Theorising Place As Practiced Object of Consumption
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THEORISING PLACE AS PRACTICED OBJECT OF CONSUMPTION: A STREET ETHNOGRAPHIC STORY Volume 1 of 2 Submitted By USHA SUNDARAM SID: 590062334 To the UNIVERSITY OF EXETER for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Studies March 2016 This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. (USHA SUNDARAM) 1 ABSTRACT This study theorises and conceptualises place as an object of consumption, formed, shaped, and affected through practices. The study problematizes place treatments in extant managerial sciences and its contextual interpretations within consumption. It draws from a range of disciplinary inspirations from management studies, social sciences, philosophical, and phenomenological musings to empirically interrogate place construct using ethnography, in itself understood as placemaking practice. It analyses and interprets place through the lens of practice theories and non-representational methods to conceptualise place in consumption, and critically revisits its ontological hierarchy vis-à-vis space. The study delivers several methodological, theoretical, and axiological contributions. It uses an adapted form of historical street ethnography to interrogate place, imbuing it with a critical reflexive standpoint, and positions a revitalised and reinvigorated street ethnography as a critical reflexive epistemic tool of knowledge production in the analytical transitions from phenomenological to post-phenomenological narratives. The study’s theoretical, discipline-specific contributions arise from synchronous examinations of place, consumption, practice, and non-representations. It empirically validates heuristics of non-representation and practices in contextually examining place in consumption, appreciates genomic qualities of practices brigaded through universality of human experiences as pools of actions and competencies articulating consumption, and contemplates place as 2 a processual, aspatial, fluid entity grasped beyond marketplace logic through practices. It expands understandings of marketplace, setting, structure, and actor, and invites attention to the liquefied, flowing nature of market and consumption through place plasticity and path-dependent practices. It emphasises the illocutionary force of place as object of consumption shaped through and in each moment of practice. The study empirically validates the reenchanted ontology of place, resituating it as the universal supreme abstract with space and time as component, co-constitutive elements, thus resituating extant place-space hierarchy. The study’s axiological and managerial contributions highlight mutability of practices in shaping place beyond marketplace logic in its many forms and settings, valorise everyday activities in shaping marketplace, illuminate the role of public, civic, and communal spaces and their contributions in the transition from market economy to marketized society not captured by marketplace discourses, and invite practice and non-representations into depictions of place marketing and consumption. 3 LIST OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 6 II. Literature Review 18 a. Introduction i. Place in Marketing 21 1. Place as Servicescape 2. Place as Product-Commodity 3. Pause for Thought ii. Place beyond Marketing 69 1. Place, Space, and Social 2. Revisiting Place-Space Hierarchy 3. Contemplating Place 4. Habitus and Practices 5. Practices and Consumption 6. Non-Representational Theories 7. Summary III. Methodology 106 a. Introduction b. Research Approach c. Street Ethnography 112 d. Historic Street Ethnography e. Epistemic Adaptation 114 f. Empirical Data Set g. Ethnographic Field Site and Context h. Critical Reflexive Ethnography 155 i. Summary 4 IV. Ethnography and Placemaking 171 a. Site, Space, and Place 174 b. Stories from the Street 197 i. Earning Livelihoods 19 8 ii. Managing Money 21 6 iii. Celebrating 241 iv. Grieving 25 5 v. Eating 26 3 vi. Being Becoming Belonging 282 V. Analysis and Discussion: Place as an Object of Consumption a. Introduction 311 i. Practices Body and Place 318 1. Non-Representational Practices and Habitus 2. Phenomenological Registers 3. Shades of Affective Practices 4. Practices and (in) Place ii. Protean Practices Transcendental Place 360 1. Practices in Performing Bodies 2. Place as a Gathering of Practices 3. Texture Somatography Eventuation 4. Conceptualising Place VI. Conclusions and Contributions 393 Bibliography 411 Appendices 1-6 458 5 I. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Place is a pivotal crucible in people’s lives. As physical, virtual, or metaphorical construct, place defines and shapes people’s hopes and dreams inasmuch as it is shaped in turn by their actions, practices, and traces of lives lived and left behind. Country, culture, and territory illustrate tangible, recognisable frames of reference to explain and articulate place. Less apparent are the multitudinal fragments, traces, etchings, and mutual imprints that people and places leave upon one another that are beyond immediate grasp. This research project has been about capturing that indefinable something by bringing together stories and resonances – mine, my places, places in me, and many physical, virtual, metaphorical, and memorial places of life. This study was nurtured by many inputs – my background in tourism studies and its disciplinary pathways, my eclectic reading habits, Nigel Thrift’s lecture on place and non-representation, Edward Casey’s books that captured and resonated with my own thinking and philosophy, the field site that slowly but surely revealed its richness behind the apparent ordinariness, and the people who readily shared their place stories. The process of carrying out the field work was hugely influential in driving the project along, shaping the study, defining its parameters, clarifying objectives, and positioning researcher standpoint and reflexivity. The daily struggles of carrying out empirical work and the loneliness of the research endeavour shaped me into a strongly critical reflexive researcher. Empirical data drove me to read and think more. The longer I remained in the field site in the company of people, the greater clarity I gained from seemingly everyday occurrences 6 and innocuous moments. Participating in celebrations or routine kitchen activities, watching people pray, garden, cook, count rosaries, play bingo, record expenses, slice vegetables, or simply sit in silent companionship, I recognised common patterns of human emotions, feelings, and practices that bound together people and place. In the process, little memories became significant, meaningful resonances of place, action, and habit – reading under the ancient banyan tree of Adyar Theosophical Society, quiet contemplation in Oxford’s Bodleian, a lifelong passion for Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and her formidable ability to unlock mysteries by teasing out universal patterns of human experience from the most obscure of details, my own constant search for place and its meaning in life and work, situating myself within the academic community, finding my personal space and voice. From these multiple, formative influences, I drew fragmentary threads of ideas that brought the study together. My fascination with place was fed and enriched by eclectic, wide-ranging, interdisciplinary reading habits, but upon reflection was conceptually impoverished by the paucity of theoretical grounding within the areas and disciplines of my everyday work. My interest in people and lives made me gravitate towards ethnographic storytelling rather than hypothetical constructions as a means of excavating their richness. My nomadic, itinerant, immigrant experience shaped largely by urban living drew my interest towards everyday ordinary actions and practices rather than the spectacle of aesthetics and identity. These seemed more authentic and real to me than artificial reification of symbolism and tropes. I remained curious about how people and place came together to make and recreate one another. And I returned time 7 and again to the philosophical, spiritual, and cosmological underpinnings of place based on my readings as well as my personal experiences. These influences have evolved into a critical interest in examining place, how it is situated within marketing sensibilities, and how it can be understood as a process rather than a finished product. Accordingly the aim of this research study is to theoretically interrogate “place” in marketing and consumption with a view to conceptualising it from a practices standpoint. To support this aim, key objectives are developed and addressed throughout the rest of the study, roughly aligned with each of the chapters: to (a) critically examine extant treatments of place in marketing and social sciences literature so the theoretical gap informing the study can be framed; (b) rationalise a phenomenologically sensitised street ethnography as placemaking practice and empirical method; (c) analyse the validity of practices and non-representational methods as empirical tools in deconstructing and reconstructing ethnographic place; (d) validate and evaluate the relevance of practices in positioning and conceptualising place within consumption; and (e) critique and empirically validate resituated