![]() This text is also a product of the faith I had that others would support me in this process, and my own faith that this was the place, space and subject for me to work, write, and grow intellectually and personally. What follows is a product of the faith many had in my abilities and in me for what was a long and difficult but rewarding road. ![]() I say in the text itself that all research is collaborative in nature, but here I wish to suggest that this is something more than that. iiĪcknowledgements This research is a work of faith. They are a complex manifestation of a ‘knowing capitalism’ (Thrift 2005) that has implications far beyond the accumulation of points and the ‘reward yourself’ appeal of participation by contributing to a cultural consumption circuit that perpetuates and reinforces already existing socio-economic differences. Loyalty programs are seen as an important means for conceptualizing contemporary marketing practices, the use of personal information, and personal identity in an information oriented society. The research is based on interviews with loyalty program executives, international survey results, and focus groups to both describe the relationship between corporate information processing and consumers as well as the current and potential social effects and issues embedded in this relationship. They are a means of surveillance through which corporations systematically collect consumption data in order to influence, manage, entitle, or control consumers (Lyon 2001). These interrelated yet distinctive perspectives provide different means to understand loyalty programs as information portals in the increasingly monitored, measured and marketed lives of consumers. These are marketing and business literature, theoretical frameworks of surveillance, the branding of consumers and corporations, consumer ambivalence towards surveillance and privacy issues, and the mutual shaping of consumers and these programs. Focusing on the Canadian context, the research investigates the relationship between the personal information economy and loyalty marketing through several interrelated perspectives. Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (April, 2008)Ībstract This research examines loyalty marketing as an empirical case study of consumer surveillance. If the work is part of a series or set of related works, where possible, the other works in that series should also be contributed so that QSpace can offer as full a set as possible.LOYAL SUBJECTS? Consumer Surveillance in the Personal Information EconomyĪ thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The work should be complete and ready for viewing at the time of submission.Links to outside content are discouraged. Content should be part of the submission, with relative links to it. An "Item" or submission should be a self contained set.pdf document with its associated data file(s). If multiple files constitute an "Item" (or submission), all of the digital pieces must be provided as a set.Where the work to be deposited has been published, approval may be required from the publisher. The author must have copyright permission for the contents of the work submitted. The author/owner should be willing and able to grant Queen's University the right to preserve and distribute the work via QSpace.The work must be contributed in digital form.The work must be related to the academic mission of the Queen's community.The work must be produced, submitted or sponsored by the Queen's University academic community.
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