Studying gendered embodied consumption with poststructuralist feminist hermeneutics
ISSN: 1352-2752
Article publication date: 11 October 2021
Issue publication date: 19 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to consider how research methodologies and methods can afford holistic inquiry into gendered embodied consumption. Noting the salience of gender in past and present discourse surrounding the body and building on poststructuralist feminist hermeneutic philosophy and practice, the authors introduce a novel methodological framework situated within three considerations borne of the current socio-cultural landscape: the politics of embodiment, embodied identity and intersectionality.
Design/methodology/approach
To assist scholars and practitioners in interpreting themes of gendered embodiment in textual data surrounding consumption topics, the authors orient the framework around three principles of listening, questioning and hospitality. This framework fosters embodied empathy by linking the researcher’s body to those of research participants. To illustrate the method, the authors interpret consumption narratives extracted from semi-structured interviews with 26 women-identified recreational runners on the topics of embodiment, sport and media.
Findings
The interpretations of gendered consumption narratives show that using the principles of listening, questioning and hospitality invites an understanding of consumers as multifaceted, contradictory and agentic. The authors argue that consumers’ everyday experiences are often simple and quiet but embedded in history wherein bodies are both biological and inescapably social.
Originality/value
The methodological framework allows both the researcher’s and research participants’ embodiment to play a role in the research process. It also illuminates the entanglement of embodiment and consumption in a fraught, politicized context. The authors show that by listening to consumers, questioning their narratives and traditional interpretations thereof and inviting consumers to feel comfortable and heard, researchers can see what other approaches may overlook.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded in part through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. The authors are grateful to Nancy Moules, Fiona Nelson, and Mehdi Mourali for their useful feedback on earlier iterations of this article. They also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and support.
Citation
Drake, C. and Radford, S.K. (2022), "Studying gendered embodied consumption with poststructuralist feminist hermeneutics", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-01-2021-0011
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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