The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing Communications of Technological Products and Services

Frontiers of thought in other disciplines, popular culture, and marketing communications are continually ‘re-visioning’ technology and influencing how consumers think about and experience technology-based products and services. Providing a glimpse into these frontiers, this paper re-introduces the body into theorisations of consumer-technology interaction and reviews interdisciplinary discourses shaping views of the body and technology. The key theoretical discourses of body-machine liminality, control and freedom, embodied interaction, and identity are discussed. These discourses expand conceptualisations of technology beyond a limiting focus on functional benefits, offering new frames and foundations for investigating consumer experience and marketing communications of technology-based offerings.

Citation:

Margo Buchanan-Oliver and Angela Cruz (2009) ,"The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing Communications of Technological Products and Services", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 367-371.