Helsingin Sanomat interview: “The Dark Side of Flow”

Helsingin Sanomat journalist Veera Luoma-Aho interviewed me concerning my and Ioana Lupu‘s study on extreme busyness in professional service work recently published in Organization Science. The press article “Flow’n pimeä puoli” – i.e. “The dark side of flow” – (8.11.2021), can be accessed in Finnish here.

Article on extreme busyness in Organization Science

My research with Ioana Lupu, professor at ESSEC, on extreme busyness and temporal experiences of busyness was recently published in Organization Science (“Feeling in Control”: Optimal Busyness and the Temporality of Organizational Controls) . You can access a pre-print version of it here. The study uncovers how professionals in elite institutions experience and reproduce extreme busyness, despite harmful effects on their health and private lives. We highlight how many professionals are in fact not seeking to balance their work and private life in a harmonious way but instead are seeking an energizing and hectic busyness experience that they enjoy.

Feature at Ekonomi magazine

Finnish magazine Ekonomi made an interview feature about how it is to work and live in France.

In it, I discuss the notable differences between France and Finland, touching on the role of social relations, language, hierarchy and leadership in organisations, and also the quality and attitude to life.

Access the original article by Mikko Huotari here.

Why teach ethnography to managers?

Read my co-authored press article with Lionel Sitz for The Conversation (English) & Survey Magazine (French):

In management circles and beyond, companies are rushing to integrate, adapt and exploit big data in their organisations. Following example by Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, Zappos, and Walmart, companies are building big-data solutions to profile customers and to enhance marketing effectiveness via recommendation algorithms seeking to predict what customers are likely to be interested in buying each moment. Business schools, too, are quick to restructure their offering around big data and analytics – it seems as if nothing more is needed. Yet little is said about the kind of understanding and reflexivity that is needed when working with such voluminous data. We believe that important lesson can be learned from ethnographic research, which should be taught to managers obsessed with big data.

ICR 2019 conference in Lyon

I’m thrilled to be co-chairing  the 10th workshop in Interpretive Consumer Research (ICR) with Avi Shankar, Kathy Hamilton and Daniele Dalli. The workshop will be organised in emlyon business school on May 9-10, 2019.

The biennial EIASM Interpretive Consumer Research Workshop is a leading consumer research conference in Europe and will be held in France for the second time. The workshop attracts established and emerging scholars mainly, but not exclusively, from Europe. We are interested in examining the symbolic, socio-cultural, historical, ideological and experiential aspects of consumption and we draw our theoretical inspiration from a wide variety of research traditions from the social sciences, arts and humanities. A key feature of the event, that makes it different from a typical conference, is that we strive to maintain the workshop spirit. This means that it is relatively small and intimate and offers an opportunity to discuss ideas in an informal, friendly and supportive atmosphere.

The venue, schedule and details are available on the EIASM Website.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Lyon soon!

“Screening Marketing” videography special issue is out

I’ve had the great pleasure to be editing the Journal of Marketing Marketing videography special issue “Screening Marketing: Videography and the Expanding Horizons of Filmic Research”, together with co-editors Joel Hietanen and Douglas Brownlie. The issue, which seeks to consider and envision novel video-based research approaches, is freshly published. It contains 9 unique contributions of which 5 have a focal video element — that is also free to access by anyone. We’re also extremely happy to tell that the author and filmmaker line-up features some of the most interesting, brilliant and also experienced names in our field.

Here’s the Table of Contents and links:

Enjoy!

 

 

Research Day on Taste: 25 April 2018

Lifestyle Research Centre at Emlyon Business School organizes a Research Day dedicated to Taste on April 25, 2018 (9 AM – 6PM), in Lyon. This research day is envisioned as an inclusive event gathering International and French researchers from different fields (consumer research and sociology). Following Antoine Hennion’s call for taking amateurs seriously, the research day will also give room to professionals of taste. In line with this philosophy, there will be four thematic teams: food, wine, music, literature. Each team will be composed of three persons: two researchers and one professional giving an insider perspective. We believe that gathering scholars from closely related fields and professionals sharing an interest in taste can lead to fruitful discussions.

