Purpose Historically, research on perceptions of health either converged upon the meanings created and proposed by specialists in the healthcare industry or focused on people who have medical conditions. This approach has failed to capture how the meanings and notions of health have been evolving as medicine extends into non-medical spheres and has left gaps in the exploration of how the meanings surrounding health and well-being are constructed, negotiated and reproduced in lay discourse. This paper aims to fill this gap in the understanding of the perceptions surrounding health by investigating consumers’ digitized visual accounts on social media. Design/methodology/approach Textual network and visual content analyses of posts extracted from Instagram are used to derive conclusions on definitions of health and well-being as perceived by healthy lay individuals. Findings Research demonstrates that digital discourse of health is clustered around four F’s, namely, food, fitness, fashion and feelings, which can be categorized with respect to their degrees of representation on a commodification/communification versus bodily/spiritual well-being map. Originality/value Our knowledge about the meanings of health as constructed and reflected by healthy lay people is very limited and even more so about how these meaning-making processes is realized through digital media. This paper contributes to theory by integrating consumers’ meaning-making literature into health perceptions, as well as investigating the role of social networks in enabling a consumptionscape of well-being. Besides a methodological contribution of using social network analysis on textual data, this paper also provides valuable insights for policy-makers, communicators and professionals of health.

Purpose Previous research in sociology, psychology and fashion studies has investigated the concept of diversity in the fashion context, but the topic remains largely understudied within the realm of consumer research. This study aims to examine the reactions of underrepresented women to the fashion industry’s lack of diversity. Design/methodology/approach A total of 38 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted among a sample of female consumers who were diverse with respect to racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation, age, body type and physical appearance. Findings Using Bourdieu’s forms of capital – social, cultural, economic and symbolic – the findings shed light on the process of virtual community formation on social media in response to the lack of diversity in fashion; reveal fashion consumers’ power to enact institution-level change, compelling the industry to become more diverse and inclusive; demonstrate the outcomes of capital accumulation and illustrate how all forms of capital are produced by and reproduce each other. Originality/value This study proposes a new outcome of capital accumulation on virtual communities, termed “transformative value,” in addition to the social and information values identified in earlier scholarship.

Ethical and sustainable business practices have become some of the most significant concerns in the highly globalized fashion industry. Firms in this multi-billion dollar industry are taking these concerns seriously, and are carefully monitoring and responding to consumers' actions that can range from expressing displeasure via social media to holding protests or even calling for boycotts of certain brands and firms. In this paper, the first output from a larger project on ethics of fashion, we review the extant literature on the ethical aspects of the global fashion system; and set the stage for further empirical and conceptual work.

2018 Netflix movie Nappily Ever After voices the relationship of Black women with their natural hair and try to free them from the white beauty ideals imposed by the modern culture. By delving into historical connotations, this film review aims to understand how and why stereotypical narratives about African-American beauty and hair exist in media and shows the societal and psychological consequences of underrepresentation.

Previous research illustrates several attempts that consumers have made to create new markets when marketing organizations have not responded to their desires; however, individual efforts alone are insufficient to assure success in having voices heard. The effectiveness of these efforts heavily depends on the democratization of