Cultures of unruly bricolage : 'debadging' and the cultural logic of resistance

Arnould and Thompson note that the "marketplace has become a pre-eminent source of mythic and symbolic resources through which [people] construct narratives of identity' (2005: 871). Not only do consumers "actively rework and transform symbolic meanings" (ibid: 871), but in everyday practices they use "marketplace cultures [to] define their symbolic boundaries through an ongoing opposition to dominant lifestyle norms and mainstream consumer sensibilities" (ibid: 874). The paper examines identity work done with cherished possessions, in this case cars. By means of a netnography we focus on everyday practices where consumers rework brand identity towards their local identity projects

On the Public Understanding of 'Market-ing': battles for vision, legitimacy and form

The paper argues we need to re-imagine the broader horizons of marketing in the light of significant changes, not only to the evolving institutional context and conduct of governance, but also to the place of marketing among the collective consciousness of citizens, consumers, workers - those autonomous partners in the expanding ‘contractualism' which will underpin the newly emerging market-based service delivery enterprises of a privatising state

'Discourse AND Figure': Learning through visual regimes of signification

Arts marketing has been dominated by considerations of how the arts can ‘do marketing'. With the additional interest in creativity in business (Bilton, 2006, Fillis, 2002), this conceptual paper questions why, when the profession it shadows is so sophisticated in its visual literacy, visual thinking remains overlooked as a site of professional practice within the discipline of marketing. In order to illustrate this, the authors consider the potential of visual practics within the context of assembling poster presentation. This conceptual paper has implications for arts marketing practice and marketing education

Peeps, beemers and scooby-doos: exploring community value among Scottish cruisers

Using an ethnographic approach which combines impromptu interviews, participant observation and analysis of online computer mediated communication we explore the consumer culture which surrounds the Scottish cruiser community. The on-going study uses the conceptual framework of neo-tribal consumption, exploring forms of ephemeral and emotional communities which cohere around the car. Our analysis suggests that the cultural practices of customization and the performance of the cruise make explicit a shared sense of collective consciousness which expresses the construction of community value which emerges from such ephemeral gatherings

'Warhol': 'Celebritisation' as Human Branding

During his life and after his death, Andy Warhol was synonymous in arts circles with controversy and celebrity. In 1971 David Bowie sang "Andy Warhol, silver screen!" Warhol was the ‘pope of pop' and his iconic status continues to this day, long after his untimely death in 1987. The 1960s, that incipient era of McLuhan and the febrile mass-media eco-system, saw his visionary work transform our understanding of aesthetics, authenticity and art situated in the material culture of the everyday. Like others before him, he reminds us that the institutionalized gaze is dangerously myopic and disenfranchising. In this paper we draw on published accounts of Warhol's career and his rise to fame as the basis of developing an account of human branding as ‘celebritisation'. In doing so, we draw on consumer research, studies of celebrity and fame and published texts on Warhol's work and life

Management Theory and Practice: bridging the gap through multidisciplinary lenses

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue that critically examines topics informing long-standing disputes concering the status of theory and practice in management studies. Contributions explore the character of the imputed relationship between theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach – The editorial introduction sets the discussion of topics in the context of institutional change influencing the production, circulation and consumption of knowledge products in the economy of relevance and reputation. It also presents an overview of the papers included in the special issue. Findings – The main themes addressed in the papers represent a call for change; a call to radicalize the approaches to understanding ways of knowing; a call to re-evaluate relations with practitioners; and a call to reimagine ways of representing knowledge to various constituencies, including fellow academic practitioners, management practitioners, students, and policy-makers and other opinion-formers. Research limitations/implications – The key message is one of the importance of encouraging broad discussions concerning the direction and impact of flows of knowledge and the various products in which that knowledge is embedded. It calls for a more market-oriented approach to understanding the knowledge economy and the mediating role of various institutional players, including the academy, in the circulation, creation and destruction of knowledge products. Practical implications – That a more-market oriented approach to arrangements for the distribution of research resources in management studies calls for the development of more market-oriented institutions capable of shaping relationships of collaboration, involvement and accountability. Originality/value – Contributions expand the understanding of the problems and opportunities of imputing links to theory and practice

Prime beef cuts : culinary images for thinking 'men'

The paper contributes to scholarship theorising the sociality of the brand in terms of subject positions it makes possible through drawing upon the generative context of circulating discourses, in this case of masculinity, cuisine and celebrity. Specifically, it discusses masculinity as a socially constructed gender practice (Bristor and Fischer, 1993), examining materialisations of such practice in the form of visualisations of social relations as resources for 'thinking gender' or 'doing gender'. The transformative potential of the visualisations is illuminated by exploring the narrative content choreographed within a series of photographic images positioning the market appeal of a celebrity chef through the medium of a contemporary lifestyle cookery book. We consider how images of men 'doing masculinity'are not only channelled into reproducing existing gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in the service of commercial ends, but also into disrupting such enduring stereotyping through subtle reframing. We acknowledge that masculinity is already inscribed within conventionalised representations of culinary culture. In this case we consider how traces of masculinity are exploited and reinscribed through contemporary images that generate resources for rethinking masculine roles and identities, especially when viewed through the lens of stereotypically feminised pursuits such as shopping, food preparation, cooking, and the communal intimacy of food sharing. We identify unsettling tensions within the compositions, arguing that they relate to discursive spaces between the gendered positions written into the images and the popular imagination they feed off. Set against landscapes of culinary culture, we argue that the images invoke a brand of naively roughish "laddishness" or "blokishness", rendering it in domesticated form not only as benign and containable, but fashionable, pliable and, importantly, desirable. We conclude that although the images draw on stereotypical premeditated notions of a feral, boisterous and untamed heterosexual masculinity, they also set in motion gender-blending narratives

The Customary International Law Game

Structural realists in political science and some rationalist legal scholars argue that customary international law cannot affect state behavior: that it is “epiphenomenal.” This article develops a game theoretic model of a multilateral prisoner’s dilemma in the customary international law context that shows that it is plausible that states would comply with customary international law under certain circumstances. Our model shows that these circumstances relate to: (i) the relative value of cooperation versus defection, (ii) the number of states effectively involved, (iii) the extent to which increasing the number of states involved increases the value of cooperation or the detriments of defection, including whether the particular issue has characteristics of a commons problem, a public good, or a network good, (iv) the information available to the states involved regarding compliance and defection, (v) the relative patience of states in valuing the benefits of long-term cooperation compared to short-term defection, (vi) the expected duration of interaction, (vii) the frequency of interaction, and (viii) whether there are also bilateral relationships or other multilateral relationships between the involved states. This model shows that customary international law is plausible in the sense that it may well affect state behavior where certain conditions are met. It shows what types of contexts, including malleable institutional features, may affect the ability of states to produce and comply with customary international law. This article identifies a number of empirical strategies that may be used to test the model