Therapeutic Servicescapes and Market-Mediated Performances of Emotional Suffering

Higgins, Leighanne and Hamilton, Kathy (2019) Therapeutic Servicescapes and Market-Mediated Performances of Emotional Suffering. Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (6). 1230–1253. ISSN 0093-5301

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Abstract

We introduce the concept of therapeutic servicescapes, defined as consumption settings where emplaced, market-mediated performances compensate for socio-cultural dilemmas. Our focus is on the localization of emotions which are emplaced in specific socio-spatial features and collectively reproduced through ritualized consumer performances. This ethnographic study of religious pilgrimage consumption reveals that the therapeutic servicescape comprises three features: evocative spaces, ideological homogeneity and restorative emotion scripts. These servicescape features catalyze the consumer rituals of therapeutic relations, therapeutic release and therapeutic renewal. Our theorization of therapeutic servicescapes offers three contributions. First, we reveal how emotions are socially and geographically orchestrated and transformed in marketplace settings. Second, we demonstrate how therapeutic ritual performances reproduce emplaced, market-mediated emotion and compensate for embodied emotional restrictions. Third, we demonstrate how the negotiation of emotional ordering guides the therapeutic dialogue between religion and the marketplace. Keywords: servicescapes, consumer emotion, therapeutic consumption, pilgrimage

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Consumer Research
Additional Information:
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Consumer Research following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Leighanne Higgins, Kathy Hamilton, Therapeutic Servicescapes and Market-Mediated Performances of Emotional Suffering, Journal of Consumer Research 2018 45,6 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/45/6/1230/4995181
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Subjects:
?? servicescapesconsumer emotiontherapeutic consumptionpilgrimageeconomics and econometricsbusiness and international managementmarketing ??
ID Code:
125086
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
10 May 2018 10:54
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
21 Mar 2024 00:47