Adam Smith Business School

Dr Caroline Moraes, University of Birmingham 

'From consumer hobby to meaningful work: Imagining the new paradigm of playful work among neo-craft consumer-entrepreneurs' (Co-authored by A. Gerosa)
Tuesday 14 June 2022, 12:00pm - 1.30pm
Zoom online seminar 

Register at business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

Abstract 

This paper contributes to the ongoing debates on meaningful work by drawing upon theorisations of libidinal work from classic thinkers such as Fourier, Benjamin and Marcuse, the growing literature on passionate work (Borghi & Murgia, 2019; McRobbie, 2016; Sandoval, 2018), and recent interest in the politics and value of care (The Care Collective, 2020). In doing so, we examine the lived experiences of neo-craft consumers to conceptualise their transformative identity work journeys from hobby-craft consumers to playful entrepreneurial workers. Neo-craft consumers are driven to craft making by leisurely craft values and the pleasures they derive in creating rather than simply consuming products, and in developing the competencies needed for their craft goals (Alba & Williams, 2013). In blurring production and consumption and breaking the neoliberal binary distinction between work and play, neo-craft consumers undergo transformative identity experiences in their juxtaposing of homo faber (the making man) and homo ludens (the playing, passionate, spiritual man) characteristics (Kim & Kwon, 2017; Huizinga, 1955). By deploying original qualitative data including 40 in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations, we advance two main arguments. First, we suggest that neo-craft consumers are ‘hobbyfying work’ by harnessing the power of homo ludens values to develop their entrepreneurial work and work identities. Second, we argue that the idea of play is central to the neo-craft values and practices that underpin and define this new hybrid paradigm of ‘playful work’ and the role it plays in neo-craft workers’ identity performances. By building upon the foundations laid by passion and play, a partial but at times problematic accomplishment of the antique myth and goal of libidinal work emerges, i.e., the emancipation from alienation and the transformation of work as a practice that can be generative of pleasure and care.

Biography 

Dr Caroline Moraes

Caroline Moraes is a Reader in Marketing and Consumer Research at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. Her research examines issues of ethics, sustainability and responsibility in consumption and marketing. Caroline has published her work in various journals including Sociology, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, and Consumption Markets & Culture.

Dr Alessandro Gerosa

Alessandro Gerosa is a Lecturer in Marketing at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. His research draws from an interdisciplinary approach to sociology and marketing to examine contemporary taste, the meanings of authenticity in consumption, the rise of neo-craft industries, and digital cultures. His works appeared in journals such as Consumption, Markets & Culture, the International Journal of Cultural Policy, and Space and Culture, as well as in edited books.

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Further Information business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk 

First published: 5 April 2022