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ACTA ELECTRONICA UNIVERSITATIS LAPPONIENSIS 384
Mona Eskola
Exploring
Embodied Luxury
Practice-theoretical
autoethnography of
a yoga retreat holiday
PAN DESIGNING FOR ELDERLY CARE THROUGH THE ‘GOOD OLD DAYS’
Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 384
MONA ESKOLA
Exploring Embodied Luxury
Practice-theoretical autoethnography
of a yoga retreat holiday
Academic dissertation to be publicly defended
with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences
at the University of Lapland in Eelin sali on 18 October 2024 at 12:00.
Rovaniemi 2024
University of Lapland
Faculty of Social Sciences
Supervised by
Professor José-Carlos García-Rosell, University of Oulu
University Lecturer Minni Haanpää, University of Lapland
Professor Anu Valtonen, University of Lapland
Reviewed by
Professor Kate Dashper, Leeds Beckett University
Professor Elina Närvänen, Tampere University
Opponent
Professor Kate Dashper, Leeds Beckett University
Layout: Minna Komppa, Taittotalo PrintOne
Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis, 384
ISBN 978-952-337-437-9
ISSN 1796-6310
Permanent address of the publication:
https://urn./URN:ISBN:978-952-337-437-9
3
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
ABSTRACT
Mona Eskola
Exploring Embodied Luxury.
Practice-theoretical autoethnography of a yoga retreat holiday.
Rovaniemi: University of Lapland 2024, 203 pages
Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis, 384
ISBN 978-952-337-437-9
ISSN 1796-6310
Traditionally, luxury is presented as conspicuous, expensive and extraordinary
products and services in branding and marketing literature. Nevertheless, in
contemporary society the understanding of luxury has extended towards experiential
and unconventional forms. Consumer research and unconventional luxury literature
understand luxury as a social construct in which the intangible, eeting, emotional
intensities are meaningful. Correspondingly, in luxury tourism debates an interest
towards exploring the intangible nature and variation in tourists’ interpretations of
luxury has emerged. However, the unconventional forms of luxury in tourism have
received limited attention until today. ere is an apparent need to continue the
luxury research discussions with explorations that make visible embodied forms of
knowing and complement the dominant psychological understandings of luxury in
tourism.
As a result, this research explores the emergence of embodied knowing of
luxury in the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices of a yoga retreat holiday.
To accomplish this task, three research questions are set: 1) In what kind
of practices does luxury unfold in a yoga retreat holiday? 2) How does the
embodied knowing of luxury emerge when engaging in practices? 3) What
does the embodied knowing of luxury empirically mean, and how can it be
methodologically studied? In this study, tourism is understood as a practice in
which the embodied knowing of luxury is emerging. e epistemological practice-
theoretical approach to embodiment originates from organisational studies and
more precisely, from the aesthetic, sociomaterial approach to practices which
see the formation of knowledge as an active embodied doing as knowing-in-
practice. Exploring luxury within the tourist’s sociomaterial practices enables to
unfold the aecto-rhythmic nature that allows the capacity for luxury to emerge.
In this thesis theory, methodology and empirical approach were evolving
simultaneously. e selected approach allowed to theoretically and empirically
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
demonstrate how luxury emerges in a yoga retreat holiday as aecto-rhythmic
agencements. Five practice agencements were forming and recognised as follows:
Orienting, Reconnecting, Adjusting, Guarding and Releasing practice.
Empirically, the luxury phenomenon is explored within multi-sited, evocative
autoethnography over a period of ve years in yoga retreat holidays in the premises
of a luxury hotel in ailand. In addition to the author’s personal empirical material,
the eldwork material entails photographs, videos, websites, and other material
of the hotel and yoga studios provided for tourists. However, the most essential
empirical material is carried in the knowing and aectivities of the body of the
researcher. e body-reexivity in the autoethnographic research process enabled
to demonstrate the ephemeral, aecto-rhythmic nature of practices that emerges
as embodied luxury. e study empirically demonstrates how the aesthetic taste-
based judgements of the appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature of practices allow the
capacity to engage in the ow of embodied knowing of luxury in tourist practices.
