Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T08:28:54.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The paradox of a legend: A visual ethnography of Harley-Davidson in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Sharon Schembri
Sharon Schembri*
Affiliation:
Department of Marketing, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Gold Coast QLD, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Consumption, especially high profile brand consumption, implicates our identities. More than that, brand consumption connects our lives to others through shared lifestyle expressions to the extent that subcultures of consumption emerge. However, as this work shows, the meaning of particular consumption objects or brands cannot be assumed. Using visual ethnography, this study describes the experiential meaning of the legendary Harley-Davidson to owners and riders in Australia. For more than three years, fieldwork was conducted primarily from within a chapter of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) and included participant observation, interviews, and visual documentation of the Harley-Davidson experience. The findings show the Australian Harley-Davidson experience to be a postmodern paradox. As an iconic American brand with a rebellious image, Harley-Davidson is readily embraced in this Australian subculture of consumption. Also, despite the widely assumed deviancy of those on a Harley-Davidson, the Australian HOG subculture is shown to uphold mainstream values in a family-friendly environment. Moreover, as an iconic symbol of freedom, this experience is achieved through regulation and organization. This work also shows the act of consuming Harley-Davidson creates the experiential meaning and postmodern spectacle that demands attention. In effect, consumers become producers in co-constructing the postmodern paradox of the (Australian) Harley-Davidson experience.

Keywords

Harley-Davidsonconsumer experiencesubculturebrand communityvisual ethnographypostmodernism
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , September 2008 , pp. 386 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnould, E and Thompson, CJ (2005) Consumer culture theory (CCT): Twenty years of research Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4): 868–82.Google Scholar
Baudrillard, J (1983) Simulations, Semiotext(e), New York NY.Google Scholar
Belk, RW and Kozinets, RV (2005) Videography in marketing and consumer research Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 8(2): 128–41.Google Scholar
Berger, PL and Luckman, T (1966) The social Construction of Reality, Doubleday, New York.Google Scholar
Bird, SR (1996) Welcome to the mens's club: Homo-sociality and the maintenance of hegemonic masculinity Gender & Society 10(2): 120–32.Google Scholar
Butler, J (1990) Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Calás, MB and Smircich, L (1996) From ‘The women's’ point of view: Feminist approaches to organizational studies, in Clegg, SR, Hardy, C, and Nord, WR (Eds) Handbook of Organizational Studies, pp 218–58, Sage, Thousand Oaks CA.Google Scholar
Chaplin, E (1994) Sociology and Visual Representations, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Connell, RW (2005) Masculinities, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW..Google Scholar
Connell, RW (1987) Gender and power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics, Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Cooper, S, McLoughlin, D and Keating, A (2005) Individual and neo-tribal consumption: Tales from the Simpsons of Springfield Journal of Consumer Behavior 4(5): 330–44.Google Scholar
Cova, B (1997) Community and consumption. Towards a definition of the “linking value” of products or services European Journal of Marketing 31(3/4): 297–316.Google Scholar
Cova, B and Cova, V (2002) Tribal marketing: The tribalisation of society and its impact on the conduct of marketing European Journal of Marketing 36(5/6): 595–620.Google Scholar
Cunneen, C and Lynch, R (1988) The social-historical roots of conflict in riots at the Bathurst bike races ANZ Journal of Sociology 24: 5–31.Google Scholar
Douglas, M (1975) Implicit Meanings, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Dourghty, CI (1947) Havok in Hollister – Motorcyclists take over town, many injured, San Francisco Chronicle 07 5, http://www.tophatt.ers-mc.com [25 October 2007].Google Scholar
Firat, F and Venkatesh, A (1995) Liberatory postmodernism and the reenchantment of consumption Journal of Consumer Research 22(3): 239–67.Google Scholar
Fishel, R (1996) Born to be mildMetro Santa Cruz News 03 7, http://www.metroactive.com [25 October 2007].Google Scholar
Foucault, M (1980) Selected interviews and other writings, in Gordon, C (Ed) Power/Knowledge, Pantheon Books, New York, NY.Google Scholar
Hebdige, D (1979) Subculture: The meaning of Style, Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Hopper, CB and Moore, J (1990) Women in outlaw motorcycle gangs Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 18(4): 363–87.Google Scholar
Joans, B (2001) Bike Lust: Harleys, Women, and American Society, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI.Google Scholar
Kates, SM (2001) The protean quality of subcultural consumption: An ethnographic account of gay consumers Journal of Consumer Research, 29(3): 383–99.Google Scholar
Kozinets, RV (2001) Utopian Enterprise: Articulating the meanings of Star Trek's culture of consumption Journal of Consumer Research, 28(1): 67–88.Google Scholar
Levy, S (1959) Symbols for sale Harvard Business Review 37(4): 117–24.Google Scholar
Lyotard, JF (1992) The Postmodern Explained, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis MN.Google Scholar
Martin, DM, Schouten, JW and McAlexander, JH (2006) Claiming the throttle: Multiple femininities in a hyper-masculine subculture Consumption, Markets and Culture 9(3): 171–205.Google Scholar
McAlexander, JH, Schouten, JW and Koening, HF (2002) Building brand community Journal of Marketing 66(1): 38–55.Google Scholar
McDonald-Walker, S (2000) Bikers. Culture, Politics and Power, Berg, Oxford UK.Google Scholar
Miller, D (2001) Car Cultures: Materializing Culture, Berg, Oxford UK.Google Scholar
Muñiz, AM and O'Guinn, TC (2001) Brand community and the sociology of brands Journal of Consumer Research 27(4): 412–432.Google Scholar
Norris, M (2003) Rolling Thunder, Gamercy USA.Google Scholar
Pink, S (2007) Doing Visual Ethnography, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Pirsig, RM (1974) Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, Corgi Books, London.Google Scholar
Quinones, L (1994) Rebel image of motorcyclists set in 1950s Borderlands, 12 (Spring): 16.Google Scholar
Sayre, S (2001) Qualitative Methods for Marketplace Research, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Schouten, JW and McAlexander, JH (1995) Subcultures of consumption: An ethnography of the new bikers Journal of Consumer Research 22 (06): 43–61.Google Scholar
Shilkin, R (2002) Towards a united theory of Australian anti-Americanism Quadrant XLVI(12, http://quadrant.org.au [26 October, 2007].Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J (1988) Tales of the Field: On writing ethnography, University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Wolf, D (1991) The Rebels: A brotherhood of outlaw bikers, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Yanow, D (2000) Doing organizational ethnographies, in Rosen, M (Ed) Turning words spinning worlds, pp 1–20, Routledge, Sydney.Google Scholar