title: Embodying Sexy: Narrative Inquiry into Female Sexuality and Consumer Culture

authors: Travis, Courtney

subjects: Female Sexuality

abstract: This research investigates female sexuality and consumer culture. It focuses on sexy as a form of expressing sexuality. The main objectives of this research were to understand what sexy meant to a group of young women and how they were socialised into their meaning through the consumer culture they live in. A narrative inquiry is used to understand these women’s embodied experience using collective biography and digital storytelling methods. A group of seven women participated in three group meetings to collectively research sexy. Collective biography and digital storytelling were layered upon one another to understand these women’s experiences of sexy and to enable collaborative analysis. Through the meetings the women progressed through the meetings in their comprehension of their own and the collective’s meaning of sexy. They did so through the creation of memory and digital stories. The research highlighted sexy as complex, contradictory, consequential, and dynamic for these women. Sexy was complex because it was embodied as multisensory. It was also contradictory because the images of sexy presented in consumer culture are not consistent with these women’s beliefs. The contrary nature of sexy resulted in envy, low self-esteem, and objectification. Sexy was also dynamic because it changed as the women matured. Sexy is embodied. It requires more than simply achieving just the look. It is experienced as multisensory. These women’s experiences and images of sexy differ from those presented in consumer culture. The research challenges the assumption that adult women can and do act on their knowledge that adverts are fantasy. It provides a new insight by highlighting transformation through the collaborative research process. These women were able to understand how they had been socialised into their meaning of sexy and make better informed choices. The research also highlighted the fine line these women walk between slutty and sexy due to the virgin/whore dichotomy. This research contributes in two ways: by suggesting future directions for the sexual education of adolescent girls and more research on young adult women, their experiences of sexuality, and the influences from consumer culture.

text: Embodying Sexy: Narrative Inquiry into Female Sexuality and Consumer Culture This research investigates female sexuality and consumer culture. It focuses on sexy as a form of expressing sexuality. The main objectives of this research were to understand what sexy meant to a group of young women and how they were socialised into their meaning through the consumer culture they live in. A narrative inquiry is used to understand these women’s embodied experience using collective biography and digital storytelling methods. A group of seven women participated in three group meetings to collectively research sexy. Collective biography and digital storytelling were layered upon one another to understand these women’s experiences of sexy and to enable collaborative analysis. Through the meetings the women progressed through the meetings in their comprehension of their own and the collective’s meaning of sexy. They did so through the creation of memory and digital stories. The research highlighted sexy as complex, contradictory, consequential, and dynamic for these women. Sexy was complex because it was embodied as multisensory. It was also contradictory because the images of sexy presented in consumer culture are not consistent with these women’s beliefs. The contrary nature of sexy resulted in envy, low self-esteem, and objectification. Sexy was also dynamic because it changed as the women matured. Sexy is embodied. It requires more than simply achieving just the look. It is experienced as multisensory. These women’s experiences and images of sexy differ from those presented in consumer culture. The research challenges the assumption that adult women can and do act on their knowledge that adverts are fantasy. It provides a new insight by highlighting transformation through the collaborative research process. These women were able to understand how they had been socialised into their meaning of sexy and make better informed choices. The research also highlighted the fine line these women walk between slutty and sexy due to the virgin/whore dichotomy. This research contributes in two ways: by suggesting future directions for the sexual education of adolescent girls and more research on young adult women, their experiences of sexuality, and the influences from consumer culture.

year: 2011

title: Organic label as an identifier of environmentally related quality: A consumer choice experiment on beef in Italy

authors: Zanoli, Raffaele

subjects: animal welfare

abstract: This paper uses a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate Italian consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic, conventional and genetically modified (GM)-fed beef, utilizing intrinsic, search cues (price, color and visible fat) and extrinsic, credence cues. Data are gathered from three different locations in northern, central and southern Italy using a sequential Bayesian approach. Results showed that consumers attach higher value to organic meat. WTP for GM-fed beef, which is not yet sold in Italy, is well below current conventional beef prices. Organic beef is attractive to consumers because it is associated with higher animal welfare standards and environment-related issues (food miles and biodiversity preservation). No differences are found in marginal WTP estimates by gender, age, education, being a parent or having a higher level of knowledge about organic production. Ethical/environmental issues (credence cues) appear to be more relevant in explaining variation in WTP for organic beef than ordinary product characteristics (search cues).

