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Business Events as Mirrors, Models and Laboratories of Social Imaginaries: The Paradox of Suffering in Ritualized Contexts

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  • Laura Litre Valentin

    (ESCP Europe - Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris)

Abstract

If painful or disappointing experiences generally drive consumers away, the results of a recent study about the experience of participants attending big fairs and trade shows reveal that suffering, whether physical, psychological or moral, stems from ambivalent experiences and is massively accepted with resignation. This article seeks to understand why suffering is still accepted in the overwhelming contexts of business events while it destroys the experiential and economic value, and to explore which alternative scenario could be imagined. Drawing on anthropology, sociology and social psychology literature, as well as on history and philosophy, this multi-sited ethnography sheds light on the nature of business events. We call to see them as secular rituals that perpetuate social orders and asymmetries, simultaneously endowed with the power to operate social imaginaries transformations.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Litre Valentin, 2020. "Business Events as Mirrors, Models and Laboratories of Social Imaginaries: The Paradox of Suffering in Ritualized Contexts," Post-Print hal-04308956, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04308956
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://normandie-univ.hal.science/hal-04308956v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Otnes, Cele & Lowrey, Tina M & Shrum, L J, 1997. "Toward an Understanding of Consumer Ambivalence," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(1), pages 80-93, June.
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