We are thrilled to announce that Pr. Zeynep Arsel (Professor of Marketing at Concordia University), Pr. Antoine Hennion (Professor of Sociology at Ecole des Mines de Paris), and Pr. Alan Warde (Professor of Sociology at University of Manchester) will be part of the panelists.

Jean Dupin (Baker and Professor of Bread at Institut Paul Bocuse) will talk about the evolution of bread in France. Morgane Lafforest (Cellist) and Valentin Luiggi (Chef) will perform part of their new show blending sounds and flavours.

The complete version of the program will be available soon.

Please note that a Special Issue on Taste based on the Research Day will be published in Consumption, Markets & Culture. Researchers who do not participate in the conference are allowed to submit a paper to the Special Issue.

To make sure the event is as inclusive as possible, we did our best to organize a free event.

The size of the room is limited, so please register if you plan to attend the event.

To register, please contact me at: joonas.rokka (at) gmail.com

Apply: 4th EMLyon Videography Workshop / 16-18 May 2018

Apply now to 4th Videography Workshop organised by Lifestyle Research Centre at EMLYON Business School, Lyon, France, 16-18 May, 2018. This two-and-half-day intensive workshop is designed particularly for researchers, Phd students, and also industry practitioners who wish to communicate their research through video medium, or who wish to prepare a videography submission for a conference, or journal submission. It consists of both theoretical and practical ingredients and insights on research videography production, including short lectures, discussions, readings, video examples, and a hands-on videography research project that is completed during the workshop. In short, videography presents an innovative and transdisciplinary research methodology that can be used to study, for example, identities, experiences, communities, practices, brands, or organisation on the moving image. If you’re curious to know more, have a look on experiences from past workshops here. Participate by sending a message of interest to: joonas.rokka(at)gmail.com. The intensive nature of the workshop unfortunately restricts participants to max 12 participants, so be quick to reserve your spot! Fees are €350 Phd students and faculty members, and €700 industry participants – covering all equipment (cameras, Laptop edits).

Digital Lifestyles Research Day / 4 Dec 2017

Emlyon Business School Lifestyle Research Centre will organise a research day dedicated to “Digital Lifestyles” at Ecully Campus on 4 December 2017, 9h00-16h00 (Roland Calori amphi, Building B). Our program includes a range of international specialists on the impact of digitalization on lifestyles, and research methods, including critical, ethnographic, visual, and big data approaches.

The preliminary program is the following:

Monday 4th December
9:00     Opening Reception and Coffee (Roland Calori, Building B, Emlyon Business School, 23 Avenue Guy Collongue, Ecully)

9:15     Adam Arvidsson, University of Milan, Italy – “Branded Instagram Moments”

9:55     Alessandro Gandini, Kings College, UK – “Digital Publics and Platform Labor”

(10:30 Coffee Break)

10:45   Minna Ruckenstein, University of Helsinki, Finland – “Self-Tracking”

11:20   Lynn Cherny, Bernard Forgues & Tristan May, Emlyon business school – “Social Media Lifestyle Brand Creation”

(11:55 Lunch)

13:30   Joonas Rokka, Emlyon business school – “Busyness Addiction”

14:05   Lionel Sitz, Emlyon business school – “Youth & Smartphones”

(14:40 Coffee Break)

14:55   Massimo Airoldi, Emlyon business school – “Follow the Algorithm”

15:30   Margherita Pagani, Emlyon business school – “Smartcart: Future of Shopping

(16:05 Finish)

NOTICE: The program is followed by a Workshop on Digital Research Methods on 5 December 2017. The workshop is focused on state-of-the-art methods for analyzing textual and visual data.

For external participants, there is a participation fee of EUR 50,00 for the Digital Lifestyle Research Day (4 Dec) and EUR 300,00 for the Workshop (5 Dec). In order to participate, please register directly via email to: rokka(at)em-lyon.com