Prior consumer research theorizes nature as an ideal stage for romantic consumption experiences by framing nature as external to culture. The same studies, however, problematize this framing by highlighting the consumer-cultural resources through which nature is harnessed and interpreted. Through an ethnography of surfing culture, this article theorizes consumers' experiences of nature as emerging from assemblages of heterogeneous resources. A theory of assemblage shows that material geographies are vital to the reproduction of romantic discourses. Assemblages of nature are characterized by fragility and contestation, however, due to service structures, technological resources, and social tensions that betray the ideal of external nature. Consumers overcome these contradictions through purifying practices. Purifying practices preserve romantic beliefs that nature is external to culture by masking or purging problematic elements of assemblages. The negative environmental effects of these practices are discussed and compared with sustainable purifying practices that redress the damaging impact of consuming nature.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to question the taken for granted assumptions that underpin a liberal or lay view of consumer empowerment implicit to this special edition.In particular, the idea that it benefits consumers to have more choice is questioned.Design/methodology/approach -The key constructs of Michel Foucaultdisciplinary power, governmentality and technologies of selfare used to argue that people can never escape from the operation of power. Rather it is shown how power operates to produce consumers.Findings -The liberal view of the empowerment of consumers through choice is questioned. Rather we suggest the opposite; that choice is a disciplinary power and that more and more choice can lead to choice paralysis. The contemporary phenomenon known as blogging is described as a Foucauldian technology of self. Managerial implications are discussed.Originality/value -The value of a Foucauldian inspired theory of empowerment is that it represents a more sophisticated understanding of the fluidity of power relationships between producers and consumers than can be captured by a liberal view of power and empowerment.

Through pleasure, a foundational concept in consumer behavior, we offer an analysis of the history, development, and experience of clubbing, the postcursor of rave and the contextual focus of this article. On the basis of a 5-year study primarily involving participant observation and interviewing, we present an analysis of how the clubbing experience is cocreated by promoters, DJs, and clubbers themselves. We develop and demonstrate a biosocial conceptualization of pleasure and show how the shared experience of music and dance, the organization of space, and the effects of the drug ecstasy combine to produce a highly sought-after, calculated suspension of the rules and norms of everyday life. Further, we suggest that the club, as well as the pleasurable practices and experiences that it supports, has become a site of contained illegality. Here, the illicit, subversive practices of rave have now become shepherded and channeled into more predictable, manageable, and regulated environments facilitated by the "knowing wink" of club promoters, police, and state authorities. Implications for consumer research are discussed. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The purpose of this article is to evaluate and advance tools that marketing and consumer researchers have recently gathered from assemblage and actor-network theories. By distinguishing between two different styles of applying these theories we explain that a 'representational', interventionist and problem-solving mode has come to dominate existing uses of assemblage and actor-network theories in our field. We explain that current applications can be supplemented by a non-representational mode of theorising that draws on work pioneered by Nigel Thrift. Specifically, we explain that non-representational marketing theory can expand our ontological sensitivities through improved attention to the minutiae and hitherto unrepresented constituents of life. Towards this end, we offer methodological suggestions to extend attention to flows of everyday marketplace activity, precognitive forms of networked agency, as well as affect and atmosphere in consumption spaces.

PurposeStudies of marketplace cultures emphasize the benefits of communal consumption and explain the ways that brand managers can leverage subcultures and brand communities. The ephemeral and often non‐commercial nature of consumer tribes means that they are more difficult to manage. This paper, aims to suggest that a necessary pre‐requisite for understanding how to engage with consumer tribes is to identify how consumers become members of tribes.Design/methodology/approachData are drawn from a five‐year ethnographic study of the archetypical club culture tribe that utilized a variety of data collection methods including participant observation and in‐depth interviewing.FindingsThe paper identifies “learning to be tribal” as a communal practice that occurs through three interconnected processes of engagement, imagination and alignment.Originality/valueThis paper makes three contributions: it clearly distinguishes between the three main forms of communal consumption found in the marketing literature; it identifies how consumer tribes are formed; and it questions received wisdom and shows how tribal theory can guide managers to offer products and services as learning resources that facilitate tribal practices.