Professor Christina Goulding

Professor Christina Goulding

Department of Marketing
Professor of Marketing

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 415 8438
Email
c.goulding@bham.ac.uk
Address
Room 220, Ash House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Christina Goulding is Professor of Marketing and Director of Research for the Marketing group at BBS. Her research interests are two-fold. The first is consumer culture, ranging from cultural production and consumption (i.e. heritage and the arts), to non-mainstream sub-cultural consumption. She is particularly interested in issues of exclusion and marginalization as well as strategies of resistance and tactics for developing resilience. She has published her research in a number of leading journals including Journal of Consumer Research, Annals of Tourism Research, Psychology and Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Consumption, Markets and Culture.

Her second area of interest is the development and application of qualitative research methodologies with a particular focus on Grounded Theory. She is the author of a book on grounded Theory published by SAGE and has published numerous articles in respected journals on the subject. She has been an invited speaker at a number of universities and has also run workshops for BAM and for cross disciplinary audiences . She is also interested in the development of arts based methodologies and is working with colleagues from Keele University and The New Vic Theatre on methodologies for supporting disadvantaged groups and survivors of natural disasters.

She is currently part of an ESRC funded team looking at the issue of marketplace exclusion. This seminar based project has attracted an international  group of scholars both as presenters and audience participants.

Christina is the Associate editor for qualitative research for the European Journal of Marketing and serves on the advisory board of Consumption, Markets and Culture. She is also on the editorial board of Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Theory and the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

She is interested in supervising qualitative PhDs in the following areas:

  • Cultural consumption
  • Place, space and consumption
  • Non conformist or transgressive consumption
  • The arts meets technology
  • Consumer identity projects
  • Consumption and loss
  • The dark side of consumption
  • Consumption and resilience 

Qualifications

PhD - Consumer Behaviour

BA (Hons) Social Science (Psychology and Sociology)

Biography

2015 – Present: Professor of Marketing Birmingham University

2012 – 2014: Professor of Marketing, Keele University

2010 – 2011: Professor of Marketing: Coventry University

2002 – 2010: Professor of Consumer Research, Wolverhampton University

2000 - 2002: Reader in Marketing, Wolverhampton University (WBS)

1998 - 2000: Principal lecturer  &  Divisional Research Leader, Wolverhampton Business School (WBS)

1992 - 1998: Senior lecturer, Wolverhampton Business School (WBS)

1991 - 1992: Lecturer, Wolverhampton Business School (WBS)

Teaching

  • Contemporary Issues in Marketing (UG and PG)
  • Branding
  • Consumer Behaviour

Postgraduate supervision

  • Six successful PhD supervisions
  • Numerous Masters dissertation supervision

Research

Christina's research is largely in two distinct areas. The first comes under the umbrella of what Russell Belk terms the ‘new’ consumer behaviour. It is part of an emerging critical stream of consumer behaviour within marketing which focuses on the nature of consumer society and the meanings that consumers draw from their various experiences.

Much of her research has been concerned with developing an understanding of the consumption/identity link. Earlier work focused on history, nostalgia and contemporary representations of the past and how this influences consumer perceptions of self, time and space. This also raised questions about authenticity, the commodification process and the service encounter in museums. A more recent development has been to expand the notion of cultural consumption, by examining contemporary sub-cultural phenomenon such as dance culture and collective identity construction as linked to neo-tribalism and symbolic consumption. This has involved an eclectic interdisciplinary approach to theory building which is in line with current interpretivist perspectives within marketing and consumer behavior. Current research is focused on parasocial communities, identity and consumption with an emphasis on body image, strategies for resisting the market place and non-conformist consumption. She is also one of the six founding members of the 'Critical Marketing Group' and co-editor of 'Critical Marketing: Defining the Field' which was the result of an ESRC funded seminar series.

Her second area of interest is that of the application and development of qualitative research methodologies and in particular grounded theory. She has been an invited speaker on the subject at several universities as well as The British Academy of Management. She has published a book on the subject in addition to numerous academic papers.

Other activities

Research Grants

  • ESRC seminar series 'Resistance and the Market' - Awarded August 2013 (£27,000) with Prof Parsons (Liverpool University PI), Prof Kelemen (Keele University), Prof Saren (Leicester University), Prof Fitchett (Leicester University) and Prof Harris (Coventry University).

ESRC – Seminars series

  • 'Critical Marketing': From 2005-2006 (£14,500) with Professor P. MacLaren (PI), De Montfort University, Professor C. Goulding, Wolverhampton Business School, Professor M. Saren, Leicester University, Professor R. Elliott, Warwick University, Dr. A. Shankar, Exeter University and Dr. M. Catterall,   Queens University Belfast.

