Steps towards transformative consumer research practice: a taxonomy of possible reflexivities

NoThe aim of ACR 2005 has been articulated by the organisers as the promotion and dissemination of consumer research `for¿ consumers. This call asks for transformative consumer research raising the issue that `Historically, the organization¿s research has been impelled by the theoretical and substantive interests of academics¿. It is on this point that this paper acts to transform arguing that a transformative ethic should be enacted though consumer research praxis. To achieve this it presents worked examples of the practice of reflexivity in consumer research developing a taxonomy of `possible reflexivities¿, and discusses their possibilities for transformation of the consumer research process

Moving Gender Across, Between and Beyond the Binaries:In Conversation with Shona Bettany, Olimpia Burchiellaro and Rohan Venkatraman

This panel discussion explores why marketing and consumer behaviour has struggled to move beyond the binary, the importance of disrupting the conventional binaries to recognize gender/sex/ual diversity, and the challenges in so doing. It raises to the fore concerns about institutional pressures, sanitization of work, academic positionalities, everyday encounters of discrimination against gender/sex/ual diversity, and the emancipatory but oppressive dynamics of categories. Yet the panellists also reflect on ways to challenge binaristic thinking. Just being in the academy and doing (small but) meaningful acts of institutional activism can produce ripple effects and open pathways for a better articulation of lived experiences and realities

Comfort, pleasure and schadenfreude : extending affect into neutralisation theory among UK Brexit prepping consumers in crisis

This paper extends neutralisation theory in the light of contemporary discontinuous changes to household food consumption in the UK. This change follows heightened consumer-perceived resource scarcity wrought by the Brexit crisis and it’s segue into the Covid-19 pandemic. Our respondent cohort of self-identified “Brexit prepping” middle-class mothers, more accustomed to provisioning for fresh, healthy, and wholesome food for their families within traditional structures of good motherhood, have increased provisioning, storage and consumption of less-healthy alternatives (such as packaged, tinned and preservative-enhanced convenience foods) and augmented this with luxury items, including alcohol and sweet treats. Our respondents utilise a series of neutralisation strategies for this consumption activity including short-term affect-laden justifications, these include short-term comfort relating to self-care (particularly regarding mental-health and wellbeing assessments), pleasure in developing new competencies and skills, and even Schadenfreude towards non-prepping (m)others. We develop the neutralisation theory array to account for this current trend in consumption behaviour, and particularly in terms of introducing affect-laden neutralisations to augment the predominantly cognitive and rationalisation-based underpinning of classic neutralisation theory

(Invisible) Displays of Survivalist Intensive Motherhood among UK Brexit Preppers

This article explores mothers’ narratives of ‘prepping’ behaviours. Prepping involves the management of stockpiled household items in anticipation of marketplace disruption. In this article, we use anticipated food shortages following the UK’s exit from the EU (‘Brexit’) as our context. Drawing on interview data, we highlight how mothers embed prepping into their ongoing pursuit of intensive motherhood, bound in the highly gendered practice of feeding the family. While adhering to elements of intensive motherhood ideology (their actions are labour intensive/child centred), participants reveal a hidden element to their practice. We introduce the notion of ‘survivalist intensive motherhood’ to understand their actions. Survivalist intensive motherhood departs from earlier intensive motherhood studies due to the largely invisible nature of preparations and the trade-offs made to feed the family during resource scarcity

Integrating health leadership and management perspectives: the MESH framework for culturally informed food design thinking and well-being promotion

Purpose This study examines the social and cultural life of food innovations to inform food design thinking. The authors explore this through wellness regulating functional foods, foods scientifically modified for health benefits based on medical and nutritional claims, as a materialisation of food innovation in the marketplace. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on affordance theory, where affordance relations enable potential for consumer food well-being regulation, the authors gathered in-depth interview data from diverse consumer groups across three illustrative exemplar functional foods. Findings The research reveals how consumers engage in meaningful actions with functional foods in the experiences of their everyday lives. Four analytical themes emerge for consumer wellness regulation through functional foods: morality judgements, emotional consequences, social embedding and historicality. Originality Analytical themes emerging from the findings are conceptualised as MESH, a useful acronym for the social and cultural life of food innovations within the design thinking arena. The MESH framework includes dichotomous cultural affordances that overlap and entangle different cultural themes weaving together consumers’ perceived possibilities for food well-being regulation. These cultural affordances reveal distinct paths that link consumer experiences and food design thinking

Feminist academic organizations: Challenging sexism through collective mobilizing across research, support, and advocacy

This paper examines the establishment of a feminist academic organization, GENMAC (Gender, Markets, and Consumers; genmac.co), serving gender scholars in business schools and related fields. In so doing, it builds on the emerging literature of feminist academic organizations, as situated within feminist organizational studies (FOS). Through a feminist case study and by assessing the reflections of GENMAC\u27s board members, we tell the story of the emergence of GENMAC and detail the tensions the organization encountered as it formally established itself as a feminist organization within the confines of a business school setting, a patriarchal system, and a neoliberal university paradigm. We build on the FOS literature by considering how our organization counters cultures of heightened individualism and builds collective action to challenge sexism through the nexus of research, support, and advocacy pillars of our organization. We demonstrate how, through these actions, our organization challenges hierarchies of knowledge, prioritizes the care and support needed for the day-to-day survival of gender scholars in business schools, and spotlights and challenges structural inequalities and injustices in the academy

Targeting Dis-Identification Strategies With Consumer Communications: the Case of Sexual Health Risk in Men Who Have Covert Sex With Men (Mcsm)

in this paper we address the research question of how to target sexual-health related marketing communications and services to men engaged in covert sexual activity with men (MCSM) through the development of an understanding of the risk assessment process within this diverse and challenging sub-cultural group