Communal Consumption Research Articles

Learning to be tribal: facilitating the formation of consumer tribes

PurposeStudies of marketplace cultures emphasize the benefits of communal consumption and explain the ways that brand managers can leverage subcultures and brand communities. The ephemeral and often non‐commercial nature of consumer tribes means that they are more difficult to manage. This paper, aims to suggest that a necessary pre‐requisite for understanding how to engage with consumer tribes is to identify how consumers become members of tribes.Design/methodology/approachData are drawn from a five‐year ethnographic study of the archetypical club culture tribe that utilized a variety of data collection methods including participant observation and in‐depth interviewing.FindingsThe paper identifies “learning to be tribal” as a communal practice that occurs through three interconnected processes of engagement, imagination and alignment.Originality/valueThis paper makes three contributions: it clearly distinguishes between the three main forms of communal consumption found in the marketing literature; it identifies how consumer tribes are formed; and it questions received wisdom and shows how tribal theory can guide managers to offer products and services as learning resources that facilitate tribal practices.

Communal Consumption of VCD/DVD and Social Change in the Urban Kampung Community Indonesia

This study looks at the consumption of video disc among the viewers in such urban middle-lower class community settlement in Surabaya, Indonesia. The entertainment consumers in urban Indonesia have been spoiled with cheap of abundance piracy productions of foreign and national films, TV soaps, dramas, and other audio visual materials in the form of VCD and/or DVD in the market. Apart from this feature, the consumption of sexual scenes and pornographic materials has become the so-called ‘common secret’ among those social class communities in their everyday of media consumption. They do not just buy the discs, but also rent and swap each other within the kampung neighbourhood environment. Applying an ethnography method, this study observes the discourse of cultural consumption of the middle-lower class community toward the audio-visual productions of VCD and/or DVD in such neighbourhood alley and the practice of communal consumption. The result shows how those kampung communal viewers have experienced as spectators of a “dish of entertainment” in their particular class context, as well as practicing the mode of communal imaginative experience in the contemporary cultural liberalisation in Indonesia post-authoritarian era. Keywords: urban kampung community, cultural consumption, communal consumption, spectatorship

All together now: A symphony orchestra audience as a consuming community

This study examines the nature of communal consumption in the context of audience experience of the performing arts. Building on existing literature on consumption communities and ritualistic perspectives on shared event‐based consumption, it uses focus groups and participant observation to investigate the experience of members of a UK symphony orchestra's audience as a consuming community (a “consumity” in short). It finds tensions between respondents' perceptions of their individual and collective experience, framed within a pervasive anxiety about the sustainability of both audience and art form. It concludes that the communal aspect of audience experience is more complex and inflected than current notions of shared consumption acknowledge, in particular with respect to the audience's sense of itself over time. It concludes by questioning the absence from current arts marketing discourse of a more integrated view of the experience of customers in a temporal context.

The Moment and Place for a Special Issue

These are more than interesting times. They are the times in which the ideology and practices of consumption have multiplied across the earth to levels of complexity, subtlety, and influence that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. The problems and challenges related to consumer behaviors today include, but are not restricted to, unhealthy eating, effective and safe use of the Internet, substance abuse (e.g., alcohol, drugs), tobacco consumption, poor financial planning, aging and being elderly, disablements and impairments, indigence and illiteracy, education and socialization of young consumers, sexually transmitted diseases, and environmental deterioration. At the same time, many consumer behaviors support and enhance life. These include, but are not limited to, hobbies, exercise, festivals and celebrations, sustainable consumption behaviors (e.g., efficient water use, recycling), donations and communal consumption, and an array of artistic endeavors (e.g., music, painting). Over the years, unfortunately, the field of consumer research has generally underprioritized scholarship for alleviating problems and advancing opportunities of well-being. Related contributions from the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ) have been correspondingly irregular. Since its founding in 1974, the Journal of Consumer Research has been the foremost learned outlet of its kind. It has welcomed a diversity of topics and research paradigms and consistently included the highest quality of theoretical advances and methodological sophistication. However, in reviewing the supplement that the journal published in 2004 of all the abstracts of articles it published during its initial 30 years, inconsistencies and gaps of research on human and earthly welfare become clear. Splitting the first 30 …

Introducing structuration theory in communal consumption behavior research

PurposeIn community research, there is a large gap between theoretical developments and empirical proves. Especially, in micro‐macro contexts, where the interaction between micro‐ (the community member) and macro‐(the community) level variables have significant effects, no comprehensive theoretical approach that explicitly frames micro‐macro phenomena has been considered in empirical methodology. This study attempts to present a multilevel theoretical framework which explains the complex interrelationship of various elements that shape consumption experience and market institutions.Design/methodology/approachBased on practical questions related to community research, where individuals act in communal contexts, shape the community and are influenced by the community, the importance of studying micro‐macro phenomena are discussed. These preliminaries form assumptions that are integrated into theoretical and methodological developments. It is shown how structuration approaches meet the assumptions on communal consumption research and how multilevel analyses fit into the assumptions that are raised by the structuration approach.FindingsThe paper develops and presents a multilevel model, which represents the interplay among various cultural levels that influence consumption experience and the evolution of consumption trends. This model proposes a theoretical framework which explains structuration in consumer research contexts.Originality/valueAcademics can use this study to understand the link between communal consumption theory to methodology. They have access to a research framework that integrates micro‐macro effects and receive some ideas on possible structures and variables they can analyze. Practitioners learn that within communal research consumption patterns do not only influence individuals, but they also determine the community's structure that in turn shapes the behaviour of its members.

