Lifestyle Gurus. Chris Rojek
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Название: Lifestyle Gurus
Автор: Chris Rojek
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Жанр: Кинематограф, театр
isbn: 9781509530205
isbn:
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Lifestyle Gurus
Constructing Authority and Influence Online
STEPHANIE A. BAKER AND CHRIS ROJEK
polity
Copyright page
Copyright © Stephanie A. Baker and Chris Rojek 2020
The right of Stephanie A. Baker and Chris Rojek to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2020 by Polity Press
Polity Press
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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK
Polity Press
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Medford, MA 02155, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3017-5 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3018-2 (paperback)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baker, Stephanie Alice, 1983- author. | Rojek, Chris, author.
Title: Lifestyle gurus : constructing authority and influence online / Stephanie Baker, Chris Rojek.
Description: Medford : Polity Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “The rise of blogs and social media has facilitated an industry of self-appointed ‘lifestyle gurus’ who have become instrumental in the management of intimacy and social relations. Baker and Rojek trace the rise of lifestyle influencers in the digital age, relating this development to the erosion of trust in the expert-professional power bloc”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019020142 (print) | LCCN 2019980575 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509530182 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509530175 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509530205 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Social media. | Influence (Psychology) | Power (Social sciences) | Interpersonal relations. | Collective behavior.
Classification: LCC HM1206 .B354 2019 (print) | LCC HM1206 (ebook) | DDC 302.23/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020142
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019980575
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Printed and bound in the UK by by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon
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Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
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Acknowledgements
Stephanie thanks Ian, Viola and Juliette, family and friends, who provided support at the time of writing this book.
City, University of London, have been generous in granting Stephanie a sabbatical, which assisted with the research for, and writing of, this book.
Chris would like to thank Luke, Kate, Amelie and Chloe, Eugene McLaughlin, Simon Susen, Barry Smart, Dan Cook, Maggie O’Neill, George and Sue Ritzer.
Stephanie and Chris would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers, who provided useful feedback on this manuscript, and the staff at Polity – including John Thompson, Mary Savigar and Ellen MacDonald-Kramer – for bringing this book into print.
Introduction
Our study of lifestyle gurus began in 2015 with the case of Belle Gibson. Gibson presented herself online as a cancer survivor. She claimed that she healed herself from terminal brain cancer by adhering to a healthy diet and lifestyle, rejecting conventional cancer treatments in favour of natural remedies. Using her blog and social media to document her experience, she created an online persona based around inspirational quotes, attractive selfies, healthy recipes and a general air of presumed intimacy. Gibson used these technologies to build an online community of over 200,000 followers. Her claims of self-recovery formed the basis of her online persona and successful global brand, with a bestselling app available on Apple, an international book deal with Penguin and series of public accolades built around her narrative of survival. Gibson’s association with Apple and Penguin gave her story a sense of legitimacy and extended her global reach. Comprised of a collection of recipes, her book and app were about more than food; they were framed more broadly under the rubric of lifestyle philosophy as guides on ‘how we should live, combating stress, achieving wellness and a healthy, wholesome lifestyle’. In short, Gibson’s products were marketed to consumers as manuals filled with ‘good advice on promoting better living’ (Barker 2014).
The moral payload of Gibson’s message was the unexamined assumption that most people do not live well and do not know how to acquire good advice to remedy the problem. Part of the appeal of Gibson’s story was that she provided many of those suffering from cancer with hope. If Gibson was able to cure herself from cancer through nutrition and adopting a healthy lifestyle, perhaps others could do the same. Her audience was comprised of those who were ill, as well as health-conscious individuals seeking to optimise their well-being. Gibson, referred to on Instagram as @healing_belle, presented herself as a ‘wellness guru’ and an advocate of clean eating. She not only claimed to adhere to clean eating principles by restricting her consumption of coffee, gluten and dairy, she also rejected conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this respect she was distrustful of elite-professional interventions. She advocated alternative СКАЧАТЬ