is dissertation contributes to the luxury and tourism research discussions. In
luxury research, it expands the prevailing debates by showing how the lived, living
and acting sensuous body is a knowledgeable actor in tourist practices, rather than
understanding the tourist as disembodied and passive. e study highlights the
active role of a tourist in the production of luxury experience. Second, it contributes
to practice-theoretical studies in luxury literature in theorising luxury within
the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices that are entangled with aects and
rhythms, and accomplished together with the heterogeneous actors of human,
nonhuman and natural actors beyond the mere personalised perceptions. ird,
it complements the discussions of unconventional luxury by drawing attention
to the intangible, inconspicuous, aesthetic and ethical nature of luxury emerging
within aecto-rhythmic sociomaterial practices. In tourism research, the dissertation
complements the existing embodiment discussions and contributes to rejecting
dualistic knowledge formation. e thesis continues the discussions of relational
sociomaterial practices in tourism and presents the body as ‘an agencement of
embodied knowing and resonant materiality that is able to aect and be aected’. It
illustrates how ethics is done in touristic practice. From the methodological perspective,
through the study of practices by means of body-reexivity in autoethnography,
the existing psychological understandings in luxury explorations are extended
in the dissertation. e embodied and methodological approach complements
the dominant rational-cognitive methods and external observations of luxury
practices in tourism and luxury research. e researcher’s body is seen as inherent in
unfolding the embodied luxury with the autoethnographic approach of this thesis.
Keywords: luxury, tourism research, embodied knowing, practice theory,
sociomateriality, aect, rhythm, autoethnography
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
TIIVISTELMÄ
Mona Eskola
Exploring Embodied Luxury.
Practice-theoretical autoethnography of a yoga retreat holiday.
Rovaniemi: Lapin yliopisto 2024, 203 sivua
Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis, 384
ISBN 978-952-337-437-9
ISSN 1796-6310
Tavanomaisesti luksus liitetään huomiota herättäviin, kalliisiin sekä erityislaatuisiin
tuotteisiin ja palveluihin. Luksusilmiöstä keskustellaan usein branding- ja mark-
kinointikirjallisuudessa. Silti tämän päivän yhteiskunnassa käsitys luksuksesta on
laajentunut kattamaan monenlaisia elämyksiä ja aineettoman luksuksen muotoja.
Kuluttajatutkimus ja epätavanomaisen luksuksen kirjallisuus näkevät luksuksen
sosiaalisena rakennelmana, jossa myös aineettomat, ohikiitävät, tunnepohjaiset
intensiteetit ovat merkityksellisiä. Myös luksusmatkailun keskusteluissa on herän-
nyt kiinnostus tutkia luksuselämyksen aineetonta, aistillista luonnetta sekä sen eri
variaatioita matkailijoiden tulkinnoissa. Silti epätavanomaiset luksuksen muodot
matkailussa ovat saaneet vain vähän huomiota. On olemassa selkeä tarve tutkimuk-
sille, jotka täydentävät luksustutkimuksissa vallalla olevaa psykologista ymmärrystä
luksuksen luonteesta, ja tuovat esiin luksuksen ilmenemismuotoja kehollisen tie-
tämisen näkökulmasta.
Tämä tutkimus keskittyy luksuksen ilmenemiseen kehollisena tietämisenä
matkailijan sosiomateriaalisissa käytännöissä. Tätä tavoitetta lähestytään kolmella
tutkimuskysymyksellä: 1) Millaisissa käytännöissä luksus ilmenee joogaretriittilo-
malla? 2) Miten luksuksen kehollinen tietäminen kehkeytyy käytännöissä? 3) Mitä
kehollinen tietäminen luksuksesta tarkoittaa empiirisesti, ja miten sitä voi metodo-
logisesti tutkia? Tutkimuksessa matkailu ymmärretään käytäntönä, jossa kehollinen
tietäminen on luontainen osa tietämistä. Epistemologisesti tutkimus nojautuu
käytäntöteoreettiseen lähestymistapaan, joka juontaa organisaatiokirjallisuudesta ja
täsmällisemmin esteettisestä, sosiomateriaalisesta lähestymisestä käytäntöihin: tieto
muotoutuu käytännöissä tietämisenä, aktiivisena kehollisena tekemisenä.
Väitöskirjan teoria, empiria ja metodologia muotoutuivat toisiinsa kietoutunei-
na. Valittu lähestymistapa paljasti luksuksen kehkeytymisen sosiomateriaalisten
käytäntöjen aekto-rytmisinä muotoutumisina, kehollisena luksuksena. Väitöskir-
jan empiirisessä osassa kehon tietämistä luksuksesta tutkitaan evokatiivisen autoet-
6
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
nograan ja keho-reeksiivisyyden (engl. body-reexivity) avulla. Kehollinen luksus
ilmenee monipaikkaisena ilmiönä, jota tutkitaan joogaretriittiloman käytännöissä
thaimaalaisessa luksushotellissa. Henkilökohtaisten kenttämuistiinpanojen ja
aineiston lisäksi empiirinen materiaali sisältää hotellin ja joogastudioiden matkai-
lijoille suunnattua markkinointimateriaalia. Kaikkein oleellisin aineisto luksuksesta
tietämiseen löytyi kuitenkin kehon sisältä, kehollisesta, aektiivisesta tietämisestä.
Tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin viisi aekto-rytmisten käytäntöjen hetkellistä kehkey-
mää ja ne nimettiin seuraavasti: Orientoituminen, Uudelleenliittyminen, Mukautu-
minen, Suojeleminen ja Vapautuminen.
Väitöskirja kontribuoi luksus- ja matkailututkimuksen keskusteluihin. Luk-
suskirjallisuudessa tutkimus laajentaa olemassa olevia keskusteluja osoittamalla,
miten eletty ja elävä keho on aktiivinen, aistillinen, tietävä toimija sen sijaan, että
matkailijoiden kehot ymmärrettäisiin passiivisina. Tutkimus tuo esiin matkailijan
ja kehon aktiivisen roolin luksuselämyksen muotoutumisessa. Toiseksi, tutkimus
kontribuoi luksuskirjallisuuden käytäntöteoreettisiin tutkimuksiin teorisoimalla
luksus ilmiönä, joka kehkeytyy yhdessä heterogeenisten toimijoiden – ihmisten,
ei-inhimillisten ja luonnon – hetkellisinä yhteenliittyminä. Lisäksi toisin kuin aiem-
missa käytäntöteoreettisissa luksustutkimuksissa tässä tutkimuksessa havainnoidaan
luksuksen kehkeytymistä sosiomateriaalisten käytäntöjen sisällä. Kolmanneksi, tut-
kimus täydentää epätavanomaisen luksuksen tutkimuksia tuomalla keskusteluihin
sosiomateriaalisten käytäntöjen aekto-rytmistä luonteen, mikä vie huomion luk-
suksen aineettomaan, keholliseen ja eettiseen vaikutukseen. Matkailututkimuksessa
väitöskirja täydentää olemassa olevia kehollisuus keskusteluja. Tutkimuksessa keho
ymmärretään ‘kehollisen tietämisen jatkuvana muotoutumisena ja värähtelevänä
materiana, joka omaa kyvyn vaikuttaa ja vaikuttua’. Tutkimus tuo esiin kehollisen
tietämisen merkityksen luksuksesta tietämisessä sekä havainnollistaa, miten eet-
tisyys tapahtuu matkailun käytännöissä. Tutkimus jatkaa matkailututkimuksen
keskusteluja relationaalisista, yli-yksilöllisistä sosiomateriaalisista käytännöistä.
Metodologisesti, omaksumalla autoetnograsen keho-reeksiivisen lähestymistavan
käytäntöjen tutkimisessa väitöskirja laajentaa olemassa olevia luksustutkimuksia,
jotka lähestyvät ilmiötä rationaalisen mielen kautta. Valittu lähestymistapa täyden-
tää vallalla olevia rationaalis-kognitiivisia metodologioita luksuksen tutkimisessa
sekä luksusilmiön ulkopuolista havainnointia. Tutkijan keho nähdään väitöskirjassa
luontaisena ja olennaisena toimijana osana kehollisen luksuksen tietämisessä. Tutki-
mustuloksia voidaan hyödyntää laajasti erilaisia vieraanvaraisuusalan luksuselämyk-
siä muotoillessa sekä myös muilla toimialoilla.
Asiasanat: luksus, matkailututkimus, kehollinen tietäminen, käytäntöteoria,
sosiomateriaalisuus, aekti, rytmi, autoetnograa
7
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
To my daughter, Anni
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
Acknowledgements
In this dissertation I have been granted the great privilege of uniting my three
passions: a doctoral study of luxury, embodied knowing and my passion for
practicing yoga. However, this is not a dissertation on yoga or practices related to
yoga retreat holiday only. Rather, this thesis illustrates how luxury and knowing the
world is inherently emerging also within our knowledgeable bodies, and not solely
in our rational mind. e situated epistemic knowing in practices illustrated in this
thesis are transferable and they can be noticed and developed in other (service)
contexts. It was only aer the beginning of my PhD journey that I realised how yoga
retreat holidays taking place in the premises of a luxury hotel aorded appropriate
practices to explore the unconventional, embodied emerging of luxury.
e topics of this thesis, luxury and embodied knowing, are challenging to put
in words. Similarly, it seems challenging to nd words with which to get started. I
‘just’ have a subtle and at the same time intense sensation which I can locate in the
le side of my upper body. My heart is lled with warm silence which I also sense as
gratitude and wonder. ump, thump… I feel the rhythm of my heart. It is dierent.
