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This paper aims to elucidate health-related transformations experienced by an individual. Building from personal experience offers an understanding of the relational dynamics at play within health transformations, which makes a contribution to realising and facilitating the agency of the patient in systems of integrated care.

Introspection can be used as a methodology to elucidate messy and personal affective experiences. The author’s introspection is an 18-month catalogue and analysis from diagnosis of breast cancer through significant stages of rehabilitation. Reflexive introspection has gained traction in health research due to its cathartic benefits, whilst this approach offers much; a key challenge for integrated care is translating deeply personal and subjective introspections into strategic-level application.

Using Turner’s (1969) concept of liminality, this research explicates key relational dynamics of health-related transformations experienced by an individual. By recognising changes in affective being as a pivotal point in rehabilitation, this work links embodied transformation as a critical antecedent to a patient’s willingness to engage his/her agency in their rehabilitation.

Whilst recognising that integrated care is patient-centred and seeks to incorporate the patient’s voice, this research gives insight into how the author, as a patient, engaged her agency in her rehabilitation through building her own transformed personal ontologies of health.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodological significance and potential of integrating Facebook in ethnographic research. The authors discuss how friendly relationships with participants could be initiated, fostered and managed by incorporating Facebook in ethnographic data collection and how such relationships deepen ethnographic interpretation.

This paper focuses on the methodological implications of adopting “friendship as method” during ethnographic research. The discussion is premised upon a longitudinal, multi-method ethnographic research process exploring new family identity formation in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Building on friendship theories, the authors suggest that Facebook engagement helps overcome three challenges inherent to ethnographic research: gaining access and immersion, capturing multiple perspectives, and developing rich and thick interpretations. The findings illustrate that adopting Facebook as a platform to strengthen friendships with research participants expands the researcher’s field by enabling him to follow the ethics and pace of conventional friendship and by inspiring dialogical interaction with participants. Thus, it is suggested that Facebook helps diluting the power hierarchy in the participant–researcher relationship and encourages participants to reveal more subtle details of their mundane lived experiences.

Even though researchers have often used social media interactions in ethnographic research, there is no theoretical foundation to understand how such interactions could better inform the depth and richness of research phenomena. Particularly, considering the emerging significance of social media in personal identity construction, sustenance and enactment, it is import to understand how such mediums enable researchers overcome inherent methodological complexities. Therefore, this paper contributes to literature on conventional ethnography, netnography and friendship theories by presenting a theoretical framework to understand how Facebook interaction contributes to overcome challenges in conducting ethnographic research.

This paper seeks to explore whether the global market segment Generation Y shares a common perception of a specific consumption activity, namely bungy jumping, and how perceptions of cool operate around that.

A qualitative methodology is adopted, appropriate to the exploratory aims of the research, which utilises existing filmed interviews to elicit responses from other members of Generation Y. The research explores shared identification, meaning and knowledge of a specific consumption practice, namely commercial bungy jumping.

The actual form of consumption, bungy jumping was widely accepted as being “cool” but a global consensus on a “cool” consumer and their story could not be reached. The research concludes by proposing a hierarchy for the attribution of cool from one Generation Y member to another; thus extending theoretical discussion and knowledge by investigating an established concept in a specific context to illustrate the complex and uneven nature of cultural globalisation.

This research interprets global Generation Y culture from a small convenience sample from America, Ireland, Scotland and England, thus generating avenues for further research as discussed.

These findings have value for businesses that create consumption experiences for Generation Y customers and scholars seeking insight into the plural and complex function of cool.

In this paper, we provide a practical example of how ethnographic insight is obtained in the field. In so doing, we demonstrate multiple ways in which ethnographic approaches can be adapted during on-going research processes to develop rich and multiple emic/etic perspectives.

This paper is based upon the first author’s reflective experience of undertaking ethnographic field work. The discussion draws from a multi-method, longitudinal and adaptive ethnographic research design, which aimed to capture the process of new family identity formation in Sri Lanka.

Existing research gives us excellent insight into various methods used in contemporary ethnographic research and the kinds of insight generated by these methods. With few exceptions, these studies do not give significant insight into the specifics of the ethnographic research process and the adaption practice. Thus, we provide a practical example of how ethnographic insight is obtained in the research field.

Our discussion elaborates the ways in which we integrated multiple research methods such as participant observations, semi-structured in-depth interviews, informal sessions, Facebook interactions, adaptations of performative exercises and elicitation methods to overcome complexities in cultural, mundane and personal consumption meanings. We also discuss how closer friendships with informants emerged as a consequence of the ethnographic research adaption practice and how this influenced trust and confidence in researcher-informant relationship, presenting us with a privileged access to their everyday and personal lives.

People arguably create “storied lives”; including constructing accounts of their leisure that become part of their personal and social identities. These stories are valuable and relevant, not just to themselves, but also to others with whom they choose to share their stories. This paper and accompanying film aim to further understanding of how consumers visiting the second highest bungy jump in the world construct and convey stories of this experience.

The research approach is exploratory. The researcher observed, interviewed, and filmed informants at the primary site of investigation. The interview transcripts were transcribed in full. Emergent themes were validated through constant cross‐checking. The themes provided the foundation for the accompanying video.

Several themes regarding narratives and high‐risk leisure emerged including the construction of factual accounts and rehearsed accounts, the use of markers to symbolize and make more tangible the consumption experience, and the role of technology in the communication of the stories.

This exploratory research offers insight into the components of narratives for Generation Y tourists consuming in New Zealand. These findings do not claim to generalize to other samples or activities.

