“Amor à mineira”: cultura do consumo e traços da cultura mineira nas comemorações do Dia dos Namorados

Este artigo apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa empírica conduzida com o objetivo de analisar as articulações entre o consumo e o universo cultural do estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil, no contexto das comemorações de uma importante data do comércio varejista – o Dia dos Namorados. Na revisão da literatura foram contempladas discussões acerca das características da cultura do consumo, da Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) e de traços da cultura mineira. Foram conduzidas 10 entrevistas em profundidade com o auxílio de um roteiro semiestruturado de entrevista, cujas transcrições foram analisadas por meio da técnica de Análise de Conteúdo. Os resultados permitem afirmar que o Dia dos Namorados é carregado de sentimentos positivos, característicos do romantismo envolvendo a data, algo que é representado pela presença marcante das palavras “afeto”, “atenção”, “cuidado”, “amor”, “carinho”, “sentimento”, entre outras. Percebeu-se também a presença destacada tanto de atos e comportamentos ligados à presença de presentes e aspectos experienciais do consumo diretamente atrelados a todos esses sentimentos. Em paralelo, identificou-se traços característicos da cultura mineira como apego às tradições, à parcimônia e à sobriedade. Tudo isso parece ratificar a noção de que tanto a cultura do consumo como a cultura mineira permeiam essa data.

Interactionist Theories of Emotion

Classical and contemporary developments in the study of culture are examined for ways to conceptualize emotion(s) and to frame their study. The foundation of this approach is found in early social pragmatism and interactionism, both of which view the structuring of mind, self, and emotion as sociocultural processes. The same principles are found in contemporary arguments about emotions and subjectivity made by ‟constructionist” works in psychology and social science as well as in culture theory today. These approaches have given greater emphasis to the study of everyday beliefs of social actors, arguing that the entire domain of subjectivity is not (as commonly understood) devoid of social and cultural influence. Rather, subjectivity itself is “socially constructed.” In this way and in others, pragmatist social psychology and contemporary culture theory have both enlarged and changed the idea of subjectivity from something isolated and unique and purely individual to something shared and observable. Subjectivity’s continual formation and development take place in society in interaction with others. Accordingly, emotions and the ways they are experienced exist within socially and historically variable cultures, implying that people’s ideas about what emotions are and what they mean vary across cultures as well as within cultures.

‘He’s got the touch’: Tracing the masculine regulation of the body schema in reciprocal relations between ‘self-others-things’

The purpose of this article is to examine the interconnections between embodiment and masculinity. Departing from the predominant discursive view of masculinity, I explain how a phenomenological, post-dualistic approach, inspired by Merleau-Ponty and Butler, can be mobilized to conceptualize masculinity as an embodied, performative accomplishment that reverberates around socio-material relations. Towards this end, this article traces the masculine regulation of the body schema as it develops in reciprocal relations between ‘self-others-things’. Drawing from reflexive field notes and participant interviews, gathered over a 5-year period of observant participation with male motorcycle repairers, the article shows machinic masculinity as an embodied emplacement that is constituted by socio-material entanglements and performative enactments. In so doing, the article conceptually reframes how masculinity and embodiment are understood in Consumer Culture Theory (CCT).

Resisting to Game of Thrones: a fannish agonism

PurposeFans have been characterized as specialized consumers who often express disagreements with the entertainment industry's decisions, especially when it comes to the original content of the works that serve as the basis for the development of media products, evidencing a kind of consumer resistance. Under a Foucauldian perspective aligned with the consumer culture theory (CCT), power relations are established in a dynamic of power exercise and resistance to power. Based on this, the authors pose the following research question: how do fans of media products resist the changes made by the entertainment industry in relation to their canons?Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted the Foucault's genealogy of power as a method, analyzing the comments posted on the Westeros.Org website, the main discussion forum of fans of A Song of Ice and Fire (ASoIaF) book series and Game of Thrones (GoT) TV series.FindingsThe findings reveal ways of resistance in relation to the adaptation of the media text permeated by an entertainment dispositif, which considers the adaptation legitimate, and a fannish dispositif, which criticizes the way this adaptation was made. However, their empirical categories reveal that they are forged not only from singularities but also from overlaps. The authors conclude, therefore, that this process occurs in an agonist way, in which conflicts are fought as a reciprocal incitement revealing a productive and ethical relationship.Originality/valueThe agonism shows how consumers can simultaneously be led to incorporate and resist to discourses and market practices. This demonstrates how resistance is not necessarily a force opposed to another, but a dynamic of reciprocal negotiation.