It encloses shades of thrilling excitement. Although painful to nd words, I feel this
precious and beautiful moment of silence and stillness – it is something to cherish
and dwell within. I let the sensation ll my whole body… and gradually wonderings
what has past, is present and what is still to become begin to take their shape. e
body is open, aectivities start to ow on paper…
Seven years is a long time. It encloses so much. All the people, happenings, doings
and moreover all the arousing sensations aecting my PhD process are entangled
in my bodymind. e practices and sensations felt within have made me what I am
today and the way my dissertation materialised. My deepest gratitude to all of you
who have supported my process. Of all the journeys I have taken from Mumbai to
Soul and Shanghai, this has been the most incredible.
I still remember the day I met José-Carlos García Rosell at Helsinki Airport to
discuss my research proposal. JC thank you so much for accepting me under your
supervision. is acceptance changed my life. Along the years you have been persistent
in asking over and over again: ‘But what is luxury in your experience?’. I guess I have
been as persistent in exploring luxury in a very detailed manner in this dissertation.
ank you for your trust and guidance. Anu Valtonen and Minni Haanpää, I feel
privileged and grateful of having had you as my supervisors. Your support has been
invaluable. Anu, I have been the most inspired of all your extensive research and our
discussions in the premises of the human body and practices. You always patiently
9
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
answered my emails and guided my path onwards with your practical tips. With your
support the embodiment and embodied knowing is here presented to luxury and
tourism literature. Minni, I just loved your wonderings and comments which oen
emerged in subordinate clauses during our supervisor meetings. Your notions have
many times opened the pathway to write down things that matter in the knowing of
luxury. So, in our meetings I always had to listen very carefully to points that were
coming aer the main sentences as you were commenting my material. I thank all
of you JC, Anu and Minni, for the recurring Teams meetings which started during
the pandemic time. Having the possibility to reect my writings with you in regular
intervals has had a major eect on accomplishing my PhD. JC and Minni, I also wish
to express my gratitude for being my co-writers in the Emerald Handbook of Luxury
Management of Hospitality and Tourism, and for the paradigmatic illustration of
luxury as an embodied experience.
I have been fortunate to have as my pre-examiners Kate Dashper, Professor in
Events, Tourism and Hospitality and Elina Närvänen, Professor of Services and
Retailing. ank you both for reading and carefully commenting; I am delighted
with your encouraging comments. Your feedback provided valuable guidance for me
to grow as a researcher, and to nalise my thesis.
ank you, University of Lapland, for enabling me to continue my studies, to
learn how to do research and accomplish my dissertation. I am thankful for Esko
Riepula fund for the nal proofreading. I want to thank the Finnish Cultural
Foundation Hotelli- ja ravintolaneuvoston rahasto for funding my research as well
as the Finnish welfare society for the adult education allowance along the years to
support my professional development.
I like to oer my warmest gratitude to Vesa Heikkinen. You encouraged me to
proceed with my luxury phenomenon journey. us, the examination of multisensory
luxury in the digital environment in my master thesis received continuation. You
have the amazing expertise to notice and foresee silent things that matter in the
hospitality and tourism industry. It is always inspiring and a great pleasure to work
with you. I also thank my friend Riina Iloranta with whom we have shared the
journey of the “two crazy ones”. I hope we can inspire each other in the future as well.
I thank Annette Toivonen for introducing the PhD practicalities of the University
of Lapland in the very beginning of my research.
I also thank my employer Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences for being
exible and granting me study leave for the research. ank you for the opportunity
to create courses around the topic of luxury. A special thanks to my Haaga-Helia
supervisor Antti Jylhä for your encouragement in my process. I wish to thank all
colleagues with whom I have had inspirational discussions on the nature of luxury.
My sincere thanks to my collegue and friend Pia Kiviaho-Kallio. Your support
was invaluable in the proofreading that gave the nal touch to this thesis. I truly
admire your professionalism and dedication. I wish you all the best for your coming
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
dissertation process around embodiment in pedagogy, and promise to be there
for you. In the last phase of my dissertation process I had the possibility to attend
Carol Kiriakos’s Academic writing retreat and regular coaching sessions. Carol,
there is something magical that happens in your writing groups. Your practical
tips, professional guidance and hearty reassurance oered just the needed mode to
nalise my dissertation. I thank also the members of my writing group for all the
warm encouragements you oered. I wish you all the same. My friends and yoga
community, I am truly thankful for our joint, empowering sessions. We do not
always need words to communicate. Embodied acting is a much more powerful way
to communicate than words. Our common, externally silent and still moments have
been the most restoring and balancing and oered me a lot of energy for wellbeing
and writing.
