Experience staging and symbolic knowledge

The case of Bornholm culinary products

Bibliographic Data

ID12317366
AuthorsJesper Manniche (Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark, corresponding author), Karin Larsen (0000-0001-6164-9901, North Denmark Region), Karin T Larsen (Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark)
Year2013
Volume20
Issue4
Pages401-416
Publication date2013-09-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Urban and Regional Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-7764 • E-ISSN: 1461-7145
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0969776412453146
OpenAlexW2077617010
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited35

The ongoing changes in Western food markets and the emergence of ‘alternative’ agri-food production–consumption systems have been conceptualized in numerous ways but very rarely in terms of an ‘experience turn’. This article applies the perspective offered by the concept of the experience economy and empirically analyses the development and marketing of culinary products from the Danish island of Bornholm as production-side activities in a larger ‘territorial staging system’ which at consumption-side primarily relates to urban consumers. A second analytical focus is on the knowledge aspects of experience-based economic activities. The knowledge aspects of the coordinated staging activities of Bornholm firms, business networks and governance actors are studied by use of the differentiated knowledge bases taxonomy, which includes a category of socio-cultural ‘symbolic’ knowledge, complementary to the technological and scientific types of knowledge important for developing functional assets of products. The data and analyses suggest that the experience economy perspective can enrich the research on alternative food production systems by directing attention to the crucial role of strategic, coordinated staging of experiences that reach the consumers in and outside the region. Second, the article shows that the innovation and staging of experience offerings and authenticity-based products relies on symbolic knowledge dynamics in creating and communicating commercially relevant cultural values and meanings and that the sources of such knowledge dynamics are not only local but to a large extent extra-regional and multi-scalar. These findings are indications of new opportunities, barriers and external linkages for rural areas

Business · Consumption (sociology · Corporate governance · Economics · Knowledge management · Perspective (graphical · Production (economics · Sociology · Computer Science · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Organic Food and Agriculture · Rural development and sustainability · Marketing

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