Beyond consumption experiences.
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The term ‘consumption experience’ has become ubiquitous in \nmarketing and consumer research circles. In this thesis I question \nthe appropriateness of this canonical term. In its stead I employ the \nnon-dualistic term ‘experiaction’, coined by an ecological \npsychologist, which points to the functional inseparability of \nexperiencing and actions. \nI adopt a field-theoretical, phenomenologically-informed, \nperspective, whilst participating in, analysing, and writing about ten \nvideo-recorded research conversations. Likewise I address the \nvarious spin-off texts deriving from the initial conversations, such as \ntranscripts and viewing-logs. I show that ‘field’-embedded \nindividuals notice and act on many aspects of their immediate \nmicro-environments, including their own intra-personal goings-on \nand expressive outputs. \nThrough data analysis I identify five categories of regulable \nvariables that an individual can act on as s/he seeks to regulate \nhis/her sensing, relative to his/her reference value(s). Seen through \nthis cybernetic lens, momentary human being comprises of a \ncyclical, ongoing process of self-regulation, in which individuals expediently employ and/or modify accessible resources and goings-on, in the service of seeking to actualise their currently-preferred, or expected, states-of-being, and to minimise unwelcome deviations therefrom. \nThis thesis challenges the prevalent notion that when people consume particular products/services these offerings sponsor offering-dedicated experiences - what some people describe as ‘consumption experiences’. The concept of experiaction, in contrast, comprises of an ongoing interaction between a person and his/her micro-environment, in which the individual attends to, and acts on, whichever aspect(s) of his/her 360°-‘inner’-‘outer’-‘field’ become(s) momentarily salient to him/her, within the parameters imposed by his/her currently-sustained reference value(s).
Author: Michael Norman Woodward
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W961471621