Academic Review Experience

  • Member of editorial review board - European Journal of Marketing
  • Member of editorial review board – Journal of Consumer Behaviour: An International Research Review
  • Member of editorial review board – Marketing Theory
  • Member of editorial review board – Journal of Place Management
  • Member of editorial review board - Consumption, Markets and Culture
  • Ad hoc reviewer for Journal of Marketing (grounded theory)
  • Ad hoc reviewer for Journal of Consumer Research
  • Ad hoc reviewer for Journal of Marketing Management
  • Reviewer for Association for Consumer Research Conference
  • Reviewer for Academy of Marketing Conference
  • Reviewer for European Association for Consumer Research Conference
  • Reviewer for Association for Consumer Research: Gender and Consumption Conference
  • Reviewer for Consumer Culture Theory Conference
  • Reviewer for EMAC

Other esteem indicators

  • Member of Doctoral Colloquium Committee and session Chair - Academy of Marketing, Limerick, 2015
  • Member of Organising Committee, NARTI Conference, Keele, June 2014
  • Invited to talk at the ESRC seminar Arts Marketing, Durham September 2013
  • Chair of Doctoral Sessions – Academy of Marketing Conference, 2012, Southampton
  • Keynote Speaker at Doctoral Colloquium and Chair of three sessions, Academy of Marketing Conference, 2011, Liverpool
  • Member of Programme Committee for Association of Consumer Research Conference, 2010, USA
  • Member of Programme Committee for European Association of Consumer Research Conference, 2010, Royal Holloway
  • Member of Organising Committee, Academy of Marketing, Coventry University, July 2010
  • Internal Chair, Research Methodology Track, Academy of Marketing, 2010, Coventry University, July 2010
  • Invited to talk on ‘The Anti-hero in Contemporary Consumption: Myths Metaphors and Discourses of Identity, Lancaster University, March 2011
  • Invited speaker at 5th Annual Conference on Sociology and Consumption, ‘ Contemporary Gothics: A Dark Subculture or a Culture of Consumption’ Chester University, March 2010
  • Invited to hold a workshop on Grounded Theory for the British Academy of Management – held March 2009, London
  • Invited to present on Grounded Theory to British Academy of Management Special interest Group on Qualitative Research in Management – held March 2009, University of Central Lancashire
  • Creative Methodologies in Heritage and Arts Marketing: The Case of Grounded Theory, Invited Speaker at ESRC Arts and Heritage Seminar, December 2006,  Bradford University
  • ‘Grounded Theory in Practice’ Presented at Manchester Metropolitan University  14/05/003
  • ‘Grounded Theory – Glaser or Strauss?’ Presented at Queens University Belfast, 10/12/2002
  • ‘Grounded Theory: Love Hate Relationship!’ Presented at Cardiff University, 21/11/2001
  • ‘The Process of Grounded Theory; Problems and Pitfalls.’ Presented at, Nottingham Trent University, 04/10/00
  • ‘Grounded Theory: Reflections on the Process of Application, Analysis and Interpretation.’ Presented at the SAID Management Centre, Oxford University, 23/02/1998

Publications

Selected publications

Goulding, C and Saren, M, (forthcoming), Transformation, Transcendence and Temporality in Theatrical Consumption, Journal of Business Research. 

Chaney, D and Goulding, C, (forthcoming), Dress, Transformation and Conformity in the Heavy Rock Subculture, Journal of Business Research.

Goulding, C, Shankar, A and Elliott, R, (2013), Facilitating the Formation of Consumer Tribes, European Journal of Marketing, 47 (5/6), 813-832.

Goulding, C, Saren, M and Lindrige, A (2013), Reading the Body at Von Hagen’s Body Worlds, Annals of tourism Research: A Social Science Journal, 40, (1), 306-330.

Jafari, A and Goulding, C, (2013) Globalization, Reflexivity and the Project of the Self: A Virtual Intercultural Learning Process”, Consumption, Markets and Culture. 16 (1), 65-90.

  • Selected as one of the best three papers published in the journal for 2013

Goulding, C and  Shankar, A, (2011 )Rave: A Ritual Perspective, Annals of Tourism Research; A Social Science Journal, 38 (4), 1435-1453 – DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2011.03.013

Jafari, A and Goulding, C (2010) Globalization as Tug of War: Consumption as a Site of Conflict, Advances in Consumer Research, 37

Goulding, C and Saren, M, (2010) Immersion, Emergence and Reflexivity: Grounded Theory and Aesthetic Consumption, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

Goulding, C, Shankar, A, Elliott, R and Canniford, R (2009) The Marketplace Management of Illicit Pleasure, Journal of Consumer Research,  35 (February)759-771 DOI: 10.1086/592946

Goulding, C and Domic, D, (2009) Heritage, Identity and Ideological Manipulation, Annals of Tourism Research: A Social Science Journal, 38 (January), 85-102 DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2008.10.004

Books

Goulding, C. (2002) Grounded Theory Methodology: Implications and Applications for Management Research, London, Sage

Editorship of Books

Joint editor of Critical Marketing: Defining the Field, (2007)with Catterill, M, Elliott, R, MacLaren, P, Saren, M and Shankar, A, Oxford, Elsevier