Learning how: Body techniques, skill acquisition and the consumption of experience. (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Murphy, Stephen; Patterson, Maurice; O'Malley, Lisa
• Is Part Of: Marketing theory. Volume 19:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 425
• Page End: 445
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Body -- body techniques -- embodiment -- experience -- habitus -- motorcycling -- observant participation -- phenomenology -- perception -- skill acquisition; Marketing -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Marketing research -- Periodicals; Marketing research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Marketing -- Periodicals; 381.01
• DOI: 10.1177/1470593118809792
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-5931

Abstract

Although the skilful body has been ever-present in research accounts of consumption experiences, no sustained attention has been given to the acquisition of skills necessary for successful engagement with those experiences. In the present study, we report an empirical investigation of the acquisition and diffusion of embodied competencies among high-speed motorcyclists. In doing so, we mobilize the concept of reflexive body techniques in order to unpack the social, physical and mindful aspects of skilled embodiment. We demonstrate that skill acquisition is a necessary precursor to successful immersion into certain kinds of consumption experiences offered by the marketplace. Further, we underline the role of skill acquisition in subject formation.