Curated Shopping - problems of action and typification of purchase advices online

• Applicant: Dr. Paul Eisewicht
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416057294

It is common sense in the social sciences, that mediatized practices transform social phenomena. The typical transformations regarding shopping in digital contexts are 1) the transformation of the service-triad between provider, service-personal and customer to a service-dyad between provider-interface and customer; 2) the shift of work tasks and required competencies from the service-personal to the customer; 3) a broad range of provided products via digital plattforms and 4) the increasing entanglement of provider and customer actions. Alternatives to this mode of online-shopping indicate that problems of action follow this mode, that are in turn solved by different ways of online-shopping. In other words, providers are using media technology to offer and sell goods in different ways. And consumers are searching for and use different offers according to their relevances and competencies. Curated Shopping, the preselection of offers and the personalized recommendation of products, is one such alternatives. With the service intensive offer of Curated Shopping old questions about the specifics of online-shopping are returning and can be negotiated again. Following questions about the possible re-traditionalization or de-mediatization of online-shopping and the mediatization of recommendations (in this case the curation of commercial products), a deeper understanding of the reflexive mediatization of consumption stands in prospect.The research project focuses on the entaglement of provider and customer actions in digitalized fields. Regarding Curated Shopping we reconstruct the problems of action on the side of the provider and the customer and identify the relevant specifics of media technology. The empirical study is based on an explorative-interpretative research design that uses ethnographic methods for a hermeneutical analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants