Mike Molesworth

Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer

In this paper we express concerns that the marketisation of British higher education that has accompanied its expansion has resulted in some sections becoming pedagogically limited. We draw from Fromms humanist philosophy based on having to argue that the current higher education (HE) market discourse promotes a mode of existence, where students seek to ‘have a degree’ rather than ‘be learners’. This connects pedagogic theory to a critique of consumer culture. We argue that a ‘market-led’ university responds to consumer calls by focusing on the content students want at a market rate. It may decrease intellectual complexity if this is not in demand, and increase connections with the workplace if this is desired. Once, under the guidance of the academic, the undergraduate had the potential to be transformed into a scholar, someone who thinks critically, but in our consumer society such ‘transformation’ is denied and ‘confirmation’ of the student as consumer is favoured. We further argue that there is a danger that the new HEs link to business through the expansion of vocational courses in business, marketing and related offerings, inevitably embeds expanded HE in a culture of having. This erodes other possible roles for education because a consumer society is unlikely to support a widened HE sector that may work to undermine its core ideology.

Concepts and practices of digital virtual consumption

Despite the popularity of online spaces that simulate aspects of consumption‐like experiences (online virtual worlds, video games and interactive functions on online retailers) conceptual tools that aim to comprehend such consumer practices are yet to emerge. In an effort to better understand them this paper puts forward a taxonomy that may help us capture emerging consumer behavior in the digital virtual terrain in relation to virtual and material consumption. This may be read as a fluid template that considers the movement between what resides in consumer imaginations as ideal or virtual, its actualization in material and now also digital virtual spaces. We then offer examples of the practices that are emerging, specifically the increase in imaginative resources that interactive media provide; practices that actualize probable, everyday commodities and experiences in the digital virtual and practices that actualize fantastic commodities and experiences in the digital virtual. Finally, we discuss the potential for these to produce new consumer subjectivities and new markets, and as a result we conclude with a discussion of the implications of such developments for consumer cultures, noting the potential for both liberatory/celebratory and critical discourse as well as avenues for future research.

Digital play and the actualization of the consumer imagination

In this article, the authors consider emerging consumer practices in digital virtual spaces. Building on constructions of consumer behavior as both a sense-making activity and a resource for the construction of daydreams, as well as anthropological readings of performance, the authors speculate that many performances during digital play are products of consumer fantasy. The authors develop an interpretation of the relationship between the real and the virtual that is better equipped to understand the movement between consumer daydreams and those practices actualized in the material and now also in digital virtual reality. The authors argue that digital virtual performances present opportunities for liminoid transformations through inversions, speculations, and playfulness acted out in aesthetic dramas. To illustrate, the authors consider specific examples of the theatrical productions available to consumers in digital spaces, highlighting the consumer imagination that feeds them, the performances they produce, and the potential for transformation in consumer-players.

Collaboration, reflection and selective neglect: campus-based marketing students' experiences of using a virtual learning environment

Previous studies have suggested significant benefits to using computer-mediated communication in higher education and the development of the relevant skills may also be important for preparing students for their working careers. This study is a review of the introduction of a virtual learning environment to support a group of 60 campus-based, final-year marketing undergraduates. This environment was used to support ‘traditional’ lecture and seminar approaches and included virtual seminars, a ‘frequently asked questions’ facility, informal discussion areas, interactive lecture notes and revision support. Data were collected in the form of a questionnaire, focus groups and an analysis of messages posted to and read from the electronic learning environment. This triangulation provided a consistent picture. Overall, campus-based students had mixed attitudes to computer-mediated communication; some seemed to find it very beneficial, others much less so. Most students did not find virtual seminars useful and ma...Previous studies have suggested significant benefits to using computer-mediated communication in higher education and the development of the relevant skills may also be important for preparing students for their working careers. This study is a review of the introduction of a virtual learning environment to support a group of 60 campus-based, final-year marketing undergraduates. This environment was used to support ‘traditional’ lecture and seminar approaches and included virtual seminars, a ‘frequently asked questions’ facility, informal discussion areas, interactive lecture notes and revision support. Data were collected in the form of a questionnaire, focus groups and an analysis of messages posted to and read from the electronic learning environment. This triangulation provided a consistent picture. Overall, campus-based students had mixed attitudes to computer-mediated communication; some seemed to find it very beneficial, others much less so. Most students did not find virtual seminars useful and many found it easy to neglect them. However, many found downloadable lecture notes, the frequently asked questions facility for assignments and online revision support beneficial, and these uses provided evidence of reflection and collaboration. Implications for staff time are also discussed.

'Love it. Buy it. Sell it': consumer desire and the social drama of eBay

Our work adds to existing research on eBay by presenting it as a space where consumers’ imaginations are stimulated and where their psychological work to manufacture ever new wants and desires allows for a reflection of consumer tastes and practices. To do so, we conceptualize eBay as a digital virtual space that allows consumers to browse at length through a plethora of goods, test preferences and potentially reflect on the significance of objects and daydreams pursued. Conceptually, we draw a synthesis between desire and imagination-laden narratives within consumer research with Rob Shield’s analytic of the digital virtual and its relationship to the real and ideal. From that reading we attribute eBay with a liminoid texture that helps us account for the social dramas that some of its users, such as famed science fiction writer William Gibson, may experience. We argue that whilst eBay does not provoke the initial breach, its enormous, global, ever changing catalogue of goods, produces a crisis that invites the user to engage in redressive action. That analysis has two moments, one focusing on the eBay experience as a form of flânerie, and then, how visual and written information gathered from searching eBay can be used to craft daydreams relative to a desired good. Specifically, we consider concrete consumer practices through which consumers feed and actualize more substantive daydreams of an improved life, including bookmarking, bidding and winning (owning) desired items. We conclude that eBay’s significance as a seductive site to consume (in) lies in its ability to allow for the continuous construction of latent wants while providing consumers with the tools to react to these wants in various ways.

