Towards an experiential identity of place:The case of Manchester’s Craft and Design Centre

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore the role and potential of lived experiences in informing and shaping the formation of place identity within the sphere of the production and consumption of craft objects. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is part of a larger funded research project and focuses on Manchester’s Craft and Design Centre. It draws upon a series of in-depth interviews conducted with craft makers and visitors. Findings: The analysis and interpretation of textual data help to theorise an experiential identity of place, which revolves around the fusion of the cultural heritage and lived insideness of the physical setting; activity spaces and the micro-encounters of craft-making; and conflicting meanings and attachments to the Craft and Design Centre. Originality/value: This study provides a novel perspective on the understanding of place identity in the context of craft-making by focusing on the lived experiences of various stakeholders and acknowledging the multi-faceted, dynamic and processual nature of place

The spatial aspects of musical taste:conceptualising consumers' place-dependent identity investments

Consumer research has largely left implicit the interrelationships of space and place with taste. This multi-sited ethnographic study explores how consumers enact, perform, and further develop their musical tastes via their aesthetic experiences in popular (indie) and classical music places. Our findings suggest that consumers create place-dependent identity investments, which unfold via a tripartite experiential process of manifesting habitus, undertaking habitation, and expressing idiolocality. Our study contributes to diverse streams of consumer research such as consumer behaviour, consumer culture theory, and experiential marketing, and opens up avenues for future research focused on the intersections of place with taste

Consumption Field Driven Entrepreneurship (CFDE):How does membership in the indie music field shape individuals’ entrepreneurial journey

Purpose: This study aims to explore how membership (initially as a consumer) in a given field shapes individuals’ entrepreneurial journey. Design/methodology: Our research context is the cultural and creative industries and, in particular, the independent (indie) music field in which we conducted unstructured interviews with nascent and established cultural entrepreneurs. Findings: We introduce and justify our theoretical framework of Consumption Field Driven Entrepreneurship (CFDE) that captures the tripartite process via which our informants make the transition from indie music consumers to entrepreneurs by developing field-specific illusio, enacting entrepreneurial habitus, and acquiring legitimacy via symbolic capital accumulation within the indie music field. We further illustrate how these entrepreneurs adopt the paradoxical logics, aesthetics and ethos of the indie music field by moving in-between its authentic and commercial discourses to orchestrate their entrepreneurial journey. Research limitations/implications: Our study holds several theoretical implications for entrepreneurship-oriented research. First of all, we highlight the importance of non-financial resources (i.e., cultural and social capital) in individuals' entrepreneurial journey. Secondly, our study illustrates the importance of consumption activities in the process of gaining entrepreneurial legitimation within a specific field. Finally, our study contributes to consumption-driven entrepreneurship research by offering a detailed description of individuals' consumption-driven entrepreneurial journey. Practical implications: Our study provides some initial practical implications for entrepreneurs within the cultural and creative industries. We illustrate how membership in a field (initially as a consumer) might turn into a source of skills, competences and community for entrepreneurs by mobilising and converting different forms of non-material and material field-specific capital. In order to acquire entrepreneurial legitimation, nascent entrepreneurs should gain symbolic capital through the approval, recognition and credit from members of the indie music field. Also, entrepreneurs can acquire symbolic capital and gain entrepreneurial legitimation by either ‘fitting in’ or ‘standing out’ from the existing logics of the field. Originality/value: Our study contributes to the growing body of literature that examines entrepreneurship fuelled by consumption practices and passions with our theoretical framework of Consumption Field Driven Entrepreneurship (CFDE) which outlines the transition from indie music consumers to indie music entrepreneurs

Experiential marketing and the changing nature of extraordinary experiences in post-postmodern consumer culture

Prior experiential marketing research suggests that extraordinary consumption experiences take place within antistructural frames, i.e. outside the realms of everyday life. This paper challenges that notion, through an ethnographic study of consumers attending the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, Spain. We demonstrate that festival attendees perceive their experiences to be extraordinary, despite these occurring within ‘everyday’ structural frames. Consumers’ extraordinary experiences unfold through their negotiation of a series of structural and antistructural marketplace tensions, including commercialism/authenticity, ordinary/escapist, and immersion/communing. We outline the theoretical implications of our research for the changing nature of extraordinary consumption experiences, in light of post-postmodern consumer culture. We conclude with managerial implications and provide suggested avenues for future research

Spatial Authenticity and Extraordinary Experiences:Music Festivals and the Everyday Nature of Tourism Destinations

Research taking into account the everyday nature of tourism destinations and its impact upon authenticity and attendees’ resulting extraordinary experiences is limited. Drawing upon a three-year ethnography (including fieldnotes, photos/videos, artefact material) and interviews with festival attendees, we explore the interrelationships between authenticity and extraordinary experiences in the context of Primavera Sound music festival. Our emergent thematic categories – the festival’s indie music character, its urban and quotidian configuration, and the instrumental orientation of the festival experience – suggest the festival is firmly positioned within the structures of the indie music industry, while also being located within the confines of day-to-day urban life. Attendees seek to achieve a sense of spatial authenticity by engaging with the features of tourism destinations. We contribute to discussions about authenticity and extraordinary experiences by unpacking the everyday nature of tourism destinations, demonstrating that not all music festivals need to be “extraordinary” muddy camping events

Spatial taste formation as a place marketing tool:The case of live music consumption

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to explore how spatial taste formation and the interrelationships between place and taste can inform the development of contemporary place marketing and/or place management strategies. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on previous research conducted within the context of live music consumption and, in particular, within live musical spaces such as festivals and concert halls. Findings - Our study illustrates how spatial taste formation can inform the development of topographies of taste which focus on the creation of field-specific experiences. It also offers insights for understanding the phenomenological uniqueness of various places and the role of place users and other stakeholders in the creation of place marketing and branding value. Originality/value - We elaborate upon the potential usefulness of spatial taste formation for place management and marketing research practice and draw out implications for future research. We advance a holistic and phenomenological understanding of place which illustrates how users’ perceptions of place are shaped by their experiences in various places and by the interplay of these experiences with their individual tastes and vice versa

Musical taste and the creation of place-dependent capital:Manchester and the indie music field

Drawing on qualitative interviews with indie music fans in Manchester, UK, we explore how experiences in the indie music field inform spatial and place-specific understandings of musical taste. Inspired by Bourdieu’s sociology of taste, the concept of place-dependent capital incorporates the interplay of the experiential dimensions of taste, and the overall structures in which they are embedded. We develop our findings into three themes, which allow us to highlight the diversity of ways in which our participants create place-dependent capital: exploring the taste of place; dwelling in place; and creating a sense of place. We propose the usefulness of place-dependent capital as an alternative theoretical tool, which acknowledges both structural and experiential dimensions of musical taste, allowing us to demonstrate the situatedness of indie music fans’ tastes