Papers by Lauren Gurrieri
Gender Work and Organization, 2019
The rise of digital technologies and social media platforms has been linked to changing forms of ... more The rise of digital technologies and social media platforms has been linked to changing forms of work, as well as the mainstreaming of pornography and a 'porn chic' aesthetic. This article examines some of the ways in which these themes coalesce, and interrogates the conceptual boundaries of sexualized labour, extending beyond traditional organizational settings and into Web 2.0. The study explores performances of sexualized labour on social media by analysing visual and textual content from 172 female influencers on Instagram. This article contributes to the literature on sexualized labour in three ways. First, by demonstrating how sexualized labour is enacted across various forms of influencer labour, and how this relates to the attention economy and monetization. Second, by developing the extant conceptualization of sexualized labour and introducing connective labour as a required element to mobilize sexualized labour. Third, by opening up a critical analysis of what is meant by 'sexualized' labour within a cultural context of pornographication.
Journal of Social Marketing, 2018
Purpose
This paper contributes to emerging discourse about social movements in social marketing b... more Purpose
This paper contributes to emerging discourse about social movements in social marketing by examining how tensions, issues and challenges may arise in areas of social change that have attracted social movements and the ways actors can come together to drive inclusive social change agendas.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the lens of new social movement theory, a case study of the interactions and dynamics between fat activists and obesity prevention public health actors is examined. This is undertaken through a multi-method qualitative analysis of interview and archival blog data of fat activists located in Australia, which was compared with the campaign materials and formative and evaluative research related to two high profile Australian Government funded anti-obesity campaigns.
Findings
The case analysis highlights the disconnect between public health actors and the marginalized voices of those they are meant to be representing. Whilst public health actors characterise obesity as a social issue of individual responsibility, disease and rational-decision making; fat activists frame a competing collective identity of well-being, support and self-acceptance that characterise their social change efforts.
Research limitations/implications
This research highlights how complexities arise but can potentially be overcome in creating inclusive social change coalitions that incorporate the voices of citizen groups whom have mobilised into social movements. Specifically, we highlight the importance of generating a common language around obesity, the significance of collaborative and supportive relations and the need to create common unity through emotional investment and returns - a departure from the highly rational approaches taken by most social change programs.
Practical implications
Obesity is a complex social issue marked by conflict and contestation between those who are obese and the very actors working to support them. Our research contends that creating an inclusive social change coalition between these stakeholders will require a shift towards language anchored in well-being as opposed to disease, relations defined by support as opposed to an emphasis on individual responsibility and emotional investments that work to bolster self-acceptance in place of rational appeals as to the “correct” behaviours one should chose to engage in. Such steps will ensure social change program design is collaborative and incorporates the lived experiences of the very citizens such initiatives are targeted towards.
Originality/value
We contribute to wider discussions in social marketing about the development of holistic and progressive, multi-stakeholder, multi-level programs by advocating that inclusive social change coalitions united through the collective identity elements of cognitions and language, relational ties and emotional investment offer an important step forward in tackling the wicked problems that social marketers work to address.
Journal of Social Marketing, 2014
Journal of Macromarketing
This response to Gould and Semaan’s (2014) commentary aims to both clarify misinterpretations of ... more This response to Gould and Semaan’s (2014) commentary aims to both clarify misinterpretations of and extend the positions taken in our article, “Women’s Bodies as Sites of Control: Inadvertent Stigma and Exclusion in Social Marketing.” Specifically, our response focuses on four areas: the ruse of individual responsibility and choice; the disciplinary and normalizing effects of surveillance; moving beyond micro-level “hot” and “cold” tactics; and the marginalizing effects of healthism. We conclude with a call for greater ethical responsibility in social marketing scholarship and practice, particularly through macro-level engagements at the socio-cultural level as a means of addressing the inadvertent effects of overly simplified campaign messages and images framed through the prism of neo-liberalism that manage and control the bodies of women.
Journal of Marketing Management, 2014
We employ Giddens’ structuration theory to gain insights into the interaction between upstream/mi... more We employ Giddens’ structuration theory to gain insights into the interaction between upstream/midstream and downstream social marketing perspectives. This is conducted through thirteen phenomenological interviews with informants who stand outside of the practice of alcohol consumption through their voluntary engagement in one month of sobriety. Our study identifies the ‘modalities’ located at the intersection between individual actions and the institutions of alcohol. By identifying these ‘modalities’, we conceptualise social marketing in interaction, which incorporates the institutional orders of domination, signification and legitimation, and the individual actions of power, communication and sanction. Specific domains of interventions are identified, namely marketplace offerings and promotional techniques, social grouping and positional status and rituals and traditions, through which social marketers can enact social change.
Qualitative Market Research: An …, 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse the representations and experiences of beauty am... more Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse the representations and experiences of beauty amongst fat women to understand how females located outside of the normative ideal consume, express, challenge and resist "straight" beauty. Design/methodology/approach -A netnographic approach is taken to analyse 922 blog posts written by five female "fatshionistas" who play a significant role in the Australian fat activism movement. Findings -The research findings illustrate that fatshionistas (re)negotiate cultural notions of beauty through three performative acts -coming out as fat, mobilising fat citizenship and flaunting fat.
