Book reviews

Abstract

This article examines the cultural field of fitness as a network of producers, consumers, products and practices that has developed around the care of the body through physical exercise. Drawing on a thematic text analysis of US exercise manuals, the paper focuses on how the commercial fitness field naturalizes associations between physical exercise and leisure, and between leisure and self‐work. In particular, the analysis examines three themes and their relevance to our broader understanding of leisure in contemporary consumer society: the management of leisure time; the use of leisure for self‐investment strategies; and the promotion of consumption as the framework for leisure and an accompanying notion of pleasure. The fitness field casts light on how leisure more generally is constructed as a sphere of obligations to make productive use of one’s time, to improve one’s body and self, and to do so through the wares of the consumer marketplace. The cultural imaginary of leisure as a time of freedom from work and responsibility is thus recast, in an age of individualization, as a time of freedom to accomplish the work of self‐production.     

Consumer perceptions of higher and lower-level designed store environments

The role and influence of esthetics in the consumption of store environments remains poorly understood. Little is known about how esthetics propose substantial or adjunctive roles in consumers’ store experiences. The aim of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of store design-architecture in high and low-level design contexts. Building on the esthetics, and environmental psychology literatures, our findings confirm consumers’ determinations of perceptual differences in the esthetic content contained in presented store environmental stimuli. Latent means comparisons confirm consumers’ perceptions of the presence of a high-level design in one fast-fashion store with a low-level design of a second store of the same retailer using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the proposed constructs in confirming the presence of higher and low-levels of design. This research, thus, expands on the extant number of store specification and response constructs and prospectively opens up new lines of store environments research.     

Insights into the repeat vacation phenomenon

The study focused upon the repeat visitor. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire at two Texas Highway Visitor Centers and through indepth personal interviews with a small sample. A majority of the sample were returning to a destination that had been visited before. Compared to those visiting a destination for the first time, repeat visitors were more likely to be older individuals seeking relaxation and visiting a friend and/or relatives on their vacation. The qualitative component of the study uncovered five factors which contributed to people returning to a familiar destination. They were a reduced risk that an unsatisfactory experience would be forthcoming; an assurance that they would find “their kind of people” there; emotional childhood attachment; to experience some aspects of the destination which had been omitted on a previous occasion; and to expose others to an experience which had previously been satisfying to respondents.     

Motivations for pleasure vacation

Crompton, John L., “Motivations for Pleasure Vacations,” Annals of Tourism Research, October/December 1979, VI(4):408–424. The study is concerned with identifying those motives of pleasure vacationers which influence the selection of a destination. It also seeks to develop a conceptual framework capable of encompassing such motives. Empirically nine motives were identified. Seven were classified as socio-psychological, namely: escape from a perceived mundane environment, exploration and evaluation of self, relaxation, prestige, regression, enhancement of kinship relationships, and facilitation of social interaction. The two remaining motives, novelty and education, formed the alternate cultural category. The latter were noted to be at least partially aroused by the particular qualities that a destination offered. By contrast socio-psychological motives were found to be unrelated to destination attributes. Here the emphasis shifted from the destination itself to its function as a medium through which socio-pschological needs could be satisfied. The research data suggest that the tourist industry may usefully pay greater attention to socio-psychological motives in developing product and promotion strategies.     

Anticipated guilt and pleasure in a healthy food consumption context

Recognizing the increasing importance of healthiness in food-related businesses, this study attempted to investigate the role of consumers’ affective responses in a healthy food consumption context. To achieve its objectives, this study incorporated anticipated emotional constructs in a decision-making model and investigated the relationships among perceived healthiness, anticipated guilt and pleasure, and behavioral intentions (e.g., purchase, spreading positive word-of-mouth, and recommending the food) in a quick service restaurant setting. The results of this study suggest that anticipated pleasure positively influenced behavioral intentions and mediated the relationship between perceived healthiness and behavioral intentions, whereas anticipated guilt did not influence behavioral intentions. Additionally, this study investigated the moderating role of dietary concerns in consumers’ decision-making processes and found that the low dietary concerns group was more susceptible to anticipated pleasure compared to the high dietary concerns group. Further findings and implications are provided in the main body of the paper.     

The moderating effects of three reference groups on Asian pleasure travelers’ destination value

This study explores how the destination brand equity paradigm of Asian pleasure travelers may vary according to their level of susceptibility to the three types of reference group influences (i.e. informational, utilitarian, and value-expressive) by adapting destination awareness, image, quality, and value as a theoretical background. The results indicate that the positive effects of destination awareness, image, and quality on travelers’ destination value are moderated by informational and utilitarian reference group influences, but not by value-expressive reference group influence. This study provides both theoretical and practical implications by testing the moderating effects of three types of reference group influences.     

Is Background Music Effective On Retail Websites?

Web designers often advise online retailers against incorporating background music on websites. However, the effect of music in brick-and-mortar retail settings has generally been found to be favorable. The research on the effects of music has been mixed. Our study aims to examine whether congruent music on the website homepage influences online consumers. Using the responses of 290 visitors to two different commercial websites, we test the influence of background music on consumers’ arousal and pleasure perceptions. The results indicate congruent background music on a website's homepage will generate positive affective responses of arousal and pleasure within users, and will enhance users’ perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment as well. The findings reveal the effects of respondent’ affective responses to the music differed by gender. Website music produces significant affective and cognitive responses in high web skill/low web challenge users and explains more of website enjoyment.     

A pleasure-tourism behaviors framework

Tourists' behaviors often differ from those in the home environment, yet researchers have also found that tourists retain some home behaviors in the pleasure-tourism environment. These differences have been explained in the literature, although researchers have not attempted to predict individuals' actions while engaging in tourism. The LIP behaviors framework was developed from the literature to predict individuals' behaviors while on pleasure travel in relation to their home-based behaviors. Four concepts (compensatory, spill-over/familiarity, liminal, and liminoid) were used to construct the framework, which may serve as a basis for future study.     

哲学、信仰与人生

离开人生,哲学是空洞的,它没有内容。如果离开哲学的话,人生是盲目的,人生便找不到方向,不知道该往哪里走。在哲学和人生之间我们要找到一种属于我们每个人的信仰,为我们的人生指明方向,给我们的灵魂提供一个可以寄托的精神家园。对我们每个普通人来说,学习哲学的意义在于指导我们的人生,哲学所要追求的终极目标是永恒不变的信仰,哲学是不断地引领我们走向释然,不断地引领我们走向个人心灵解放的一种过程。     

如何挖掘学生艺术教学的潜力

运用多元化的实践渠道帮助学生获取艺术教学实践的愉悦,在理论联系实际的工作中提供学生自主获取教学新知识的机会。倡导“修学储能”,帮助学生广泛地积累文学修养、史学修养、语言修养、美学修养和艺术教育理论修养。同时,加大学科实践力度,提高他们分析和解决问题的能力,在储备实际的工作能量中提升艺术个性化教学的潜力。