Los buscadores de aventuras están pagando alrededor de 40.000 € para subir al monte Everest, pero las gente que paga por tener expereinecias transformadoras, no suele tener el espíritu comunitario que generalmente define tales actividades.Según un estudio etnográfico sobre expediciones comerciales de escalada al Everest enfocado a los clientes que pagan, llevado a cabo por Gülnur Tumbat (San Francisco State University) y Russell W. Belk (York University) y publicado en el Journal of Consumer Research, hay una tendencia entre los clientes escaladores por ser los primeros en vez de cooperar en una atmósfera comunitaria.
Los autores descubrieron que los escaladores se centran solo en sus logros individuales y en proclamar posiciones únicas (por ejemplo en ser la primera mujer británica en escalar el Everest). "Lo que hemos encontrado en el Everest es individualismo, competitividad, contradicción y búsqueda de poder a través de la compra de experiencias extremas,dentro de lo que se conoce ahora como economía de la experiencia"
Adventure seekers are plunking down more than $50,000 to climb Mount Everest, but the people who pay for transformative experiences often lack the communitarian spirit that usually defines such activities.According to an ethnographic study of commercialized climbing expeditions on Everest and focused on paying clients, carried out by Gülnur Tumbat (San Francisco State University) and Russell W. Belk (York University) and published in the Journal of Consumer Research, there is a tendency for paying climbers to jostle for position rather than cooperating in a communal atmosphere.
The authors found that climbers were focused on their individual accomplishments and with proclaiming unique positions (for example, being the first British woman to climb Everest). "What we found in the context of Mount Everest is individualism, competitiveness, contradiction, and power-seeking through extreme experiences purchased from what is now known as the experience economy"
Tomado de/Taken from Science daily
Resumen de la publicación/Abstract of the paper
Marketplace Tensions in Extraordinary Experiences
Gülnur Tumbat and Russell W. Belk
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH DOI: 10.1086/658220
Abstract
Researchers have analyzed various forms of extraordinary consumption experiences, using Victor Turner’s conceptualization of antistructure with a particular focus on their rather romantic and communal aspects. While such a focus contributed greatly to our understanding of these experiences, it also resulted in overlooking much of their individuated characteristics such as boundaries, conflicts, competition, and positional struggles at the interpersonal level. This ethnographic study of commercialized climbing expeditions on Everest provides significant evidence that participants negotiate and manage various marketplace tensions within an individual performance ideology. Our study challenges quixotic use of Turner’s antistructure-structure dichotomy and extends it such that extraordinary experiences, when bought in the marketplace, can be very individualistic and competitive as opposed to being conducive to feelings of community and liminal camaraderie.
