Domen Bajde | University of Southern Denmark (original) (raw)

Papers by Domen Bajde

Research paper thumbnail of (Micro)Finance to give: Kiva as a gift-market hybrid

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to engage with the relationship between the gift and the mar... more Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to engage with the relationship between the gift and the market in the context of philanthropic micro-lending. We seek to move beyond theorizing separate, ex-ante gift or market regimes and transactors who independently navigate between oppositional modes of transaction.
Methodology/approach: We turn to recent efforts of hybridizing charity and venture finance, exemplified by microfinance platforms such as Kiva.org. We combine data from an existing study of Kiva and its online community, with additional participant observation and third-party accounts detailing the evolution and workings of microfinance.
Findings: We illustrate how market-like elements are productively and problematically deployed in philanthropic giving and address the need to consider a broader range of socio-material relations involved in the framing of transactions.
Research limitations/implications: A complex network of actors and (trans)actions needs to be assembled for the philanthropic loan to be enacted. We touch upon the making and role of the socio-material devices that actively participate in such enactment only tangentially. Further research is needed to flesh out the respective transaction complex, taking additional note of the work of borrowers, local loan officers and other less visible actors.
Practical Implications: Organizations need to recognize and creatively address the complex interplay of gift and market elements. They need to pay attention and take advantage of the tensions and synergies emergent in hybrid gift-market contexts.
Originality/value of paper: We engage with a complex, less studied transaction context. The paper shows that philanthropic gift relations can be reproduced through market-like elements and arrangements. Such production entails complex socio-material networks mobilizing a broad array of human and nonhuman actors.

Research paper thumbnail of Marketized philanthropy Kiva’s utopian ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy

As the impact of market actors and their doctrines on philanthropy gradually increases, the debat... more As the impact of market actors and their doctrines on philanthropy gradually increases, the debate between the proponents and the critics of ‘marketization’ of philanthropy intensifies. Curiously, the debate has largely centred on ‘philanthrocapitalists’ and philanthropic professionals, while less attention has been devoted to the ways in which the newly emergent philanthropic ideologies and practices are ‘marketed’ to and adopted by the broader audience of philanthropic givers. In response, we explore the ideological elements that make lending through Kiva, an emergent microfinance charity, meaningful to its creators and supporters. A combination of interpretive methods is used to outline Kiva’s ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy. This utopian ideology is found to legitimize ‘marketized’ philanthropic practices by invoking alternative conceptions of poverty, social progress and philanthropy (i.e. representations of philanthropic giving, philanthropic benefactors and beneficiaries and the relations between them).

Research paper thumbnail of Consumer culture theory (re)visits actor–network theory: Flattening consumption studies

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping the imaginary of charitable giving

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2012

The meaningfulness of charitable giving is largely owed to the imaginary conceptions that underpi... more The meaningfulness of charitable giving is largely owed to the imaginary conceptions that underpin this form of giving. Building on Taylor's notion of “social imaginary” and Godelier's work on “gift imaginary,” we theorize the imaginary of charitable giving. Through a combination of qualitative methods the charitable gift imaginary and its role in givers' meaning making are explored in a specific socio-cultural context. The theoretical foundation and the generated data enable us to map the imaginary of charitable giving across four distinct clusters and theorize meaning – making as navigation across relatively stable assemblages of conceptions of poverty, donors, end-recipients and charitable giving. These assemblages are suggested to form a multifaceted imaginary that is both cultural (shared) and personal (individually performed).

Research paper thumbnail of Happy Festivus! Parody as playful consumer resistance

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2012

Drawing upon literary theory, play and consumer resistance literature, we conceptualize consumer ... more Drawing upon literary theory, play and consumer resistance literature, we conceptualize consumer parodic resistance – a resistant form of play that critically refunctions dominant consumption discourses and marketplace ideologies. We explore parodic resistance empirically by analyzing Festivus, a parody of Christmas. Festivus is found to be primarily constructed as a playful rejection of the established grand narratives and conventions of Christmas. In contrast to dominant Christmas ideology, Festivus promotes a grand narrative of “meaningful nothingness,” wherein Festivus celebration is presented a viable means of circumventing the oppressiveness of Christmas (i.e. “meaningful”) through erasing the higher goals and conventions if Christmas (i.e. “nothingness”). Our contribution is threefold: (i) we demonstrate the role of parody in consumer resistance; (ii) we outline the subversively playful nature of parodic consumer resistance; and (iii) we empirically demonstrate how parodic holiday celebration unsettles dominant discourses and conventions.

Research paper thumbnail of The Impact of Ad Characteristics on Adolescents’ Attitudes Towards Antismoking Ads

Research paper thumbnail of Consuming a Political Figure: A Post-Structuralist Reading of Four “Political Products”

Journal of Marketing Research, Jan 1, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

Cutting-edge social media approaches to business …, Jan 1, 2010

... an emergent breed of" super influencers." The report shows that the&quo... more ... an emergent breed of" super influencers." The report shows that the" democratization of influence ... in the twenty-first century education Jenkins (2006b) lists eleven the socio-cultural skills and ... the three interconnected pillars of the UGC culture: its playful creativity, its promiscuous ...

