Deadline for submissions 1 September 2013
Guest Editors: Dr Ben Kerrane, Manchester Business School, UK; Professor Shona Bettany, University of Westminster, UK; and Professor Margaret K. Hogg, Lancaster University Management School, UK.
The family is often conceptualised as the consumption and socialisation unit (Commuri & Gentry, 2000). The impact of family on consumer behaviour is pervasive, with notions of being a family ‘central to many consumption experiences and replete with challenges in contemporary society’ (Epp & Price, 2008, p. 50). Much of what we know about family consumption relies on studies conducted over several decades ago, within a particular “nuclear” family type, and within a restricted (largely parental or matriarchal) respondent base. The legacy of such studies has informed, and in some cases continues to inform, the practice of family consumer research. Yet contemporary family forms are increasingly diverse, and fluid interpersonal relationships and “non-traditional” family composition are increasingly visible in how contemporary family life is performed. Similarly, and because of such changes, the role played by certain family members (e.g. fathers, fictive kin, grandparents), often ignored or overlooked in studies of family consumption, become much more acute in the practice of everyday, contemporary, familial arrangements.
We revisit the subject of family consumption nearly a decade after the publication of the original Journal of Marketing Management special issue (Vol.22 No. 9/10). Whilst the original special issue also criticised the ‘idealistic and simplistic notions of family by actively considering different roles within the family and by identifying diverse “family” constellations’ (O’Malley & Prothero, 2006, p. 899), the depth and richness of the contemporary family tapestry provides considerable scope to further explore family consumption within twenty-first century familial arrangements. Indeed, there are still aspects of family life that have yet to be explored and represented in existing family consumer research following recent developments in the social sciences (e.g. sociology of the family; family studies). Furthermore, as family practices and composition become more complex, then traditional theoretical and methodological tools deployed by family consumption studies commensurately become inadequate to explain and understand contemporary family life (Epp & Price, 2008; Kerrane, Hogg & Bettany, 2012). As such, this special issue seeks new theoretical and empirical approaches which represent the voices of non-traditional family types and the voices of under-represented family members. Accordingly, the Guest Editors welcome submissions from across the globe which offer insight into issues surrounding the consumption of contemporary families …[Read More at the full Call for Papers]
For the full call for papers and details about how to submit visit the journal CFP webpage at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rjmm20&page=paper
Social Business Conference 2013 Call For Papers (175.09 kB)