Mona Moufahim

Religious gift giving: An ethnographic account of a Muslim pilgrimage

This article enhances the understanding of consumption practices, particularly gift giving, within the context of an Islamic pilgrimage called the ziyara. Pilgrimages are rich sites of analysis of entangled secular and sacred consumption. The findings of ethnographic research undertaken in this area have made a significant contribution to the literature on gift giving. Three particular types of gifts have been identified (1) ordinary liturgical gifts, (2) supplication gifts that invite ‘prayer’ counter-gifts and (3) soteriological gifts in the form of hassanat that are given to ensure other-worldly salvation. Pilgrims see the purchasing and consumption of gifts as activities intrinsic to their pilgrimage, even as sine qua non in the case of gifts distributed in the shrines. The consumption of material objects appears to be integral to pilgrimage rituals and transforms the intangible spiritual experience of the pilgrims into something ‘palpable’. The gifts are intended to embody the sacredness of the sites visited by the pilgrims and allow family and friends to partake in their sacred experience.

The Vlaams Belang: The Rhetoric of Organizational Identity

In this paper we combine work on rhetorical strategies with that of organizational identity theory. We highlight the relationship between organizational identity and the deployment of discursive resources at the societal level by organizations seeking to influence such identities. We analyse the way in which an extreme right political organization, the Vlaams Belang, has used rhetorical framing and strategies to construct a collective identity. This framing is aimed at persuading potential supporters of the organization to identify themselves with it. We argue that these frames derive their characteristic form and power from broader social and political processes that are given insufficient attention in published work on identity in organizations. We discuss the implications of our study for organizational theory, particularly the political and ethical questions raised by the use of potentially manipulative strategies. We conclude with a discussion of the ethical problems that arise when an organization’s managers attempt to direct identity formation by exploiting a persistent desire for stability and continuity in a world where it becomes ever more elusive.

The other voices of international higher education: an empirical study of students' perceptions of British university education in China

Against a backdrop of globalised higher education (HE) – one in which a number of British universities are setting up campuses overseas – China represents a vast and lucrative market. This paper presents data on the perceptions and experiences of 20 Chinese students who are currently studying at a British universitys campus located in China. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical linkages between the expansion of British HE into overseas markets and neo-colonial (or imperialist) activities, this paper discovers that sociocultural perceptions and ideological constructs such as ‘creativity’ and ‘value’ form a vital basis for the exchange of knowledge in transnational HE.

The spectacularization of suffering: an analysis of the use of celebrities in ‘Comic Relief’ UK’s charity fundraising campaigns

Abstract In this paper, we engage with recent charity fundraising campaigns in the UK such as ‘Sport Relief’ and ‘Red Nose Day’, both of which are organised by Comic Relief, an operating British charity. These campaigns are increasingly extreme spectacles of celebrity-suffering that concentrate public attention on the spectacle image itself rather than on the charities these spectacles espouse. Drawing upon Guy Debord’s critique of spectacle and celebrity in The Society of the Spectacle, we contend that the phenomenon of celebrity fundraising in this context is interesting not only because of its voyeuristic dimensions (as argued by a number of scholars on celebrity humanitarianism) but also because it raises issues about how the use of highly visual and visceral images of celebrities’ suffering has banalised the charitable causes to which they lend their names, often erasing them altogether. Celebrities’ suffering in this context is framed by the media both as mega-spectacles of entertainment and as lavishly staged journeys of heroism and suffering set apart from the material and social abundance celebrities represent. We demonstrate using a range of empirical sources from news reports and live TV coverage that when celebrities submit to these extreme journeys of physical suffering, it raises new questions about the moral limits of the marketisation of emotion and the commodification of the charitable journey itself.

Co-production and co-consumption: Perspectives on immigration through a discourse analysis of voters’ blogs in the 2010 General Election

Abstract The issue of immigration proved to be a crucially important flashpoint for all three parties in the 2010 British General Election. In this paper, we focus on a citizen-centred perspective on the 2010 British General Election by analysing the views of the electorate on this pivotal issue in the as blogosphere. Using thematic and discursive analysis, we examine how voters articulate their opinions and concerns on immigration in the blogosphere and how these discursive practices can be studied to enrich political market research. The findings show that a complex issue such as immigration is a dynamic expression of, and between, multiple, competing, contradictory discourses, and interests. As such, the blogosphere provides an invaluable tool for in-depth political market research because it can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the co-production and co-consumption of current affairs.

Marketing ‘ethically questionable’ politics: the case of a xenophobic political party

The success experienced by the extreme right parties across Western Europe and the persistent loyalty of their voters has sparked the interest of academics and broader society. Some of their theses are controversial, if not unethical, but nevertheless increasingly successful in Western European democracies. This paper seeks to explain how extreme right parties address the voters and manage to overcome peoples aversion for racism and xenophobia in their marketing communications. Neutralisation theory is applied as a useful theoretical framework for uncovering the ways through which racism and xenophobia are reframed and normalised, ultimately providing a political “product” which is dissociated from its ethically questionable features and becomes less problematic for voters’ consumption. Thematic analysis of communication material from a particularly successful extreme right party, i.e. the Vlaams Blok/Vlaams Belang, provides an early indication that neutralisation may indeed be a viable route for understanding the rhetorical processes at play when communicating politically controversial positions and other ethically questionable issues more broadly. Concurrently, neutralisation theory stresses that such techniques are learned in the course of social interaction and ultimately, they are negotiated and (de)legitimised within broader socio-cultural systems. As such, it represents an important step in understanding how political parties and marketers draw on available repertoires of social and cultural narratives with a view to facilitate morally neutral consumption.

Pilgrimage, Consumption and the Politics of Authenticity: An Abstract

Pilgrimages are a feature of all major world religions as well as spiritual movements and more secular realms (Digance 2003; Margry 2008). The sacred sites of pilgrimages are often important commercial centres featuring vibrant marketplaces, where spiritual goods and services are sold (Scott and Maclaran 2012). As such, pilgrimages and pilgrims’ consumption behaviours can provide rich sites of inquiry into symbolic, spiritual and material consumption. Muslim pilgrimages are notoriously closed to outsiders, and there has traditionally been little opportunity for research studies to gain access and insights. This ethnographic research contributes to further understanding consumption practices at the intersection of the sacred and the secular.