Embodiment as an uncharted territory of consumption: a roundtable.

Wahlen, Stefan; Sassatelli, Roberta; Spierings, Bas; Eisewicht, Paul; Cossu, Alberto; Holm, Lotte; Stuhlmann, Alexandra

Abstract

This roundtable takes an embodied approach to consumption, treating the body as an active medium through which consumption is organized, experienced and governed, rather than as a residual site of inscription. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, geography and digital media studies, the contributors discuss how sensory and affective bodily experiences influence everyday consumption in various contexts, from hunger and satiety to walking and ‘sensescapes’ in commercialized public spaces and platform cultures, where rhythms, moods and algorithmic curation organize participation. The discussion highlights how normativity is produced and negotiated across offline and digital environments, through situational expectations of ‘appropriate’ embodiment, the selective inclusion and exclusion of bodies in consumption spaces and platform-based ideals and routines that become embedded in everyday practices. Methodologically, the roundtable makes the case for reworking and combining established approaches, such as sensory and mobile ethnographies (walk-, go- and scroll-alongs), elicitation techniques and mixed designs, while foregrounding ethics and positionality, including the role of research in making bodies and practices visible. Overall, this work establishes embodiment as a fertile but under-explored terrain for debates on everyday consumption, power and social difference in Consumption and Society.