Finally, to my family. I express my deepest gratitude to my parents, Liisa and
Taisto. As you know, I have always liked reading. From my childhood I cherish the
memory of how every night Mum read aloud a good night story to me and my sister.
is regular practice allowed to calm down and was a beautiful ending for each
day. I am positive it also enriched my vocabulary and ability to write in a nuanced
manner, to express subtle tones with particular words, to play with the shades of
the words, which the vignettes of this thesis hopefully illustrate. Mum and Dad, I
also thank you for supporting my gymnastic classes since I was four years old. I just
loved moving my body already as a child. I guess at that time the seeds for embodied
knowing to become the natural and relevant way for me to know the world were
planted. Still today, in addition to yoga classes, all forms of group tness classes are a
great source of joy in my everyday life. Later on, I competed in rhythmic gymnastics,
a passion which I shared with my aunt Elina. ank you, Elina, for being there as my
coach and sharing that cherished phase of my life. I also warmly thank my deceased
grand-mother, Mamma, for her warm caring. e years during my childhood and
adolescence guided me to know my body quite well, externally but also internally.
I learned how to move aesthetically, how to keep my body posture, how to walk
graciously and how to keep my balance. I started to know the world in trusting
the arising inner senses of the body, through interoception, proprioception and
visceroception. I learned how to illustrate the inner sensations and emotions with
embodied movement and small gestures of the body. I learned how a blink of an eye,
gazing or looking over are powerful ways of communicating. Reecting and writing
this dissertation would not have been possible if I had not been so familiar with my
body, recognising the arising aectivities, and being blessed with childhood reading
practices.
Anni, my dearest Daughter, this dissertation is dedicated to You. I wish I have
been able to show that life is full of surprises, and the dreams – like completing
this dissertation – do come true. Although accomplishing something which you
treasure necessitates persistence, everything is much smoother if you let yourself be
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
surrounded with people and matters that give space for your natural way of being
in this world, and appreciate all the miracles you have to share. I hope that in life
you would engage with matters that bring you and your loved ones good energy
and balance. Listen carefully and trust your own knowing arising within your body
whatever you do in life. Whisper and the universe will hear you my Love.
Vesa, my beloved spouse. ank you for standing by me. ank you for all the
understanding, love and support you have oered during the course of this process.
I feel it is beautiful that we have shared quite a long journey already together, and
learned to lean to each other in our own way. At the time when I have been building
my dissertation you have been engaging with your passion of building houses in your
leisure time. ank you and your parents Tuula and Heikki for having the possibility
to spend time in the very private environment in your Ruovesi summer cottage
that also aected in completing this thesis. Aer all it was in the beginning of my
dissertation journey that I started to wonder how the similar aectivities that were
arising in the luxury hotel practices aroused in the summer cottage as well as. e
summer cottage located on a cape without nearby neighbours makes the place truly
private and luxurious as the geographic form enables many intimate practices that
allow to engage within the soothing ow. e peaceful morning swims and rhythm
of swimming have supported my thesis process as this regular morning practice have
many times woken up the ideas hiding in my unconscious aer a well slept night.
At this end, I am truly thankful for having had the opportunity to take this
journey but also happy that this phase is now over. Empowered of this journey I feel
more professionally condent to go on exploring luxury wherever this path will take
me. I hope that in the future I will be able to investigate more the aecto-rhythmic
nature of practices and serve as a support wherever needed.
In Sipoo on a Sunday aernoon aer balancing
well-being class in the nearby wellness centre.
June 9th 2024
Cordially,
Mona Eskola
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
Contents
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................3
TIIVISTELMÄ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................5
Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................................................................................................8
Contents...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................12
1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................................14
1.1 Entry point – “Soothe my senses” .....................................................................................................................................14
1.2 Towards embodied approach and research questions .....................................................................................21
1.3 Embodiment in tourism research .......................................................................................................................................26
1.4 Knowing luxury in earlier practice-theoretical luxury studies ................................................................35
1.5 Flow of the study ................................................................................................................................................................................39
2 Interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices ..........................................................................40
2.1 Practice-theoretical onto-epistemological starting points ..........................................................................40
2.2 Exploring embodiment ................................................................................................................................................................49
2.2.1 Embodied knowing .........................................................................................................................................................50
2.2.2 Aect ...........................................................................................................................................................................................60
2.2.3 Rhythms .....................................................................................................................................................................................66
2.2.4 Moving entanglements .................................................................................................................................................71
3 Taste-making within epistemic practices of a community .....................................................84
3.1 Epistemic practices of a yoga retreat holiday ............................................................................................................84
3.2 Dening “yoga in modern times”........................................................................................................................................87
4 Reecting luxury within autoethnography as methodology ............................................92
4.1 Evocative autoethnography: embodied knowing as empirical material...........................................92
4.2 Body reexivity – the ephemeral, multi-sited and longitudinal embodied elds ..................94
4.3 e empirical material and ethical concerns .............................................................................................................96
