Women “in motion”: the kinaesthetic viewing experience in Chinese viral advertising films

ABSTRACT

Visual imagery provides aesthetic experiences for viewers, and viral advertising films address viewers’ experience of movement which has not been analysed. Developing visual analyses, this study uses phenomenological approaches and the concept of kinaesthetic empathy, defined as the ability of viewers to react to movements, also in film. It considers Chinese Wei movies (“microfilms” or viral advertising films) with reference to examples by Audi and Swarovski as representatives of China's post-socialist marketing culture. Women in these films are presented as “in motion,” yet still are often delimited by traditional gender stereotypes. These films are potentially ambivalent ideological carriers that encourage women to reinvent themselves through consumption within traditional gender roles but may also suggest the pursuit of different experiences as movement is abstract, transitory and cannot be commodified.     

The debate between empirical and broader phenomenological approaches to research

Since the end of the nineteenth century, the discourse between positivism and phenomenology has dominated the development of social science research methods. The argument is reflected in current tourism research and some scholars doubt the validity of positivism. Here opposing views as expressed in two recent Chinese publications are examined. By analyzing the two views and their methodology, the characteristics and limitations of both positivism and phenomenology can be highlighted. Both positivism and phenomenological methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and an integration of the two types of research methods is most commonly used. In some specific research methods positivistic and phenomenological methods can be combined to attain more scientific knowledge. The paper also examines ‘technical rationality’, a philosophy which has been criticized by many for excessively focusing on the tool itself and so ignoring the research object and the purpose of the study. Yet although technical rationality does derive from positivism the former cannot simply be equal to the latter. It is suggested that the improvement of the scientific quality of tourism research is still the primary need for the development of the tourism discipline at present. It is not possible for tourism research to become a discipline purely through inclusion in specialized courses or existing subject content. Tourism research must become more scientific before it becomes a discipline.     

何谓精神现象学——论黑格尔在《精神现象学》导论中对此问题的解答

在《精神现象学》的导论中，黑格尔对什么是精神现象学作出了自己的多重界定。在他看来，精神现象学是对以康德批判哲学为代表的近代哲学的批判和清算，是对显现着的知识的描述，也是关于意识的经验的科学。导论的中译文在个别地方对黑格尔原文的理解值得商榷。     

彼此隔绝的个体——现象学视野中的经济学个体主义方法论

个体主义方法论是西方主流经济学的基本研究方法,其核心观点往往被认为是不证自明的。但是这种不证自明恰恰不是绝对的,而是现代社会特定的理论与实践背景的产物。由于在对他人的理解的问题上采取了特定的立场,即认为对他人的理解都是通过类比推理实现的,才使得个体主义方法论成为可能。运用现象学方法进行分析可以发现,这一立场是站不住脚的,因此个体主义方法论并不是无庸置疑的。经济学要获得发展,在方法论领域必须实现变革。     

Working Weeks,Rave Weekends: Identity Fragmentation and the Emergence of New Communities

Popular music is one of the most ubiquitous forms of contemporary culture. This paper looks at the phenomenon known as rave or dance culture in Britain. It examines the nature of the consumer experience at a dance club through the use of a two stage methodology. Based on observations and the collection of phenomenological data, the findings suggest that the experience is linked to a series of behaviours, which are related to fragmentation and identity. These include narcissistic identity, the emergence of new communities, the need for escape, engagement and prolonged hedonism. The paper examines these concepts in relation to postmodern consumption. In particular, an evaluation of postmodern theory and its focus on fragmentation and the project of the self is offered, by arguing for a return to "community".     

Tourism,place and placelessness in the phenomenological experience of shopping malls in Seoul

Despite the broad conceptualization of shopping malls as placeless, malls increasingly serve as popular tourist attractions and yet remain significantly under investigated in the tourism literature. With this in mind, this study investigates tourists' lived experiences and their implications for understanding contemporary manifestations of place and placelessness. It focuses specifically on shopping malls in Seoul, South Korea and adopts a phenomenological perspective to address two research questions: first, are there particular features that give rise to tourists experiencing shopping malls as placeless? And second, notwithstanding placelessness, what is the appeal of Seoul's malls to tourists? Findings propose that malls can be understood as a negotiated reality between the forces that create placelessness and those that enhance the appeal of malls. The study affirms contemporary notions of placelessness as symbiotic with experiencing place; reaffirming space as a production of human intention where social and cultural changes manifest themselves.     

Towards better participatory processes in technology foresight: How to link participatory foresight research to the methodological machinery of qualitative research and phenomenology?

