Adrian R. Bailey

Ethnicity and Consumption : South Asian food shopping patterns in Britain, 1947-75

This article reviews the literature that explores the relationship between ethnic identities and food consumption, with particular reference to business management studies. It focuses on the food shopping practices of south Asians in Britain in the period 1947 to 1975, to illustrate the need for more historically contextualized studies that can provide a more nuanced exploration of any interconnections between ethnic identity and shopping behaviour. The article draws on a reasonably long-standing interest in ethnicity and consumption in marketing studies, and explores the conceptual use of acculturation within this literature. The arguments put forward are framed by recent interdisciplinary studies of the broader relationship between consumption and identity, which stress the importance of contextualizing any influence of ethnic identifications through a wider consideration of other factors including societal status, gender and age, rather than giving it singular treatment. The article uses a body of empirical research drawn from recent oral histories, to explore how these factors informed everyday shopping practices among south Asians in Britain. It examines some of the shopping and wider food provisioning strategies adopted by early immigrants on arrival in Britain. It considers the interaction between the south Asian population and the changing retail structure, in the context of the development of self-service and the supermarket. Finally, it demonstrates how age, gender and socioeconomic status interacted with ethnic identities to produce variations in shopping patterns.

Stories of suburbia (Bournville, UK): from planning to people tales

In this paper we show that the avoidance or reduction of difference found in the popular history of Bournville was the result of storytellers situated in specific institutional contexts. During the initial development of Bournville a particular (sub)urban future was imagined and mediated by these storytellers, through processes of simplification and choice, which served to reduce the past to an imposed and arbitrary simplicity or organised saga. In this saga the voices of residents are silenced. Our approach is, first, to explore ways of conceptualising the construction of urban history and, second, to construct two different and deliberately conflicting representations of Bournville. The first account provides a critique of the common representation or town planning account of Bournville. In contrast, the second account works through the voices of residents providing an opportunity for them to construct a lived account of Bournville with specific reference to temperance and the consumption of alcohol. Our first story is about the construction of a particular urban space whilst the second is about the ways in which the space was partially ‘colonised’ by residents. By constructing conflicting accounts of the same place we aim to open the dominant discourses associated with Bournville to complexity and heterogeneity.

Consumer Behaviour and the Life Course: Shopper Reactions to Self-Service Grocery Shops and Supermarkets in England c. 1947–75

We examine the development of self-service grocery shopping from a consumer perspective. Using qualitative data gathered through a nationwide biographical survey and oral histories, it was possible to go beyond contemporary market surveys which pay insufficient attention to shopping as a socially and culturally embedded practice. We use the conceptual framework of the life course to demonstrate how grocery shopping is a complex activity, in which the retail encounter is shaped by the specific interconnection of different retail formats and their geographies, alongside consumer characteristics and their situational influences. Consumer reactions to retail modernization must be understood in relation to the development of consumer practices at points of transition and stability within the life course. These practices are accessed by examining retrospective consumer narratives about food shopping.

An Evidence Based Methodology for Cultural Institutions Seeking to Identify and Profile their Local Populations

ABSTRACT Community is a term utilised in policy to describe a collective target audience for public services. Political requirements mean that delivering direct and indirect benefits to local people is regarded as essential to obtaining public sources of funding for cultural organisations. Regardless of any external pressure, cultural organisations strive to be conscious, receptive or inclusive of the views of the public. This paper summarises how a robust approach was developed to identify and profile groupings of residents within an area in relation to their local civic museum (UK). This method resulted in a nuanced understanding of a museums local population, identifying groupings upon which to base its future plans. Crucially, the methods outlined in this paper are transferable to cultural institutions in different settings worldwide. Our discussion contributes to the wider endeavour of evidencing impacts of museums on variously defined communities.

Students as human resources in the corporatised school

Abstract The transfer of human resource management (HRM) practices from the corporate business context into schools has taken a novel turn. No longer restricted to the management of school teachers, HRM techniques are now being applied to the management of students. HRM views the student as a human resource to serve the school, and seeks to systematically regulate students’ identities in order to align them with school values and goals. This article introduces the Uncommon Schools model as an exemplar of student-centred HRM. The case study demonstrates how student-centred HRM is being operationalised in schools and concludes by exploring the potential effects on students of existing within an HRM system. The article is informed by critical management theories and argues that student-centred HRM constitutes a radical shift in the relationship between school and student.

Cadbury and the rise of the supermarket: innovation in marketing 1953–1975

Abstract This article uses company archival data, supported by evidence from the trade press, to examine the development of the manufacturer–retailer relationship in the case of Cadbury and the supermarket retailers distributing its products in the period 1953–1975. It reveals the influence upon Cadbury’s marketing strategies and practices of the increasing importance of supermarket retailing in relation to the confectionery as well as the grocery goods trades. It also provides new insight into the significance of these changes for Cadbury’s relationships with other manufacturers, and with small-scale retailers typified by confectioners, tobacconists and newsagents.