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'Made to Run': Biopolitical marketing and the making of the self-quantified runner
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013). University of Helsinki, Finland.
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Service Research Center (from 2013). Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2982-9651
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Service Research Center (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8057-9865
2019 (English)In: Marketing Theory, ISSN 1470-5931, E-ISSN 1741-301X, Vol. 19, no 3, p. 347-366Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

While previous critical marketing research on co-creation has focused on how consumers’ cognitive and social abilities are governed, this article focuses on how firms’ marketing strategies attempt to govern every aspect of consumers’ lives. By drawing on a biopolitical framework and a study of Nike+, a marketing system for runners which Nike has developed around its self-tracking devices, three biopolitical marketing dimensions were identified: the gamification of the running experience, the transformation of running into a competitive activity and the conversion of running into a social activity. In identifying these marketing dimensions, the study demonstrates how self-tracking affordances are deployed in the development of a biopolitical marketing environment that tames, captures and appropriates value from different aspects of consumers’ lives, including – and combining – their social behaviours, cognitive capacities and bodily conducts. This article contributes to critical studies of value co-creation by focusing on the tamed self-tracking body as a resource for value creation, but also by demonstrating that consumers engage, through cognitive labour, in the production of the biopolitical environment that leads to their exploitation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2019. Vol. 19, no 3, p. 347-366
National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-66174DOI: 10.1177/1470593118799794ISI: 000482932200006OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-66174DiVA, id: diva2:1181484
Note

Artikeln var publicerad som manuskript i Charitsis (2018) doktorsavhandling Self-tracking, datafication and the biopolitical prosumption of life

Available from: 2018-02-08 Created: 2018-02-08 Last updated: 2024-02-07Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Self-tracking, datafication and the biopolitical prosumption of life
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Self-tracking, datafication and the biopolitical prosumption of life
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The marketing literature has both celebrated and critically scrutinised the active engagement of consumers in value-creation processes. These opposing analyses share a focus on the mobilisation of consumers’ social and cognitive abilities for value creation. This thesis contributes to this discussion by exploring how diverse aspects of consumers’ lives become involved in value creation, leading the entirety of life to become a resource. In particular, the thesis focuses on the popular consumption phenomenon of self-tracking, which allows and enables consumers to track, quantify and datafy diverse facets of their lives. Drawing on data from two empirical studies, which were based on interviews and observational netnography, the thesis engages with the notion of biopolitical marketing to analyse the extraction and appropriation of value from consumers’ lives.

The thesis contributes to the critical marketing literature by advancing the understanding of the biopolitical nature of marketing in extracting value from consumers’ lifestyles and subjectivities. The theoretical contributions include the notions of the “biopolitical prosumption of life”, the “prosumed self” and the “prosuming self”. The “biopolitical prosumption of life” entails the “creation of worlds” that allow and enable the development of market-aligned subjectivities, which can generate value for corporate interests. The notions of the “prosumed self” and the “prosuming self” are introduced to frame and elucidate these subjectivities. The empirical findings suggest that marketing interventions foster the development of marketing environments (“worlds”) that seek to contain consumers while allowing them to act freely, albeit in ways that augment the value that can be extracted and appropriated.

Abstract [en]

The aim of the thesis is to explore the extraction and appropriation of value from an increasing number of aspects of consumers’ lives. To do this, the thesis focuses on the popular consumption phenomenon of self-tracking, which allows consumers to track and quantify diverse facets of their lives. Engaging with biopolitical analyses of contemporary marketing and drawing on qualitative empirical data, the thesis contests and extends previous marketing theorisations that focus primarily on consumers’ skills and knowledge while maintaining that the entirety of human existence becomes a resource for value.

The thesis contributes to the critical marketing literature by advancing the understanding of the biopolitical nature of marketing in extracting value from consumers’ lifestyles and in the creation of consumer subjectivities. It introduces the notion of the “biopolitical prosumption of life”, which refers to the “creation of worlds” that allow and enable the development of market-aligned subjectivities, which can generate value for corporate interests. The notions of the “prosumed self” and the “prosuming self” are introduced to frame and elucidate these subjectivities. The empirical findings indicate that marketing interventions foster the development of marketing environments (“worlds”) that seek to contain consumers while allowing them to act freely, albeit in ways that augment the value that can be extracted and appropriated.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstad: Karlstads universitet, 2018. p. 140
Series
Karlstad University Studies, ISSN 1403-8099 ; 2018:10
Keywords
biopolitical marketing, critical marketing, self-tracking, value creation, datafication
National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-66177 (URN)978-91-7063-839-8 (ISBN)978-91-7063-934-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-03-23, 11D257, Agardhsalen, Karlstad, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

Artikel 2 ingick som manuskript i avhandlingen, nu publicerad.

Available from: 2018-03-09 Created: 2018-02-08 Last updated: 2019-09-16Bibliographically approved

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Charitsis, VassilisSkålén, PerFyrberg Yngfalk, Anna

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