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the dialectic of charity marketing and the charity ethos

Research paper thumbnail of Pirates online: How communities engage with copyrights and counterfeits: Netnography (Virtual Ethnography)

Konferenzbeitrag. COUNTER Konferenz, Jan 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Rethinking the social and cultural dimensions of charitable giving

Consumption, Markets and Culture, Jan 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Other‐centered behavior and the dialectics of self and other

Consumption, Markets and Culture, Jan 1, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of (Micro)Finance to give: Kiva as a gift-market hybrid

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to engage with the relationship between the gift and the mar... more Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to engage with the relationship between the gift and the market in the context of philanthropic micro-lending. We seek to move beyond theorizing separate, ex-ante gift or market regimes and transactors who independently navigate between oppositional modes of transaction.
Methodology/approach: We turn to recent efforts of hybridizing charity and venture finance, exemplified by microfinance platforms such as Kiva.org. We combine data from an existing study of Kiva and its online community, with additional participant observation and third-party accounts detailing the evolution and workings of microfinance.
Findings: We illustrate how market-like elements are productively and problematically deployed in philanthropic giving and address the need to consider a broader range of socio-material relations involved in the framing of transactions.
Research limitations/implications: A complex network of actors and (trans)actions needs to be assembled for the philanthropic loan to be enacted. We touch upon the making and role of the socio-material devices that actively participate in such enactment only tangentially. Further research is needed to flesh out the respective transaction complex, taking additional note of the work of borrowers, local loan officers and other less visible actors.
Practical Implications: Organizations need to recognize and creatively address the complex interplay of gift and market elements. They need to pay attention and take advantage of the tensions and synergies emergent in hybrid gift-market contexts.
Originality/value of paper: We engage with a complex, less studied transaction context. The paper shows that philanthropic gift relations can be reproduced through market-like elements and arrangements. Such production entails complex socio-material networks mobilizing a broad array of human and nonhuman actors.

Research paper thumbnail of Marketized philanthropy Kiva’s utopian ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy

As the impact of market actors and their doctrines on philanthropy gradually increases, the debat... more As the impact of market actors and their doctrines on philanthropy gradually increases, the debate between the proponents and the critics of ‘marketization’ of philanthropy intensifies. Curiously, the debate has largely centred on ‘philanthrocapitalists’ and philanthropic professionals, while less attention has been devoted to the ways in which the newly emergent philanthropic ideologies and practices are ‘marketed’ to and adopted by the broader audience of philanthropic givers. In response, we explore the ideological elements that make lending through Kiva, an emergent microfinance charity, meaningful to its creators and supporters. A combination of interpretive methods is used to outline Kiva’s ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy. This utopian ideology is found to legitimize ‘marketized’ philanthropic practices by invoking alternative conceptions of poverty, social progress and philanthropy (i.e. representations of philanthropic giving, philanthropic benefactors and beneficiaries and the relations between them).

Research paper thumbnail of Consumer culture theory (re)visits actor–network theory: Flattening consumption studies

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping the imaginary of charitable giving

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2012

The meaningfulness of charitable giving is largely owed to the imaginary conceptions that underpi... more The meaningfulness of charitable giving is largely owed to the imaginary conceptions that underpin this form of giving. Building on Taylor's notion of “social imaginary” and Godelier's work on “gift imaginary,” we theorize the imaginary of charitable giving. Through a combination of qualitative methods the charitable gift imaginary and its role in givers' meaning making are explored in a specific socio-cultural context. The theoretical foundation and the generated data enable us to map the imaginary of charitable giving across four distinct clusters and theorize meaning – making as navigation across relatively stable assemblages of conceptions of poverty, donors, end-recipients and charitable giving. These assemblages are suggested to form a multifaceted imaginary that is both cultural (shared) and personal (individually performed).

Research paper thumbnail of Happy Festivus! Parody as playful consumer resistance

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2012

Drawing upon literary theory, play and consumer resistance literature, we conceptualize consumer ... more Drawing upon literary theory, play and consumer resistance literature, we conceptualize consumer parodic resistance – a resistant form of play that critically refunctions dominant consumption discourses and marketplace ideologies. We explore parodic resistance empirically by analyzing Festivus, a parody of Christmas. Festivus is found to be primarily constructed as a playful rejection of the established grand narratives and conventions of Christmas. In contrast to dominant Christmas ideology, Festivus promotes a grand narrative of “meaningful nothingness,” wherein Festivus celebration is presented a viable means of circumventing the oppressiveness of Christmas (i.e. “meaningful”) through erasing the higher goals and conventions if Christmas (i.e. “nothingness”). Our contribution is threefold: (i) we demonstrate the role of parody in consumer resistance; (ii) we outline the subversively playful nature of parodic consumer resistance; and (iii) we empirically demonstrate how parodic holiday celebration unsettles dominant discourses and conventions.

Research paper thumbnail of The Impact of Ad Characteristics on Adolescents’ Attitudes Towards Antismoking Ads

Research paper thumbnail of Consuming a Political Figure: A Post-Structuralist Reading of Four “Political Products”

Journal of Marketing Research, Jan 1, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

Cutting-edge social media approaches to business …, Jan 1, 2010

... an emergent breed of" super influencers." The report shows that the&quo... more ... an emergent breed of" super influencers." The report shows that the" democratization of influence ... in the twenty-first century education Jenkins (2006b) lists eleven the socio-cultural skills and ... the three interconnected pillars of the UGC culture: its playful creativity, its promiscuous ...

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the dialectic of charity marketing and the charity ethos

Research paper thumbnail of Pirates online: How communities engage with copyrights and counterfeits: Netnography (Virtual Ethnography)

Konferenzbeitrag. COUNTER Konferenz, Jan 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Rethinking the social and cultural dimensions of charitable giving

Consumption, Markets and Culture, Jan 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Other‐centered behavior and the dialectics of self and other

Consumption, Markets and Culture, Jan 1, 2006