The paper extends the knowledge of how stories figure in consumers' lives; particularly in the context of the consumption of high‐risk leisure.

Social exchange theory literature posits that a relationship is dependent on the strength of its social interactions and is clear upon the role of trust, power and commitment within that relationship as a means of value creation. However, an understanding of the nature of experiences, expectations, motivations and perceptions as components of the value derivation process are missing. SET literature does not identify these components as antecedents to value creation but central to value derived. This research builds upon that premise to give understanding into how value is derived from arts sponsorships.

A qualitative exploratory approach is used to research arts sponsorships in New Zealand of differing size, duration and profile.

This research gives understanding into the nature of experiences, expectations, motivations and perceptions as components parts of value derivation and their interactions resulting in the creation of an iterative value derivation model of the life cycle of an arts sponsorship relationship from a business perspective.

This research has relevance for both academics and marketing managers involved in arts sponsorship. The findings from this research can be used as an analytical tool to help businesses when evaluating their arts sponsorship.

Are peaches, Caesar salad and chocolate masculine or feminine food? Literature suggests that there is a clear association between certain types of food, portion sizes and gendered identities. This research paper and short film aims to explore the theory in practice of food consumption for young consumers, particularly impression management required to create/maintain an attractive identity to the opposite sex.

The authors adopt an interpretive approach to an in‐depth analysis of the food practices of an all male and an all female household. They use a theory in practice methodology to explore their food consumption.

It is found that despite enlightenment in many areas, gendered identities are still strongly associated with food consumption. The experiment in which each household consumed a meal associated with the opposite gender offers insight into the association between food consumption and gendered identity. The social implications of the research demonstrate that masculine identity is supported and negotiated through what he is eating, whereas feminine identity is being constructed by what she is not eating. It is concerning that an attractive feminine identity is premised on omission rather than consumption and traps many females into a negative and potentially harmful relationship with food consumption.

The use of videography allows insight into the negotiation of an underpinning cultural attitude where women eat less to be what consumer culture has defined as an attractive feminine identity which means being slimmer and smaller than males.

The magazine industry is currently experiencing a period of significant growth, resulting in increased competition in the marketplace. As a consequence of these changes many magazine producers are being forced to look for fresh and innovative ways to attract and retain readers. By broadening our understanding of how brand community relates to the consumption of products such as magazines, this paper aims to highlight the way in which the community concept offers opportunities to further bridge the gap between a product and the needs of the consumer.

The study follows a qualitative approach, using a two‐stage research design consisting of semi‐structured intercept interviews and focus group inquiry.

The research generated a number of findings in regards to magazine loyalty, brand attachment, reader connections, community formation and the use of traditional brand community support tools in the magazine industry context.

Overall, magazine consumption is found to be conducive to brand community formation, and a number of recommendations and guidelines for fostering and supporting magazine brand communities can thus be given.

This paper extends existing brand community knowledge and current research by investigating the factors driving the formation of brand community in a specific context.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which deepens our understanding of identity negotiation and formation in a collectivistic Asian context. Drawing from a three-year, multi-method ethnographic research process, the authors explore how contemporary Asian consumers construct, negotiate and enact family identity through meal consumption. The authors particularly focus on the ways in which Asian consumers negotiate values, norms and practices associated with filial piety during new family formation. Building on the influential framework of layered family identity proposed by Epp and Price (2008), the authors seek to develop a framework which enables us to better understand how Asian consumers construct and enact their family identity through mundane consumption.

As most of the identity negotiation in the domestic sphere takes place within the mundanity of everyday life, such as during the routines, rituals and conventions of “ordinary” family meals, the authors adopted an interpretive, hermeneutic and longitudinal ethnographic research approach, which drew from a purposive sample of nine Sri Lankan couples.

The authors present the finding in three vivid narrative exemplars of new family identity negotiation and discuss three processes which informants negotiated the layered family identity. First, Asian families negotiate family identity by re-formulating aspects of their relational identity bundles. Second, re-negotiating facets of individual identity facilitates construction of family identity. Finally, re-configuring aspects of collective family identity, especially in relation to the extended family is important to family identity in this research context. The authors also propose filial piety as a fundamental construct of Asian family identity and highlight the importance of collective layer over individual and relational family identity layers.

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which deepens our understanding of identity negotiation and formation in a collectivistic Asian context. Even though exploring Sinhalese, Sri Lankan culture sheds light on understanding identity and consumption in other similar Asian cultures, such as Indian, Chinese and Korean; this paper does not suggest generalisability of findings to similar research contexts. On the contrary, the findings aim to present an in-depth discussion of how identities are challenged, negotiated and re-formulated during new family formation around specific consumption behaviours associated with filial piety in a collectivistic extended family.

As this research explores tightly knit relationships in extended families and how these families negotiate values, norms and practices associated with filial piety, it enables us to understand the complex ways in which Asian families negotiate identity. The proposed framework could be useful to explore how changing social dynamics challenge the traditional sense of family in these collectivistic cultures and how they affect family happiness and well-being. Such insight is useful for public policymakers and social marketers when addressing family dissatisfaction–based social issues in Asia, such as increasing rates of suicide, divorce, child abuse, prostitution and sexually transmitted disease.

Little is known about the complex ways in which Asian family identities are negotiated in contrast to Western theoretical models on this topic. Particularly, we need to understand how fundamental aspects of Asian family identity, such as filial piety, are continuously re-negotiated, manifested and perpetuated during everyday life and how formulations of Asian family identity may be different from its predominantly Western conceptualisations. Therefore, the paper provides an adaptation to the current layered family identity model and proposes filial piety as a fundamental construct driving Asian family identity.