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The posthuman: the end and the beginning of the human
Author(s) -
Campbell Norah,
O'Driscoll Aidan,
Saren Michael
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of consumer behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.811
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1479-1838
pISSN - 1472-0817
DOI - 10.1002/cb.306
Subject(s) - posthuman , posthumanism , humanism , sociology , metaphysics , epistemology , transhumanism , aesthetics , philosophy , theology
Posthumanism is used as a collective term to understand “any discursive or bodily configuration that displaces the human, humanism, and the humanities” (Halberstam and Livingston 1995:vii, emphasis added). There are compelling reasons for introducing posthumanism to consumer research. Consumer research often theorises technology as an externalised instrument that the human creates, uses, and controls. In the 21 st century we are beginning to realise that, far from being a mere tool, technology is the centre of critical thought about culture and about nature. It has recently been suggested that marketing and consumer research now need to think about technology in a manner which reflects its ubiquity, its deeper symbolic and aesthetic dimensions, and the ways in which it can radically change humanness and human‐centred approaches to researching the world. Posthumanism is fundamental to theorising humanness in an era that is witnessing the complexification of new technologies. To follow a posthuman mode of thinking will lead to important ethical and metaphysical insights. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.