Digital ethnography: The next wave in understanding the consumer experience

The occult and the internet intersect in four ways: as a static medium for information; as a space where contested information or ideological conflict may occur; as a facilitator of communication; and as a medium for esoteric practice. The last type of activity is rare, but it is intriguing, in that technology can shape and inform beliefs and practices in unanticipated ways. Online engagement with the ‘Work’, the movement produced by the Greek Armenian spiritual teacher and esotericist G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) and his immediate followers, is an under-researched instance of online esoteric practice. This article addresses this scholarly desideratum, bringing the theoretical approaches of online religion and digital ethnography to bear on the Gurdjieff Internet Guide (GIG) website, founded by Reijo Oksanen (b. 1942) and later maintained by Kristina Turner, who created an accompanying Facebook page. The GIG manifests a shift away from the sectarian secrecy of the ‘Foundation’ groups, founded by Jeanne de Salzmann (1889-1990) after Gurdjieff’s death to formalise and protect the content of the Work, and the limited web presence that the Foundation permits. The GIG moves towards an ecumenical ‘open source’ approach to the dissemination of Gurdjieff’s teachings rooted in independent groups founded by other first generation followers of Gurdjieff who remained outside of the Foundation. It is argued that the deregulation of the religious and spiritual marketplace of the contemporary West, coupled with the dominant role played by the Internet in disseminating information, has radically transformed the Gurdjieff tradition, collapsing hierarchies and esoteric strategies, democratizing access for seekers, and creating new ritual and teaching modes.

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The Long versus Short of It: The Last Consumer Experience

Journal of Marketing Behavior ◽

10.1561/107.00000069 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2-4) ◽

pp. 133-171

Author(s):

Tamara Masters

Keyword(s):

Consumer Experience

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Recognition of Customers’ Impulsivity from Behavioral Patterns in Virtual Reality

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11104399 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 4399

Author(s):

Masoud Moghaddasi ◽

Javier Marín-Morales ◽

Jaikishan Khatri ◽

Jaime Guixeres ◽

Irene Alice Chicchi Giglioli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Support Vector Machine Classifier ◽

Support Vector ◽

Behavioral Patterns ◽

Consumer Experience ◽

Shopping Experience ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

Informative Signals ◽

Exploration Task

Virtual reality (VR) in retailing (V-commerce) has been proven to enhance the consumer experience. Thus, this technology is beneficial to study behavioral patterns by offering the opportunity to infer customers’ personality traits based on their behavior. This study aims to recognize impulsivity using behavioral patterns. For this goal, 60 subjects performed three tasks—one exploration task and two planned tasks—in a virtual market. Four noninvasive signals (eye-tracking, navigation, posture, and interactions), which are available in commercial VR devices, were recorded, and a set of features were extracted and categorized into zonal, general, kinematic, temporal, and spatial types. They were input into a support vector machine classifier to recognize the impulsivity of the subjects based on the I-8 questionnaire, achieving an accuracy of 87%. The results suggest that, while the exploration task can reveal general impulsivity, other subscales such as perseverance and sensation-seeking are more related to planned tasks. The results also show that posture and interaction are the most informative signals. Our findings validate the recognition of customer impulsivity using sensors incorporated into commercial VR devices. Such information can provide a personalized shopping experience in future virtual shops.

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Tourism Amidst COVID-19: consumer experience in luxury hotels booked through digital platforms

Tourism Recreation Research ◽

10.1080/02508281.2021.1940708 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Diana Escandon-Barbosa ◽

Jairo Salas-Paramo

Keyword(s):

Consumer Experience ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

Luxury Hotels

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Populism From Below and Social Movements: A Case of Zimbabwe’s #ThisFlag Movement

Journal of Asian and African Studies ◽

10.1177/00219096211034526 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002190962110345

Author(s):

Theophilus Tinashe Nenjerama ◽

Shepherd Mpofu

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Body Politic ◽

Political Elite ◽

The Political ◽

New Wave ◽

Digital Ethnography ◽

Digital Era ◽

Analyse Data

This study examines a new wave of populisms arising in the digital era using Pastor Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag movement: What are they, and how do they express themselves? How does the hegemony react to them? Non-mainstream, digitally born movements, especially in dictatorships, are dismissed by the political elite as ill-mannered disruptors whose political interventions are detrimental. To analyse the cleric’s populism and its meaning to the Zimbabwean body politic, we use three specific themes: (a) personality and influence of movement leader(s); (b) populist communication and messaging; and (c) recreating an involved citizenry. We used digital ethnography to gather and analyse data.

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