text: Organic label as an identifier of environmentally related quality: A consumer choice experiment on beef in Italy This paper uses a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate Italian consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic, conventional and genetically modified (GM)-fed beef, utilizing intrinsic, search cues (price, color and visible fat) and extrinsic, credence cues. Data are gathered from three different locations in northern, central and southern Italy using a sequential Bayesian approach. Results showed that consumers attach higher value to organic meat. WTP for GM-fed beef, which is not yet sold in Italy, is well below current conventional beef prices. Organic beef is attractive to consumers because it is associated with higher animal welfare standards and environment-related issues (food miles and biodiversity preservation). No differences are found in marginal WTP estimates by gender, age, education, being a parent or having a higher level of knowledge about organic production. Ethical/environmental issues (credence cues) appear to be more relevant in explaining variation in WTP for organic beef than ordinary product characteristics (search cues).

year: 2013

title: Indigenous service programs plus indigenous evaluator equals Whitestream evaluation - What's wrong with this picture? (Reflections from my PhD)

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

abstract: For the past 100 or so years, formal evaluation has taken its lead from frameworks that originate from a culturally blind standpoint. Worldwide the major influence on evaluation practice comes from the United States of America. The absence of non-dominant (or indigenous) culturally constructed frameworks has been replicated around the world.
Before the formation of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA), as a NZ specific evaluation group, practitioners generally belonged to the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) and joined in the sharing, adoption and adaptation of USAs Program Evaluation Standards. However, the context of evaluation in New Zealand has been somewhat different from the rest of the world, becoming more culturally centred than other countries. The role and place of the Treaty of Waitangi has been acknowledged as an attributing factor by ANZEA.
Four indigenous, externally evaluated “By Maori for Maori”, health & wellbeing programmes were used as case studies within my research. I draw upon examples from the cases studies to highlight the vulnerable and contentious position indigenous service providers and indigenous evaluators were in. Adapting Sandra Grande’s (2003) analysis, I critiqued the context of the case study evaluations that commissioners considered as Kaupapa Maori. In this presentation I argue that while stakeholders perceived the work to be an indigenous evaluation, the case studies demonstrate that whitestream evaluation was prevalent.

text: Indigenous service programs plus indigenous evaluator equals Whitestream evaluation - What's wrong with this picture? (Reflections from my PhD) For the past 100 or so years, formal evaluation has taken its lead from frameworks that originate from a culturally blind standpoint. Worldwide the major influence on evaluation practice comes from the United States of America. The absence of non-dominant (or indigenous) culturally constructed frameworks has been replicated around the world.
Before the formation of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA), as a NZ specific evaluation group, practitioners generally belonged to the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) and joined in the sharing, adoption and adaptation of USAs Program Evaluation Standards. However, the context of evaluation in New Zealand has been somewhat different from the rest of the world, becoming more culturally centred than other countries. The role and place of the Treaty of Waitangi has been acknowledged as an attributing factor by ANZEA.
Four indigenous, externally evaluated “By Maori for Maori”, health & wellbeing programmes were used as case studies within my research. I draw upon examples from the cases studies to highlight the vulnerable and contentious position indigenous service providers and indigenous evaluators were in. Adapting Sandra Grande’s (2003) analysis, I critiqued the context of the case study evaluations that commissioners considered as Kaupapa Maori. In this presentation I argue that while stakeholders perceived the work to be an indigenous evaluation, the case studies demonstrate that whitestream evaluation was prevalent.

year: 2015