Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering

Leighanne Higgins; Kathy Hamilton

doi:10.1093/jcr/ucy046

Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering

Leighanne Higgins, Kathy Hamilton

Marketing

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

7 Citations (Scopus)

8 Downloads (Pure)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1230-1253
Number of pages	23
Journal	Journal of Consumer Research
Volume	45
Issue number	6
Early online date	11 May 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy046
Publication status	Published - 30 Apr 2019

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Emotion

Servicescape

Localization

Homogeneity

Renewal

Keywords

servicescapes
consumer emotion
therapeutic consumption
pilgrimage

Cite this

Higgins, L., & Hamilton, K. (2019). Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(6), 1230-1253 . https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy046

Higgins, Leighanne ; Hamilton, Kathy. / Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering. In: Journal of Consumer Research. 2019 ; Vol. 45, No. 6. pp. 1230-1253 .

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Higgins, L & Hamilton, K 2019, 'Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering', Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 1230-1253 . https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy046

Therapeutic servicescapes and market-mediated performances of emotional suffering. / Higgins, Leighanne; Hamilton, Kathy.

In: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 45, No. 6, 30.04.2019, p. 1230-1253 .

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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