Dr Lydia Martens

Title: Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Phone: +44 (0)1782 734125
Email:
Location: CBC0.018
Role:
Contacting me: During Office Hours, posted on my door, or via email appointment.
Martens_Lydia

I joined Keele University as Senior Lecturer in Sociology in 2006, having previously worked at Durham University (2000-2006) and the University of Stirling (1997-2000). I investigate the intersections between consumption and domestic life, and I have an interest in the adult child dimension of consumer culture; gender, feminism and consumption; mundane everyday domestic practices and products; consumer culture in late modernity; food, kitchens, home, domestic artifacts, intergenerational relationships and domestic identities. I am interested in qualitative and ethnographic research techniques, data handling, and know a few things about cross-tabulations and SPSS.

My research interests focus on consumption and domestic life and I also have an interest in qualitative research methodology, having recently completed an ESRC-funded project in which I researched the potential of video recording in an investigation of everyday life and practices in domestic kitchens. My research agenda is positioned at the intersection between consumption and domestic life. I adopt an approach informed by feminist sociology in an attempt to develop theories of consumption and domestic life that are more gender 'informed' and that aid an analysis of continuity and change in consumer culture, domestic cultures and domestic identities in late modern society. I am currently working on three different substantive terrains with overlapping theoretical concerns. These are:

  • Gender & Consumption
  • Mundane Practices and Products
  • Adults, Children and Consumer Culture

Selected Publications

  • Martens LD. 2012. Practice ‘In Talk’ and Talk ‘As Practice’: Dish washing and the reach of language. Sociological Research Online: an electronic journal, vol. 17(2), Article 22. doi>
  • Martens LD. 2012. The Politics and Practices of Looking: CCTV Video and Domestic Kitchen Practices. In Advances in Visual Methodology. Pink S (Ed.). London: SAGE.
  • Halkier B, Katz-Gero T, Martens L. 2011. Applying Practice Theory to the Study of Consumption: theoretical and methodological considerations - Guest Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue. Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 11(1), 3-13.
  • Martens L. 2010. The Cute, the Spectacle and the Practical: Narratives of new parents and babies at The Baby Show. In Childhood and Consumer Culture. Tingstad V and Buckingham D (Eds.). Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Martens L. 2009. Creating the Ethical Parent-Consumer Subject: Commerce, moralities and pedagogies in early parenthood. In Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and learning in the shadow of the "shopocalypse". Sandlin JA and McLaren P (Eds.). Routledge.

Full Publications List show

Books

  • Casey E and Martens L. 2007. Gender and consumption: Domestic Cultures and the Commercialisation of Everyday Life. Ashgate Pub Co.
  • Warde A and Martens L. 2000. Eating Out: Social differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure. Cambridge Univ Pr.
  • Martens L. 1997. Exclusion and Inclusion: The gender composition of British and Dutch work forces. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Journal Articles