4.4 Processing within the embodied material and text ......................................................................................... 103
4.5 e analysis agencement ........................................................................................................................................................ 108
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
5 The emergence of luxury within the situated yoga retreat practices .................. 112
5.1 Orienting ..............................................................................................................................................................................................112
5.1.1 Embedded in contemporary Western culture and Nordic nature ....................................112
5.1.2 A woman travelling solo and fellow tourists ....................................................................................... 116
5.1.3 Founded on one’s own pace, single room and luxury hotel premises ............................118
5.2 Reconnecting ................................................................................................................................................................................... 122
5.2.1 “My summer cottage” – Regular single room with a sheltered terrace...........................122
5.2.2 Tranquilising service encounters ....................................................................................................................127
5.2.3 e Sacred Yoga Shala ............................................................................................................................................ 131
5.3. Adjusting ...............................................................................................................................................................................................136
5.3.1 Getting dressed for the breakfast room .....................................................................................................136
5.3.2 Sudden discordance .................................................................................................................................................... 139
5.3.3 Kundalini yoga practice and Mantra chanting ..................................................................................141
5.4 Guarding ................................................................................................................................................................................................148
5.4.1 e body en route ......................................................................................................................................................... 148
5.4.2 e luxury of sleeping tight.................................................................................................................................. 152
5.4.3 Me time ................................................................................................................................................................................. 155
5.5 Releasing practices ....................................................................................................................................................................... 158
5.5.1 Undressing – freeing from clothing and sociomaterial constrains ................................. 158
5.5.2 Having a spa treatment .............................................................................................................................................160
5.5.3 Surprising play within nature .............................................................................................................................163
6 Discussion and conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 168
6.1 Summary of the study ................................................................................................................................................................168
6.2 Contributions .................................................................................................................................................................................. 170
6.3 Evaluation of the study ............................................................................................................................................................. 180
6.4 Suggestions for further research .......................................................................................................................................184
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................187
Figure 1. Positioning of the thesis ............................................................................................................................................20
Table 1. Co-generated empirical material .....................................................................................................................98
14
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
1 Introduction
1.1 Entry point – “Soothe my senses”
Aer ten hours of ying and three hours in a minibus, I am exhausted when arriving
at the hotel open-air lobby. I have 16 hours of travelling behind me. Our yoga group is
greeted warmly, oered cold towels to reesh and a place to sit down. I prefer to stand.
My body feels anxious of all the sitting and the long journey. Meanwhile, waiting for my
room key, whis of lemongrass oat in the air while we are sipping the hotel’s signature
tea. I am wrapped in the surrounding harmony, beauty and peacefulness. I inhale deeply
and sigh; serenity suuses me. Employees moe soly and in a quiet way around us. I do
not understand their language; I only notice that they addressed each other in a peaceful
manner. ere is no need to worry about having “my regular room” – or anything else
for that matter. I can just enjoy being within this soothing bubble. e humid warm air
caresses my body and simultaneously carries me away to my earlier retreats. I am here
again. I am breathing. I am alive.
e vignette above illuminates the arrival to my yearly yoga retreat holiday in the
luxury boutique hotel premises. It was January 2018 and my third retreat holiday in
the same location. ree years earlier, I was seeking a high-quality well-being retreat
holiday in a soothing environment. I dreamed of combining yoga with calming holiday
practice, since yoga was part of my life to sustain a healthy body and mind. For several
days, I carefully studied various advertisements of holistic well-being holidays on the
Internet and social media. Finally, I found a Finnish yoga studio providing a yoga
holiday in the premises of a small luxury boutique hotel situated in a secluded village
in ailand. I closely examined the suggested daily program of the yoga studio and
the hotel’s webpages: “While complete tranquillity comes rst and foremost, there are
also plenty of invigorating activities to intrigue the mind, awaken the body, and satisfy
the soul” (extract from the luxury hotel website). I remember my heart beginning to
beat faster and I felt the vibes of excitement going up and down in my body (see Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019; Katila, Laine, et al., 2019). is yoga retreat holiday in calming,
remote premises seemed to oer the right blend of everything in proving retraction,
restoration and holistic revitalisation to balance my agitated bodymind.
e excitement I felt at that time did not let me down. During the years 2016–
2020, I found myself at the same yoga holiday (that along time became my yoga
retreat holiday) four times, year aer year, every January. Along my stays in these
small, tranquil luxury hotel surroundings, I began to wonder what it was that actually
formed the soothing sensation of luxury in my retreat holiday. I felt luxury was not
15
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
only emerging from practicing yoga (I will continue this in the next paragraph).