Journal of Macromarketing, 2012
Responding to the call for critical examinations of the inadvertent effects of marketing (Dholaki... more Responding to the call for critical examinations of the inadvertent effects of marketing (Dholakia 2012), this article offers an examination of the underexplored impacts of social marketing campaigns that derive from government-defined agendas of ''healthism.'' Specifically, we examine how efforts aimed at the management of women's bodies can inadvertently render them sites of control. Drawing on embodiment theory, we consider how the neoliberal body project positions certain bodies as less acceptable, leaving women who engage in activities that run counter to prevailing health messages vulnerable to stigmatization and exclusion. Through three body control projects-breastfeeding, weight management, and physical activity-and a critical visual analysis of social marketing campaigns, we contend that the emerging field of critical social marketing must develop a broader social justice agenda along the lines of macromarketing. In doing so, consumers' corporeal representations and lived experiences will be better addressed and improved evaluations of social marketing's societal impacts can be developed.
Journal of Macromarketing, 2012
This article explores the normative barriers to anticonsumption practices and highlights that not... more This article explores the normative barriers to anticonsumption practices and highlights that not-for-profit organizations have an important role to play in facilitating the rejection of consumption. The study is based on thirteen phenomenological interviews with individuals who engaged in one month of alcohol abstinence and illustrates three cultural barriers to rejecting alcohol consumption, namely: the collective obligation to participate in entrenched sharing practices, the collective expectation to reciprocate in gift-giving practices of alcoholic commodities, and the identification of abstinence as deviant nonconformity. The study also discusses the role of nonprofits as change agents within society, emphasizing their ability to mobilize disenfranchised groups, give voice to unpopular causes and facilitate community building that breeds trust and cooperation.
Journal of Marketing Management, 2012
Although the identities of brands and consumers have been extensively explored, less is understoo... more Although the identities of brands and consumers have been extensively explored, less is understood about the subjectivity of marketers themselves. In the ambiguous and dynamic exchange process of marketing, the articulation of identities is fundamental to demarcate the activities and actions that take place between market actors. In recent times, growing importance has been placed on a different breed of marketer in these exchanges – the cultural intermediary. For these marketing practitioners, knowledge about the interplay between culture and economy generates the cultural capital that legitimises their expertise and value. Yet, this simultaneously gives rise to the difficult navigation and accomplishment of boundaries between their work and pleasure. Through a case study of two coolhunting agencies, this paper examines how marketers discursively perform boundary work in the construction of their identities. The findings show that, for coolhunters, a tension exists in drawing on discourses of renegadism and professionalism to construct their identities, resulting in their engagement in chameleon-like identity work. The research proposes that the tensions pervading the construction of boundaries and identities for marketers can be usefully understood through a paradox lens, and offers the metaphor of the nomad as a theoretical representation of interwoven identity conflicts for marketers.
This paper seeks to understand how consumers negotiate contested symbolic meanings 'permanently' ... more This paper seeks to understand how consumers negotiate contested symbolic meanings 'permanently' marked on the body. It offers four images of identity - assumed, trialled, tribal and trapped. In doing so, the research aims to provide a metaphorical understanding of identity work in consumer research.
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Papers by Lauren Gurrieri
This paper contributes to emerging discourse about social movements in social marketing by examining how tensions, issues and challenges may arise in areas of social change that have attracted social movements and the ways actors can come together to drive inclusive social change agendas.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the lens of new social movement theory, a case study of the interactions and dynamics between fat activists and obesity prevention public health actors is examined. This is undertaken through a multi-method qualitative analysis of interview and archival blog data of fat activists located in Australia, which was compared with the campaign materials and formative and evaluative research related to two high profile Australian Government funded anti-obesity campaigns.
Findings
The case analysis highlights the disconnect between public health actors and the marginalized voices of those they are meant to be representing. Whilst public health actors characterise obesity as a social issue of individual responsibility, disease and rational-decision making; fat activists frame a competing collective identity of well-being, support and self-acceptance that characterise their social change efforts.
Research limitations/implications
This research highlights how complexities arise but can potentially be overcome in creating inclusive social change coalitions that incorporate the voices of citizen groups whom have mobilised into social movements. Specifically, we highlight the importance of generating a common language around obesity, the significance of collaborative and supportive relations and the need to create common unity through emotional investment and returns - a departure from the highly rational approaches taken by most social change programs.
Practical implications
Obesity is a complex social issue marked by conflict and contestation between those who are obese and the very actors working to support them. Our research contends that creating an inclusive social change coalition between these stakeholders will require a shift towards language anchored in well-being as opposed to disease, relations defined by support as opposed to an emphasis on individual responsibility and emotional investments that work to bolster self-acceptance in place of rational appeals as to the “correct” behaviours one should chose to engage in. Such steps will ensure social change program design is collaborative and incorporates the lived experiences of the very citizens such initiatives are targeted towards.
Originality/value
We contribute to wider discussions in social marketing about the development of holistic and progressive, multi-stakeholder, multi-level programs by advocating that inclusive social change coalitions united through the collective identity elements of cognitions and language, relational ties and emotional investment offer an important step forward in tackling the wicked problems that social marketers work to address.