  • Martens LD. 2012. Practice ‘In Talk’ and Talk ‘As Practice’: Dish washing and the reach of language. Sociological Research Online: an electronic journal, vol. 17(2), Article 22. doi>
  • Halkier B, Katz-Gero T, Martens L. 2011. Applying Practice Theory to the Study of Consumption: theoretical and methodological considerations - Guest Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue. Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 11(1), 3-13.
  • Martens L. 2010. Innovations in Qualitative Research in the UK. The Language of Public Administration and Qualitative Research, vol. 1(1), 49-71.
  • Martens L and Scott S. 2006. Under the Kitchen Surface: domestic products and conflicting constructions of home. Home Cultures, vol. 3(1), 39-62. doi>
  • Martens L and Scott S. 2005. ‘The unbearable lightness of cleaning': representations of domestic practice and products in Good Housekeeping Magazine (UK): 1951-2001. Consumption Markets & Culture, vol. 8(4), 371-409. doi>
  • Martens L. 2005. Learning to consume – consuming to learn: children at the interface between consumption and education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 26(3), 343-357. doi>
  • Martens L, Southerton D, Scott S. 2004. Bringing children (and parents) into the sociology of consumption: towards a theoretical and empirical agenda. Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 4(2), 155-182. doi>
  • Olsen W, Warde A, Martens L. 2000. Social Differentiation and the Market for Eating Out in the UK. International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 19, 173-190.
  • Warde A, Martens L, Olsen W. 1999. Consumption and the Problem of Variety: Cultural omnivorousness, social distinction and dining out. Sociology, vol. 33(1), 105-127.
  • Warde A and Martens L. 1998. Eating Out and the Commercialisation of Mental Life. British Food Journal, vol. 100(3), 147-153.
  • Martens L and Warde A. 1998. The Social and Symbolic Significance of Ethnic Cuisine in England: New cosmopolitanism or old xenophobia?. Sosiologisk Arbok (Yearbook of Sociology), vol. 1, 111-146.
  • Martens L. 1997. Gender and the Eating Out Experience. British Food Journal, vol. 99(1), 20-26.
  • Maclaran P, Martens L, O'Donohoe S, Stevens L, Hogg M. Guest Editors of Special Issue “(Re) Creating Cultural Models of Motherhoods in Contemporary Advertising”. Advertising and Society Review, vol. 12(2).

Chapters

  • Martens LD. 2012. The Politics and Practices of Looking: CCTV Video and Domestic Kitchen Practices. In Advances in Visual Methodology. Pink S (Ed.). London: SAGE.
  • Martens L. 2010. The Cute, the Spectacle and the Practical: Narratives of new parents and babies at The Baby Show. In Childhood and Consumer Culture. Tingstad V and Buckingham D (Eds.). Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Martens L. 2009. Gender and Consumer Behaviour. In Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour. Parsons E and Maclaran P (Eds.).
  • Martens L. 2009. Creating the Ethical Parent-Consumer Subject: Commerce, moralities and pedagogies in early parenthood. In Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and learning in the shadow of the "shopocalypse". Sandlin JA and McLaren P (Eds.). Routledge.
  • Martens L. 2009. Feminism and the Critique of Consumer Culture: 1950-1970. In Feminism, domesticity and popular culture. Gillis S and Hollows J (Eds.). Routledge.
  • Martens L. 2008. The Visible and Invisible: (De)regulation in contemporary cleaning practices. In Dirt. Campkin B and Cox R (Eds.). I. B. Tauris.
  • Martens L and Casey E. 2007. Afterword: Theorising gender, consumer culture and promises of betterment in late modernity. In Gender and consumption. Casey E and Martens L (Eds.). Ashgate Pub Co.
  • Casey E and Martens L. 2007. Introduction. In Gender and consumption. Casey E and Martens L (Eds.). Ashgate Pub Co.
  • Martens L and Warde A. 1999. Power and Resistance around the Dinner Table. In Consuming cultures. Hearn J and Roseneil S (Eds.). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Warde A and Martens L. 1999. Eating Out: Reflections on the experience of consumers in England. In The Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The social appetite. Germov J and Williams L (Eds.). Sydney: Oxford University Press.
  • Warde A and Martens L. 1998. A Sociological Approach to Food Choice: The case of eating out. In The Nation's Diet: The social science of food choice. Murcott A (Ed.). Northcote House Pub Ltd.
  • Warde A and Martens L. 1998. The Experience of Eating Out in England. In Consuming Passions: Food in the age of Anxiety. Griffiths S and Wallace J (Eds.). Manchester: Manchester Univ Pr.
  • Martens L and Warde A. 1997. Urban Pleasure? On the meaning of eating out in a Northern City. In Food, Health, and Identity. Caplan P (Ed.). London: Routledge.

Other

  • Martens L and Scott S. 2004. Domestic Kitchen Practices: Routines, Risks and Reflexivity.

I contribute towards the undergraduate teaching programme in sociology,

  • SOC 10012 Researching British Society - Module Leader
  • MDS 10008 Mediated World - Module Leader
  • SOC 30029 Gender and Consumption - Module Leader