Special Issue: Revisiting Contemporary Issues in Family Consumption
Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 30, 2014, Issue 15-16

Editorial: Revisiting contemporary issues in family consumption
Ben Kerrane, Shona M. Bettany & Margaret K. Hogg

Changing family structures and childhood socialisation: a study of leisure consumption
Philippa Hunter-Jones
“How children learn to function as consumers has been extensively reviewed in the consumer and marketing literature, although early childhood (5 to 7 years of age) has received relatively limited attention to-date. This study examines this process specifically in relation to the role of socialisation agents. It questions whether parents/guardians, who have traditionally been acknowledged as the primary socialisation agents, retain this influence in an era of changing family structures …” Read more >

Edging out of the nest: emerging adults’ use of smartphones in maintaining and transforming family relationships
Caroline Marchant & Stephanie O’Donohoe
“The transition to adulthood, often accompanied by an emptying of the family nest, has implications for family relationships, identities and consumption practices. Despite this, the voices and experiences of emerging adults are largely missing from literature on family consumption. Emerging adult families typically combine digital natives and digital immigrants, but little is known about how their interactions around digital communications technology relate to emerging adult preoccupations with affiliation and autonomy …” Read more >

Faith, hope and love: doing family through consuming pilgrimage
Leighanne Higgins & Kathy Hamilton
“The aim of this paper is to explore the consumption of Lourdes, a Catholic pilgrimage site in France. Based on a three-year ethnography, our findings focus on respondents’ ‘Lourdes stories’. Discussing themes of faith, hope and love, we illustrate the importance of the family in consuming Lourdes …” Read more >

The hidden work of coping: gender and the micro-politics of household consumption in times of austerity
Benedetta Cappellini, Alessandra Marilli & Elizabeth Parsons
“This article explores the coping strategies of women in 10 middle-class Italian families facing economic crisis. We investigate food provision revealing the ceaseless extra work that goes into meal preparation. Adopting anthropological theories of thrift and sacrifice, we unpack participants’ micro-coping strategies, observing their tendency to redirect resources towards their loved ones and abnegating their own needs for the greater good of the family …” Read more >

When nutritional guidelines and life collide: family fruit and vegetable socialisation practices in low socioeconomic communities
Stephanie M. Judd, Joshua D. Newton, Fiona J. Newton & Michael T. Ewing
“Parents play a critical role in promoting fruit and vegetable consumption, for eating patterns established early in life tend to persist into adulthood. Despite this, the factors that facilitate or inhibit parents’ capacity to socialise fruit and vegetable consumption into their children’s daily diets remain poorly defined …” Read more >

From overt provider to invisible presence: discursive shifts in advertising portrayals of the father in Good Housekeeping, 1950–2010
David Marshall, Teresa Davis, Margaret K. Hogg, Tanja Schneider & Alan Petersen
“This article considers the link between fatherhood and masculinity and identifies some of the key discursive shifts around fatherhood based on an analysis of advertising material that appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine between 1950 and 2010. It provides a socio-historical perspective on fatherhood that reveals a discursive shift from the father as patriarchal family provider/protector to a more ambiguous and less obvious presence in the magazine advertisements …” Read more >

Like a member of the family: including and excluding paid caregivers in performances of family
Michelle Barnhart, Aimee Dinnin Huff & June Cotte
“We explore the construction of family in contemporary families that employ professional providers of childcare and elder care. We find that families and caregivers at times construct family together, including the caregiver as a family member, while at other times, consumers construct family in ways that exclude the caregiver …” Read more >

From pushchairs to wheelchairs: understanding tensions in family decision making through the experiences of adult children caring for ageing parents
Dianne Dean, Jean Kellie & Pat Mould
“Within a modern family life, roles have changed significantly; however, relatively little attention has been given to the increased health and longevity of parents. This article focuses on the tensions relating to the transitional role of parent as ‘carer of the child’ to child as ‘carer of the parent’ as parents age …” Read more >

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