Consumption as Transgressive Boundary Crossing

Adopting transgression as an analytical lens, grounded in the ideas and practices of ‘boundary crossing’’ and drawing on data collected primarily at the Whitby Goth Festival, North East England, this session will propose a framework of transgressive consumption mediated by and enabled through, 'spaces of transgression'. Central to the analysis are transgressive bodies and transgressive practices. I will discuss how ‘reordering’ techniques, often in the form of violence, are employed when the doxa of normality is challenged through the crossing of boundaries between the mainstream and those deemed transgressive.

About the speaker

Christina Goulding is Professor of Marketing at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. She currently leads one of two key departmental research groups, cultural and aesthetic consumption. Her interests include consuming the past, subcultures of consumption, transgression and boundary crossing, and the development and application of qualitative methodologies. Christina has authored a book on Grounded Theory published by Sage, and is co-author of Critical Marketing: Defining the Field. Christina is currently Associate Editor for Annals of Tourism Research and has served as Associate Editor for Journal of Consumer Research. She sits on the Advisory Board of Consumption, Markets, and Culture and is a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, and Marketing Theory. She is a life-time Fellow of The Academy of Marketing.

About ETHM Research Seminars

We host an ‘open’ research seminar series each year covering recent advances within the field. We have attracted speakers from universities across the globe to debate issues which affect the events, tourism and hospitality sector.