Neither did ‘luxury’ feel solely to be related to the sun and warmness although my
body and mind apparently were craving for them in January during the darkest
mid-winter season in Finland. Nor was luxury solely related to the luxury hotel as
such, since I was quite accustomed with global luxury services and experiences due
to my personal and professional history. I had accommodated in countless ve-star
and luxury hotels all over the world during my 20 years of work history and leisure
journeys. Holidaying in a luxury hotel was, in a way, the basic premise aording
trust for everything to function ‘properly’ and smoothly. I did not want to spend my
energy with the possible insecurities related to the hotel’s basic functioning or to be
gracelessly encountered. In turn, the dominant academic considerations at the time
suggested cognitive explanations of knowing luxury based on the functional value,
meaning, or multisensory luxury of ve external senses (e.g. Atwal & Williams, 2009;
Hennigs et al., 2015; Wiedmann et al., 2013; Wiedmann et al., 2009; see Kauppinen-
Räisänen, Gummerus, et al., 2019). Nevertheless, I did not feel comfortable, attuned
to these abstract concepts of value and meaning. As I was a customer experience
developer, the abstract conceptualisations did not unfold the making of luxury; I was
curious to know how the soothing ongoing sensation was really forming.
During the mentioned years 2016–2020, I also attended four other well-being retreat
holidays including yoga: one in ailand, another in Bhutan and two in Finland. Not
all of them were in a luxury hotel setting, however, within these quite dierent tourism
settings I was attached to something that I could feel as luxury alike. Considering the
practices of all my holidays, it is apparent that there was a centralised focus on the body
and the bodily practice of yoga as they were named as yoga (retreat) holidays. Still, my
inner body knowing told me that luxury was not only related to yoga practice or external
multisensorial luxury (see Mora et al., 2018; Wiedmann et al., 2016).
I was set out into a puzzling agencement of the not-knowing of luxury. Although
I did, but not in a conventional, rational, academic sense. If luxury was not merely
attached to the yoga practice or the practices of a traditional luxury hotel, what
then? Surely, the luxury I knew was not only the set standards of the luxury hotel;
hedonism in a sumptuous tourism premises topped with attentive service and
formal courtesy phrases or status-driven conspicuous consumption. Rather, the
inconspicuous inner body knowing of luxury was persistently pulsating inside my
body. I was hooked and searching for words… that my mind did not know, but my
body certainly recognised.
is non-rational-cognitive, embodied knowing of luxury became my entry
point to this study in which I theoretically and empirically explore and illustrate
the process of tracing the knowing of luxury within the situated practices of a yoga
retreat holiday in a ai luxury hotel. In this thesis, I share the forming of puzzling
agencements on how the knowing of luxury that I deeply sensed in my inner body,
and that could not be named as a particular emotion, also became an academically
16
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
recognised paradigm of luxury (Eskola, Haanpää & Garcia-Rosell, 2022); the luxury
that emerged as a steady inner ow soothing my body.
Aer setting the entry point for my research journey, I will now proceed to taking
a closer look at luxury. Luxury is a multidimensional phenomenon whose meaning is
embedded in the era and surrounding society (Berry, 1994; Cristini & Kauppinen-
Räisänen, 2022; omsen et al., 2020). Despite the growing interest into luxury
research (Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2016), there is no common agreement on the
denition of luxury in the academia (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Wiedmann et al.,
2009). Each social community holds and enjoys its own kind of luxur y (Mortelmans,
2005). Luxury is relational to the contexts (Berthon et al., 2009). Since the well-
cited Veblenian understanding of luxury as conspicuous consumption that belongs
to the elite, the academic discussions of luxury in contemporary societies have
evolved continuously. Regardless that the etymology of the world ‘luxury’ from the
14 century relates luxury to the “sensual pleasure” (Online Etymology Dictionary,
2022) in the prevailing debates in luxury literature, the concept of luxury is
commonly perceived as an economic concept (Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen,
2022; Mortelmans, 2005) and is much discussed as related to luxury consumption.
However, it has been emphasised that luxury as a social concept should merit more
attention in luxury research (Berthon et al., 2009; Mortelmans, 2005; Roper et
al., 2013; omsen et al., 2020). e experiential everyday practices of luxury are
getting more attention (Banister et al., 2020; omsen et al., 2020).
During the past decades, tourism, marketing and consumer research have
opened avenues to the role of tourist/consumer and to the emotional, sensuous
engagement in experiences (e.g. Arnould & Price, 1993; Edensor, 2000; Holbrook
& Hirschman, 1982; Obrador Pons, 2003; Veijola & Jokinen, 1994). Similarly,
previous studies in luxury marketing literature recognise the saliency of holistic
and multisensory nature of luxury experience (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Hennigs
et al., 2012; Kapferer & Bastien, 2009; Wiedmann et al., 2013; Wiedmann et al.,
2018). Luxury (brand/service) experience is conceptualised “as sensations, feelings,
cognitions, and behavioural responses” (Berthon et al., 2009, p. 48), though the
assumption is that luxury is created solely through the product-based stimulation
of our ve external senses, psychological stimuli or by a managerial approach (e.g.