The relationship between ownership and possession: Observations from the context of digital virtual goods

ABSTRACT This theoretical article highlights limitations in the current trend towards dichotomising full ownership and access-based consumption by recognising a broader, more complex array of ‘fragmented’ ownership configurations in the context of digital virtual goods (DVGs). In challenging this dichotomy, we recognise that the relationship between ownership and possession becomes particularly significant. We therefore consider how prominent DVG ownership configurations may shape the way in which possession is assembled, potentially reducing consumers’ scope of action relative to DVGs and leaving possession susceptible to disruption. Conversely, we acknowledge ways in which consumers’ continued attempts at possession may impinge upon the agency of ownership mechanisms within the market. Our analysis ultimately builds upon existing understandings of both ownership and possession, theorising their often overlooked relation in consumption.

'Just normal and homely': the presence, absence and othering of consumer culture in everyday imagining

The imaginative aspects of consumption have been recognized as playing a key role in accounting for Western consumerism, yet there has been surprisingly little attention paid to the role of imagining in everyday life. Previous consumer research has tended to focus on goods and services within daydreams and fantasies so that goods seem to be central to, and key resources in, the construction of imagined scenarios. Here we argue that this methodological framing has restricted a broader understanding of the imagination and the contextualization of consumption within it. By analysing phenomenological accounts that placed imagining ahead of consumption as the focus of the study, we found that individuals readily envisioned common cultural desires for successful relationships, happiness and love in positive imagined futures, where goods may be merely assumed as part of the background, or dismissed in favour of preferred emotional experiences. As such this article uses Law’s (2004) conceptions of presence, manifest absence and othering to provide a more nuanced analysis of how and where consumption may be seen in the imagination. In this way we suggest that previous narratives of the consumer imagination have neglected individuals’ autonomy in both removing consumer practices and positioning social relationships as more prominent.

PR practitioners' experiences of, and attitudes towards, the internet's contribution to external crisis communication

Purpose – This paper aims to promote better understanding of how the internet is used as part of crisis communication.Design/methodology/approach – The internet may be changing the way PR operates in a crisis. It has been reported that the web has a significant role in disseminating information and that many‐to‐many online communication allows organisations to achieve “excellent” communication. However, it has also been suggested that in practice there is a need for more flexibility that the “excellence” model suggests. This study reports on data collected from in‐depth interviews with ten senior PR‐practitioners in order to understand their experiences and attitudes.Findings – A range of attitudes are identified, informed by recent experience. Although participants indicated knowledge of and preference for two‐way communication with stakeholders, in practice they found this impractical or undesirable. This, their preference for existing approaches, and ignorance about the internet informed their views ab...

Success in the management of crowdfunding projects in the creative industries

Purpose – Crowdfunding has become a significant way of funding independent film. However, undertaking a campaign can be time consuming and risky. The purpose of this paper is to understand the predictors likely to produce a film campaign that meets its funding goal. Design/methodology/approach – This study analyses 100 creative crowdfunding campaigns within the film and video category on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Campaigns were analysed in relation to a number of variables, followed by a discriminant analysis to highlight the main predictors of crowdfunding success. Findings – This study finds key predictors of crowdfunding success and investigates differences between successful and failed crowdfunding campaigns. The attributes of these predictors lead us to question the long-term ability of crowdfunding to aid companies poorer in terms of time, financial and personnel resources, and therefore arguably in the greatest need of crowdfunding platforms. Practical implications – The findings provide in...

Attachment to digital virtual possessions in videogames

Purpose – To extend our understanding of consumers’ relationships with their growing collections of digital virtual goods by exploring adult videogamers’ attachments to their digital virtual possessions within videogames. Methodology – Phenomenological interviews with 35 adult videogamers, primarily conducted in participants’ homes and lasting on average two hours. Findings – Our participants were able to possess and form emotional attachments to ‘irreplaceable’ digital virtual goods within videogames despite the goods’ immaterial nature and their own lack of legal ownership. The processes via which these attachments developed mirror our existing understanding of material possession attachment; however, technical and legal restrictions were found to hinder attachment formation. Our participants also expressed concerns, rooted not in the immateriality of the goods, but in their lack of control over the safety of their digital virtual possessions and societal perceptions surrounding such emotional involvement in ‘childish’ videogame play. Originality/value – This study illustrates that consumers desire to, and find ways to, form meaningful attachments to possessions, regardless of their materiality, whilst highlighting the tension between the desire to possess and make meaning from digital virtual goods and recognition of their lack of legal ownership and control, and the goods’ status as frivolous. Research implications – We see potential for future research to look beyond the immaterial nature of digital virtual goods to study the complex networks of forces influencing digital virtual consumption, whilst the ambiguous ownership of in-game possessions presents possibilities for further research into the problematic nature of possessing, but not owning, such goods.