Technological progress does not happen in a social vacuum. Shaping of tomorrow is not possible without qualitative analyses. Therefore, the social and psychological dimensions of reality form an important part of technology foresight. Qualitative research will be needed to understand superficial and deep structures of social realities. So called push and pull factors are always linked to social behaviour. People's relationship to the use of technologies and the utilization of technologies is a complex and not a one-dimensional or monological issue. Monological methodological approaches can be harmful and confusing in the field of participatory foresight. We can conclude that the cycles of deductive and inductive logic are needed in science and in participatory foresight studies. Experts of the FTA community must have a higher level of methodological know-how in this research field and they should use qualitative methods in multi-faceted (external and internal) ways in foresight studies. Still the qualitative parts of many studies are quite monological and these studies can be quite problematic, even confusing. More critical methodological approaches should be taken into serious consideration. As a methodological approach, the principle of triangulation should be used more in the fields of participatory foresight studies and technology foresight.The key focus of this article in the use of qualitative and phenomenological approaches in the fields of FTA and foresight. The aim of this theoretically oriented discussion is to promote the professional use of qualitative methods in foresight and FTA studies. The strength of qualitative analyses is linked to deeper understanding of social change and social patterns and structures. Actually people create and constitute the markets, networks, and crowds where technologies are applied and used.Internal systemic understanding of social realities is an important part of foresight activities, especially in participatory foresight studies. Internal and external analyses can be seen as complementary approaches, like qualitative and quantitative approaches. The use of qualitative methods is a conventional part of the research process in participatory foresight projects. A typical problem may be that the use of methods is not planned carefully enough and people are unaware of the underlying key assumptions of applied methods. Experimenting with phenomenology is not a simple task in foresight research. Therefore, the views and informative platforms expressed and presented in this article may be useful for foresight practitioners.     

Innovation and coordination: A schutzian perspective

This paper discusses the nature of innovation, the innovation process and its associated coordination problems in the subjectivist perspective. It argues that innovation, when viewed in the first person perspective, is not a homogeneous concept. Instead, the degree of newness of an innovation is determined subjectively by adopters. The stages of the innovation process described in the management literature are re-interpreted in light of Schutz' phenomenology. Innovation creates coordination problems. Schumpeterian innovation disrupts plans of market participants and threatens people's sense of reality. The stocks of knowledge of market participants are no longer able to solve new problems brought about by pioneering entrepreneurs. Knowledge taken for granted becomes problematic. As a result, coordination fails. In attempting to remove uncertainty arising from radical innovation, human agents create knowledge surrogates and project acts in the future perfect tense. Through a process of typification, successful actions are crystallised into firm routines and institutions that once again help to serve for coordination. The arguments developed in this paper throw new light on three aspects of business strategies, namely, management of innovation, vertical integration and advertising.     

Television’s Glocal Advertising in Veridical Product Narrative: A SE Asian Reception Study of Consumer Alignment/Alienation

Drawing on post‐Marxist screen reception studies in Malaysia, our article establishes a theoretical framework enabling analysis of consumer identification with/cultural distancing from television advertising and its aesthetics. We develop a hermeneutic model of audience response to audio‐visual text as ludic or play‐like in cognitively pursuing a meaning for veridical (mediated yet transparently accessible) marketing narrative sketches of everyday life transcended. Illustrating and illuminating this thesis, we report on a small SE Asian university research project whose participants articulate written reactions to two televised advertisements displaying transcultural product morphing (or glocal goods). Customer identification with consumers shown in television marketing is argued to be fundamentally hermeneutic. Brought into focus through analysis, that is, customer/consumer alignment is conceptual, conscious, and cultural where both project (expect and establish) a screen narrative shared epistemologically (as interpretative knowledge) and ontologically (as involving their activity). The reader’s propositional identification with a text’s perceived normative statement is enabled. On the other hand, discourses of consumer alienation emerge in response to advertisements inappropriately addressing audience horizons of expectation.     

The lived travel experience to North Korea

Tourism in North Korea is limited by entry bans, visa restrictions, and stringently controlled itineraries. As a consequence, the experience of visiting the country is still poorly understood by academics and practitioners alike. In order to fill this research void, this study aims to describe the essence of the lived experience of travelling to North Korea, following an approach embedded in the philosophical underpinnings of transcendental phenomenology. Based on eight narratives by tourists who have visited the country, the essence of the lived North Korea travel experience is identified as comprising dimensions of trepidation, self-regulation, doubt, and catharsis. Discussing the findings through a tourism lens, suggestions for further research are made and theoretical as well as methodological contributions are highlighted.