Consumption as Serious Leisure: Understanding the Analog Revival
Event Date: 26 May 2021
Speaker: Professor Michael Beverland
Time: 2.30pm
This research seminar - Consumption as Serious Leisure: Understanding the Analog Revival - will take place via Zoom. Please email christina.maclean@strath.ac.uk for Zoom details.
Biography:
Born in New Zealand, I have held posts in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. I am currently an Adjunct Professor at Copenhagen Business School. Previously I have worked at University of Bath, University of Melbourne, and Monash University. I started at the University of Sussex on June 1st, 2018. My main area of expertise is brand management; in particular brand authenticity and brand innovation. As well, I write on consumer culture theory, the revival of analog technology, sustainability and dietary practices, design-driven innovation, and creativity and brand management. My work has been published widely, including in leading journals such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Marketing Theory (among others). My work primarily draws on qualitative methods, although I am always open to joint projects using mixed approaches. I have published teaching case materials via the Harvard Business School and my current textbook is Brand Management: Cocreating Brand Meaning Second Edition (Sage 2021). My previous books include Building Brand Authenticity and Redesigning Manufacturing. In my spare time I travel, listen to live music, take photographs, cycle, drink coffee, and draw. A full list of my publications is available on Google Scholar.
Abstract
A growing stream of research examines how consumers decelerate via extraordinary, transformative experiences that take place within an oasis of deceleration. However, these experiences are temporary, spatially bounded, and their effects wear out. Our work extends this research by examining how consumers can decelerate and gain meaning in more regularly accessible leisure pursuits. We invoke the serious leisure perspective to explore the analog revival, focusing on consumer experiences with three legacy technologies: vinyl, photographic film, and analog synthesizers. We draw on interviews and ethnographic insights to reveal how the adoption of legacy technologies is a form of serious leisure that redresses consumers’ alienation from the ease of consumption. We articulate a four stage SLP process by which consumers experience difficulty, discipline and mastery in solid consumption to enable them to achieve the desired decelerative outcome of flow. We make four primary contributions to the consumer research literature: (1) expanding our understanding of the value of consumer work; (2) providing a wider cultural perspective on technocultures and the re-adoption of analog technology; (3) explicating how deceleration can be achieved via solid consumption and escaping the digital in everyday life; and (4) building upon the serious leisure perspective via consumer research.
Published: 11 May 2021
