Papers by Christine Lavrence
As-if Happy
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
Cultural Sociology, Aug 6, 2019
Popular discourse describing selfies as the "narcissistic" 2 practice of teenagers or a tool of p... more Popular discourse describing selfies as the "narcissistic" 2 practice of teenagers or a tool of personal empowerment, minimize the structural constraints under which selfies operate as a ubiquitous mode of sociality. Based on focus group discussions in two Canadian cities, we explore how young adults describe their selfie experiences and explore three discursive tensions expressed in the transcripts. First, how questions of "control" were taken up; second, how "visibility" was understood as fragile, and animated by an anxiety of invisibility; third, the nature of "fun" that selfies generate. We conclude by exploring some of the epistemological shifts that these practices indicate.
Mechanics
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
Becoming Digital She-Objects
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
Towards a Sociology of Selfies
This book examines selfies as a relational and processual networked social practice, performed be... more This book examines selfies as a relational and processual networked social practice, performed between people within digital contexts and that involve online/ offline intersections and tensions. It offers an analysis of selfies through a rich and interdisciplinary framework that explores the ritualized and affective engagements selfies provoke from others. Given that selfies by definition are shared and posted through networked platforms, they complicate notions of traditional photographic selfportraiture. As such, this book explores how selfies invoke broader, stratified patterns of looking that are occluded in discourses of "empowerment" and "visibility," as well as the subjectivities these networked practices work to produce. Drawing on extensive qualitative research conducted over a period of three years, this book questions not only what selfies are but what they do, the worlds they create, the imaginaries that organize them, and the flows of desire, affect, and normativity that underpin them, questions that can only be addressed through research that closely attends to the experience of selfie-takers. It will be of interest to those working in the fields of Sociology, Cultural studies, Communications, Visual studies, Social Media studies, Feminist research, and Affect Theory.
“Saturatedly Perfect”
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
This Is Not a Like
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
Algorithmic Sociality
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
Hashtags and the Optics of Optimization
Routledge eBooks, Jan 4, 2023
As-if Happy
Towards a Sociology of Selfies
Cultural Sociology, 2019
Popular discourse describing selfies as the “narcissistic”2 practice of teenagers or a tool of pe... more Popular discourse describing selfies as the “narcissistic”2 practice of teenagers or a tool of personal empowerment, minimize the structural constraints under which selfies operate as a ubiquitous mode of sociality. Based on focus group discussions in two Canadian cities, we explore how young adults describe their selfie experiences and explore three discursive tensions expressed in the transcripts. First, how questions of “control” were taken up; second, how “visibility” was understood as fragile, and animated by an anxiety of invisibility; third, the nature of “fun” that selfies generate. We conclude by exploring some of the epistemological shifts that these practices indicate.
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2014
Cet article s'intéresse à l’énorme réussite de lululemon athletica, et en particulier à la fa... more Cet article s'intéresse à l’énorme réussite de lululemon athletica, et en particulier à la façon dont ses stratégies de marque s'approprient la pratique du yoga pour les intégrer à un modèle consumériste de discipline et de soin de soi. On arguera que la stratégie de marque de lululemon est liée à l'hyperindividualisme néolibéral ainsi qu'aux discours plus généraux de développement personnel qui définissent le bien‐être comme un accomplissement personnel et moral. Nous approfondissons la façon dont la stratégie de marque lululemon se reporte constamment à des concepts vagues, homogénéisateurs et extrême‐orientaux des spiritualités du Levant, qui instrumentalisent les pratiques yogiques et renforcent les idéologies occidentales en matière de santéisme, parallèlement à la performance personnelle, corporelle et commerciale. Nous arguons que lululemon intègre au consumérisme des discours de prise de pouvoir, illustrant la façon dont les discours de choix et de soin de so...
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Papers by Christine Lavrence