of a group of young mothers in the city of Bristol. A staged and incremental research design was followed, which incorporated aspects of participant observation, activity based focus groups and a photo elicitation exercise. The study focuses on how a group of young mothers managing on limited incomes engaged with expansive markets for maternity and the new baby, and the meaning and emotion they attached to "baby stuff". The research describes how for the young women in this study buying for babies was a priority and part of their everyday caring work, involving the careful management of budgets and the skilful negotiation of consumer markets as well as the negation of mothers' own consumer projects ..and youth identities. While perhaps a financial necessity, it is suggested that the focus on meeting the 'needs' of babies over those of mothers enables these young women to locate themselves as 'good mothers', who put their children first. The thesis also explores how for the participants in the research material goods, and in particular the adornment and presentation of infants, played a crucial role in displaying maternal competence in the face of a sense of public visibility and condemnation. Appearance was everything and commodities provided protection for both mothers and children from the negative associations of poverty and an inability to consume. Further to this, the research examines the practices of giving gifts to babies and the making of maternal memory as significant aspects of the materiality of maternity for these young women. It is suggested that giving gifts to babies represents an important form of contemporary gift giving, which enables the expression and constitution of relationships between babies and their social networks. The collection and collation of "baby stuff" provides a means of creating childhood memories and histories which can be recalled through these objects. In this part of the investigation the practice of giving "mum" jewellery and getting the names of babies tattooed on mothers' bodies emerge as two furthers sites where these young women make the maternal visible . The study highlights the significance and myriad roles that consumer culture plays in the lives of young mothers, providing a rich account of the experiences and struggles of young mothers through an original lens. This work fills a gap in the literature on motherhood and consumption and makes a relevant contribution to a number of additional areas of scholarship including youth and consumption; low-income consumption; and indeed young motherhood, engaging also with contemporary debates over commercialisation and commodity consumption in late modernity and discourses about 'disordered' working class consumer practice

Someone, stop her! The musical (the gallery show): The thesis document.

This thesis document accompanies a body of work that is radically vulnerable, personally political, and emotionally complex. Through my work, I challenge myself and my audience to sit with discomfort and create an environment suitable to generate a nuanced appreciation of pain that approaches its acceptance through humor, confessionalism, and the subversion of tropes against themselves as an act of counter-mimicry. This document situates my work within art-historical context with a primary focus on performance art and applies insight from each artwork referenced to further analyze and defend my own work. Additionally, I use texts relating to Camp sensibility, binary terror, affect theory, and trauma studies to make arguments about my work that both recognize the discomfort I create and honor the potential for said discomfort to be productive and transformative

Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge

The intersection of scholarly communication librarianship and open education offers a unique opportunity to expand knowledge of scholarly communication topics in both education and practice. Open resources can address the gap in teaching timely and critical scholarly communication topics—copyright in teaching and research environments, academic publishing, emerging modes of scholarship, impact measurement—while increasing access to resources and equitable participation in education and scholarly communication. Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge is an open textbook and practitioner’s guide that collects theory, practice, and case studies from nearly 80 experts in scholarly communication and open education. Divided into three parts: *What is Scholarly Communication? *Scholarly Communication and Open Culture *Voices from the Field: Perspectives, Intersections, and Case Studies The book delves into the economic, social, policy, and legal aspects of scholarly communication as well as open access, open data, open education, and open science and infrastructure. Practitioners provide insight into the relationship between university presses and academic libraries, defining collection development as operational scholarly communication, and promotion and tenure and the challenge for open access. Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge is a thorough guide meant to increase instruction on scholarly communication and open education issues and practices so library workers can continue to meet the changing needs of students and faculty. It is also a political statement about the future to which we aspire and a challenge to the industrial, commercial, capitalistic tendencies encroaching on higher education. Students, readers, educators, and adaptors of this resource can find and embrace these themes throughout the text and embody them in their work

Supporting user interaction and social relationship formation in a collaborative online shopping context

