Demographic research about partnering practices (Carmichael and Whittaker; Simons; Parker; Penman) indicates that contemporary marriages are more temporary, fragile and uncertain than in previous generations. Modern marriages are now less about a permanent and “inescapable” union between a dominant man and a submissive female for the purposes of authorised sex, legal progeny and financial security, and more about a commitment between two social equals for the mutual exchange of affection and companionship (Croome). Less research is available, however, about how couples themselves reconcile the inherited constructions of romantic love as selfless and unending, with trends that clearly indicate that romantic love is not forever, ideal or exclusive.

Civil marriage ceremonies provide one source of data about representations of love. Civil unions constituted almost 70 per cent of all marriages in Australia in 2010, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The civil marriage ceremony has both a legal and symbolic role. It is a legal contract insofar as it prescribes a legal arrangement with certain rights and responsibilities between two consenting adults and outlines an expectation that marriage is voluntarily entered into for life. The ceremony is also a public ritual that requires couples to take what are usually private feelings for each other and turn them into a public performance as a way of legitimating their relationship. Consistent with the conventions of performance, couples generally customise the rest of the ceremony by telling the story of their courtship, and in so doing they often draw upon the language and imagery of the Western Romantic tradition to convey the personal meaning and social significance of their decision.

This paper explores how couples construct the idea of love in their relationship, first by examining the western history of romantic love and then by looking at how this discourse is invoked by Australians in the course of developing civil marriage ceremonies in collaboration with the author.

That his final essay (2000 [1972], chapter 52) – a handwritten exposition of a version of what became known as the Lucas Critique – was unread for almost a quarter century is surely a reflection of the discredit and neglect that Phillips and his stabilization project fell into during the Great Recriminations that accompanied the Great Inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s1. Indeed, Phillips (and, subsequently, his widow) kept the sheets of paper on which he made the calculations which led to his famous Curve (together with other significant material) – but apparently, nobody thought to ask if such material existed.

Gall, P. (2007). Strategic alignment in the virtual organisation. In M. Rodenes & R. Hackney (eds.). Proceedings of the European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (EMCIS) 2007.

ISBN: 978-84-8363-184-3

Design/methodology/approach: The method relies on a literature review and a case study of sporting subculture. Using commentary from the surfing community as an example of subcultural groups we see how they define themselves against consumption oriented groups.

Findings: Subcultures are completely different from brand communities (or subcultures of consumption) and while they can be said to share certain common traits the broad philosophical foci of these two groups are vastly incommensurate with one another.

Practical implications: Marketing discourse has perpetually conflated subculture with forms of consumption, i.e. brand communities, yet they are different. By acknowledging and interrogating the key differences marketers may better apprehend the needs, character and activities of subcultural participants and market more strategically.

Originality/value: By dissecting the differences between subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community, this paper offers a re-conceptualisation of these terms in marketing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to dispel some fundamental misapprehensions in marketing and offer an entirely fresh perspective on the value and meaning of subculture.

That the Enlightenment was a movement reaching across at least three European countries (France, Germany and Britain) in the eighteenth century, with a similar platform in all three (social improvement on the basis of unassisted reason), is the current orthodoxy. Yet this view can only be accepted with qualifications. It is the intention of this essay to focus attention on these qualifications. A first objection lies with the fact that no platform of Enlightenment was articulated in any country in the eighteenth century apart from Germany. In the debate about Enlightenment initiated in the Berlinische Monatsschrift in 1783, Kant's insistence that Aufklärung must stay within political limits is considered characteristic not only of the German discussion, but indeed of all broadly Enlightenment thought from the beginning. In considering Koselleck's argument about the Enlightenment, which analysed this same conservatism, a second objection is apparent: the impulse to stay within the confines of the absolutist state suggests that eighteenth-century Enlightenment, politically speaking, was decidedly other than that which has subsequently been found within it.

Design/methodology/approach: While essentially conceptual in nature, this paper adopts a comprehensive intertextual, semiotic approach which argues for the substantive investigation of the marketing text as a foundation for understanding consumption in a subcultural context.

Findings: To date, the integration of Barthesian intertextual theory has proved to be an effective method of interrogating subculturally-oriented materials.

Practical implications: Marketers, in commercial contexts, will access a greater depth of insight into the subcultural market by applying an intertextual, semiotic framework as demonstrated in this paper.

Originality/value: While marketing discourse has taken interest in semiotics, this has typically occurred via the work of US semiologists, rather than the French school in their organic form. This is one of the first papers to locate Barthes within the marketing paradigm as a potential analytical framework. The paper suggests ways in which his influential theories may be applied as a viable analytical tool in qualitative research.

Drawing on previous discussions of visual consumption in marketing, this paper uses two historical examples to examine visuality and the enduring effect of the Age of Enlightenment on visual consumption. Drawing on the French garden and the philosophical trope of the Molyneux Man, the manner in which the consumption experience is mediated and narrated through vision is considered. It is argued that cultural perspective and individual perception work in constant dialogue to produce an individual’s ability to consume, or ‘take in’, visual signs inherent to our world. From the Enlightenment, this interaction has characterized the contemporary consumer’s world, but, importantly for marketing communications, this becomes more significant in today’s burgeoning visual consumption experiences.

Dostaler examines Keynes’ beliefs and contributions to philosophy, politics, economics, and art. The book is explicitly directed at “Keynes and not to Keynesianism” (p. 2). Emphasis is placed on Keynes’ contemporaries and their roles in influencing—and being influenced by—his work. Thus Dostaler creates an intellectual biography by focussing on the relationships between Keynes and his peers. The author also devotes two interludes of complementary dialogue about Keynes’ private and public lives in a more typically biographical manner.