Event overview
IMS Marketing Research Seminar series
Unfortunately the event is cancelled due to presenter being ill!
Is there an alternative economic system that can successfully bridge markets and morals? And if so, what would it look like? We propose that ‘Caring Economics’ has the potential to do so. The caring economy is based on empathy, responsibility and concern for human welfare and optimal human development on individual, organizational, social and environmental levels.
Based on a three-year ethnographic study of the Camino de Santiago, an ancient Christian pilgrimage route in Spain, and interviews with 26 service providers working in the Camino infrastructure, we unpack the logic of the market within the caring economy, and identify four practices by which the market surrounding the Camino has developed into a caring economy. The market logic is characterized by market norms which encourage and reward kindness, respect, and gratefulness for consumers and the environment. Market actors and institutions relate on the basis of partnership and community (rather than competition and hierarchy). A set of four market-mediated caregiving practices fosters market development on the Camino. They are: 1. facilitating care via the market through practices such as upscale hotels offering free meals for pilgrims, and pilgrim welcome centers offering free counselling; 2. giving back to the market after having experienced its caregiving, such as by volunteering, writing guidebooks and contributing to on line forums; 3. sharing the benefits of the market with local communities, for example, when guest house owners outsource services to their neighbors, or local children receive English lessons from pilgrims; and 4. protecting the caregiving environment, for example by opening new routes to lessen the environmental impact of overcrowding and picking up litter from routes. These practices allow the market to grow sustainably (i.e. market growth goes along with individual/spiritual wellbeing, community support, environmental protection).
About the presenter:
Katharina C. Husemann, PhD, is senior lecturer in Marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is an expert in the field of consumer culture theory and her current research activities contribute to interdisciplinary debates on social conflict in consumption, sustainable/ethical consumption and production, and spirituality and consumption. She has published in outlets such as Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology & Marketing and Long Range Planning. Katharina received a prestigious research grant from the British Academy as well as the Marietta Blau-Scholarship sponsored by the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperation in Education, Science and Research (OeAD)
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 22 May 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