Eating at the Buffet of Love: “Consummating” Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding in Vancouver

Food and the communal consumption and enjoyment of food are a focal point of Italian wedding receptions in North America as in Italy (Harney 265), but food and eating take centre stage only briefly in Hoarse Raven Theatre’s Vancouver production of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. Vinnie Black, the caterer character, introduces the wedding feast, his “Buffet of Love,” with silly pomp: accompanied by dramatic music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Vinnie lopes through the reception hall wrapped in an Italian flag and waving a plastic light-sabre toy and effuses into the microphone about how the buffet food has been lovingly prepared. But the fanfare quickly dies down. Even as the first table of audience members queues to load its plates with pasta, chicken, and salads, the antic, diffuse plot of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding continues to unfold. The food, in its comforting abundance, quietly gives up the spotlight.

Sophistication in Simplicity

My aim in this paper is to explore the significance of the first production of wheelmade pottery during the earlier part of the Late Bronze Age on Cyprus (ca. 1650–1320 BC), considering a combination of technological and stylistic ceramic attributes. I examine the evidence—using unpublished pottery data from the key site of Enkomi in comparison with other published settlements—within the framework of a range of transformations in society and material culture that occurred during this period. I argue that the initial impact of integration into eastern Mediterranean trading systems precipitated an attempt by sectors of the population to acquire the accoutrements of ‘urban’ living, including the introduction of a range of Levantine-inspired vessels of standardized and simplified appearance, particularly associated with new communal consumption practices. However, lacking the urban infrastructure with which the introduction of wheel-forming technology is otherwise associated, the Cypriot response appears to be unique for the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. This challenges the persistent assumption of an evolutionary sequence whereby ostensibly superior wheelmade pottery gradually replaces handmade wares.The evidence suggests instead a dynamic process whereby the entire Cypriot population is actively involved in the construction of social identity as expressed through material culture.

Sophistication in Simplicity: The First Production of Wheelmade Pottery on late Bronze-Age Cyprus

My aim in this paper is to explore the significance of the first production of wheelmade pottery during the earlier part of the Late Bronze Age on Cyprus (ca. 1650–1320 BC), considering a combination of technological and stylistic ceramic attributes. I examine the evidence—using unpublished pottery data from the key site of Enkomi in comparison with other published settlements—within the framework of a range of transformations in society and material culture that occurred during this period. I argue that the initial impact of integration into eastern Mediterranean trading systems precipitated an attempt by sectors of the population to acquire the accoutrements of ‘urban’ living, including the introduction of a range of Levantine-inspired vessels of standardized and simplified appearance, particularly associated with new communal consumption practices. However, lacking the urban infrastructure with which the introduction of wheel-forming technology is otherwise associated, the Cypriot response appears to be unique for the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. This challenges the persistent assumption of an evolutionary sequence whereby ostensibly superior wheelmade pottery gradually replaces handmade wares.The evidence suggests instead a dynamic process whereby the entire Cypriot population is actively involved in the construction of social identity as expressed through material culture.

The kibbutz for organizational behavior

The kibbutz is the equivalent of a laboratory for organization science. Its scope of activities, which includes agricultural and industrial production, the socialization and education of children, management of communal consumption, and national defense, is broader than any other organization. It therefore demonstrates the potential to extend organization to areas of life traditionally governed by other institutions. The kibbutz has also experimented with a number of practices aimed at balancing equality with progress. The success of the kibbutz by paying all participants the same, regularly rotating managers out of their posts, and eschewing hierarchy challenges widely held beliefs about motivation, control and coordination in organizations. Some efforts at equality failed, notably those regarding gender, but even the kibbutz's failures are informative about organizations. We analyze and integrate research on kibbutz structure, practices and external relationships in order to distill lessons for organization behavior.

CHANGES IN LEISURE CULTURE IN THE KIBBUTZ

ABSTRACT The leisure culture of the Kibbutzim has undergone many changes, and can be characterized by the following: 1. 1. Most of the Kibbutz members who perform physical work in agriculture, industry and services have developed a high level of aspiration for creative self-actualization. The search for self-actualization expresses itself both in the areas of work and leisure bringing forth original patterns of integration between the two.2. 2. The norms of the communal consumption do not encourage the usual process of increase in aspiration of material consumptions and on the other hand facilitate cultural consumptions and create conditions for creative leisure.3. 3. The division of free time between obligations and leisure activity in the Kibbutzim is different from other societies. Family obligations have become quasi leisure activities while public obligations have increased as a result of the participative democracy.4. 4. There is a decrease in communal activities that include all members and an increase in the activity of the Kibbutz institutions in developing a large number of activities among which the members can choose.5. 5. A network of regional and country-wide cultural organizations has developed and enabled the Kibbutzim to enjoy high standards of cultural consumptions and creative leisure not withstanding their small populations and the distance from urban centres.