Contributions of post-phenomenology to the study of the consumption of technical objects: Principles and applicative perspectives – Illustrated by the case of self-tracking

Abstract

More and more marketing academic research is currently mobilizing conceptually innovative theories that rethink the distinctions commonly made between objects and subjects. In this perspective, this article proposes to introduce in marketing the post-phenomenological theory, recently developed in philosophy. It presents its main conceptual frameworks and translates them into an investigation guide. To illustrate the interest and scope of post-phenomenology, an empirical study is carried out on self-tracking technologies. The results allow us to appreciate the contributions of post-phenomenology. It invites to another way of thinking and questioning the consumption of technical objects, recognizing them as carrying an intentionality. It draws an alternative to the current theorizations on the agentivity of objects. It proposes a powerful analytical framework, which structures and systematizes the examination of the ways in which technical objects modulate consumers’ relations to the world: not only their experience of the world but also their experience of that experience of the world.