The combination of online shopping and social media allow people with similar shopping interests and experiences to share, comment, and discuss about shopping from anywhere and at any time, which also leads to the emergence of online shopping communities. Today, more people turn to online platforms to share their opinions about products, solicit various opinions from their friends, family members, and other customers, and have fun through interactions with others with similar interests. This dissertation explores how collaborative online shopping presents itself as a context and platform for users\u27 interpersonal interactions and social relationship formation through a series of studies. First, a qualitative interview study shows that online shoppers believe that shopping-related interactions have a positive impact on their social bonds. However, there is uncertainty around the appropriateness of discussing shopping in online marketplaces, forums, and social networking sites between strangers and friends. These uncertainties act as strong deterrents that limit further interactions between users with shared shopping interests. Next, a mix of lab experiments and focus groups demonstrate how informational support and social support affect user participation and relationships, the impact of social structure on interpersonal relationship formation between community members, and the development of desire to be socially connected with others through real-time text conversations on shopping topics. Moreover, a combination of interviews, focus groups, and online survey identify four types of personas to help illustrate the complex nature of user participation and behaviors in online shopping communities: Opportunists, Contributors, Explorers, and Followers. Finally, an online experiment study with 50 participants implements problem-solving tasks to examine users’ relationship building in computer-mediated online shopping groups and the effects of interpersonal relationships on user behaviors in collaborative online shopping contexts. The results suggest that users may develop desire to be socially connected after working on implemented collaborative problem-solving tasks within the group, and the perceived social connectedness may encourage user engagement and contribution behaviors in online shopping groups and communities. The results also show that such help-giving, collaborative tasks lead to developing social capital and facilitating social support that have more significant impacts on user behaviors over the long term

Keeping Social Media Influencers Influential: Preserving Perceptions of Authenticity While Brand Dropping

Marketers’ use of social media influencers (SMIs)—individuals who use various social media channels to discuss a particular topic (e.g., fashion, health) or offer entertainment (e.g., comedy) and, in doing so, attract followers—to promote products, known as “influencer marketing,” is a widely employed and effective strategic tool (Linqia 2018). In fact, SMIs, who can be conceptualized as human brands (Thompson 2006), have a greater audience reach and dialogue generation compared to that of celebrities (Crimson Hexagon 2015). Further, consumers perceive SMIs’ content as trustworthy (Scott 2015), which is likely due to them being perceived as highly authentic. According to Audrezet, de Kerviler and Moulard (2018) SMIs use strategies to remain passionately authentic and transparently authentic. Despite their popularity and perceived trustworthiness, SMIs face a challenge when they mention, recommend, or endorse brands within their digital content. Doing so may lead to perceptions that the influencer is passionately inauthentic, as consumers may presume these acts to be commercially driven. Thus, by incorporating influencer marketing, SMIs may compromise their perceived passionate authenticity. When SMIs mention brands within their digital content, they sometimes choose to infer whether or not they have a business relationship with the brand via a disclosure. SMIs’ means of, or choice of wording for disclosures varies. Therefore, consumers will likely perceive SMIs as more transparently authentic when SMIs disclose unambiguously, since doing so implies complete forthrightness. SMIs are now required to disclose, or explicitly mention when they were paid to promote a brand (Johnson 2017). However, the FTC’s rules are somewhat ambiguous and perhaps unfair. Therefore, SMIs may or may not be explicitly disclosing their true relationship with brands they post about due to the sheer uncertainty and/or unfairness inherent in the FTC’s endorsement guidance (FTC 2015). SMIs who explicitly disclose are presumably perceived as possessing high transparent authenticity; however, such explicit disclosures presumably result in consumer perceptions of low passionate authenticity. This brings about a challenge to SMIs who partner with brands. This dissertation will answer the following question: How can social media influencers manage consumers’ perceptions of their human brand authenticity while engaging in influencer marketing

LookBook: pioneering Inclusive beauty with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms

Technology's imperfections and biases inherited from historical norms are crucial to acknowledge. Rapid perpetuation and amplification of these biases necessitate transparency and proactive measures to mitigate their impact. The online visual culture reinforces Eurocentric beauty ideals through prioritized algorithms and augmented reality filters, distorting reality and perpetuating unrealistic standards of beauty. Narrow beauty standards in technology pose a significant challenge to overcome. Algorithms personalize content, creating "filter bubbles" that reinforce these ideals and limit exposure to diverse representations of beauty. This cycle compels individuals to conform, hindering the embrace of their unique features and alternative definitions of beauty. LookBook counters prevalent narrow beauty standards in technology. It promotes inclusivity and representation through self-expression, community engagement, and diverse visibility. LookBook comprises three core sections: Dash, Books, and Community. In Dash, users curate their experience through personalization algorithms. Books allow users to collect curated content for inspiration and creativity, while Community fosters connections with like-minded individuals. Through LookBook, users create a reality aligned with their unique vision. They control consumed content, nurturing individualism through preferences and creativity. This personalization empowers individuals to break free from narrow beauty standards and embrace their distinctiveness. LookBook stands out with its algorithmic training and data representation. It offers transparency on how personalization algorithms operate and ensures a balanced and diverse representation of physicalities and ethnicities. By addressing biases and embracing a wide range of identities, LookBook sparks a conversation for a technology landscape that amplifies all voices, fostering an environment celebrating diversity and prioritizing inclusivity