Atwal & Williams, 2009; Kapferer & Bastien, 2009; Wiedmann et al., 2013). Such
traditional views on the sensual nature of luxury narrow the understanding of luxury
into cognitive-rational perceptions and product-centric views. Still, the saliency
of embodiment and the corporeal basis for marketing memorable and aesthetic
experiences is highlighted as well ( Joy & Sherry, 2003). Luxury (brand) experiences
are based on customer involvement, engagement and intensities of all the senses
(Atwal & Williams, 2009). In reference to Pine and Gilmore (1999), Atwal and
Williams (2009, p. 345) forward how postmodernist thinking escapes rationalism
and how “customers are not rational decision-makers” but emotional beings. e
17
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
eld of (service) marketing has aimed to achieve a deeper understanding of the
holistic nature of luxury experience through various perspectives, such as analysing
the (multisensory) perceptions of brand/product-related features and their variables
(e.g. Hennigs et al., 2012; Wiedmann et al., 2007, 2009; Wiedmann et al., 2018).
e aective relationship of brand luxury is recognised as relevant in consumers’
enjoyment of luxury experiences (Chandon et al., 2017, 2019; de Kerviler &
Rodriguez, 2019). Traditional luxury in the shape of branded luxury products exists
next to the evolving understandings of luxury (Chandon et al., 2016).
e discussions of luxury in tourism are strongly aected by the conventional
object-focused understanding, thus perceiving “luxury tourist experience[s] as
a product” (Iloranta, 2021, p. 39, 2022). Luxury tourism is commonly related to
conspicuous consumption, and the social meaning-making of luxury is mostly
related to status-driven consumption (e.g. Correia, Reis, et al., 2020). Although the
traditional, conspicuous features of luxury still apply to luxury tourism (Iloranta,
2022), in contemporary societies the understandings of luxury have broadened
beyond luxury products towards experiential and unconventional forms (Cristini et
al., 2017; omsen et al., 2020).
e meaning of luxury has thus transformed from “having-to-being and from
owning-to-experiencing” (Cristini et al., 2017, p. 101). e recent ongoing debates
on unconventional luxury (omsen et al., 2020) demonstrate how the formation
of luxury is much related to inconspicuous, experiential knowing of the agentive
consumer. Knowing luxury does not necessarily demand monetary resources, but
is more related to creative knowing, that of noticing the ephemeral feelings and the
“physical intensity” taking place in various contexts (Banister et al., 2020; omsen
et al., 2020, p. 444; Zanette et al., 2022). In turn, some luxury studies with a practice-
theoretical approach strive to complement the personalised understandings of
luxury when investigating how consumers practice luxury in complex socio-material
contexts (Banister et al., 2020; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019; Zanette et al.,
2022). ese studies highlight the centrality of practice and study the consumers’
performance with luxury and non-luxury materialities that take place in ordinary
and extraordinary premises.
e paradigm shi in luxury “from having-to-being and owning-to-experiencing”
(Cristini et al., 2017, p. 101) widens the traditional product-centric approach
towards consumer centricity and consumer-dened experiential luxury beyond
brand luxury. e focus is shied from material luxury towards immaterial
experiences, co-creation, consumer processes, subjective understandings of luxury,
as well as a holistic understanding of luxury in consumers’ lives and practices (Bauer
et al., 2011; Kauppinen-Räisänen, Gummerus, et al., 2019; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver,
2019; Tynan et al., 2010). Along the emergence of consumer-centric approaches
to luxury, the experiential, the intrinsic and immaterial nature of luxury has been
examined through the personal meanings individuals associate with their luxury
18
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
experiences (Hemetsberger et al., 2012). Recent luxury studies highlight subjective,
total multisensory immersion and consumption practices in the creation of luxury
(Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2020; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019). Experiential
luxury studies have focused on examining interactive experiences between the
consumer, product/brand, service and social service setting.
e ongoing unconventional luxury discussions in consumer research emphasise
the consumer-focused, agentive role of a consumer in the formation of luxury
(Holmqvist, 2023; see omsen et al., 2020). Creative consumers invent and
reinvent luxury through their own mundane practices. ey produce, shape and
give new meanings to their own personal luxury in various experiences and through
diverse ways (Holmqvist et al., 2020; Kreuzer et al., 2020; Rosenbaum et al., 2021;
Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020). Consumers interpret the meaning of luxury through the
particular purpose the product, experience or activity is oering to them in relation
to their own life (e.g. Kauppinen-Räisänen, Gummerus, et al., 2019). However,
in the premises of tourism research de Souza Bispo (2016) echoes omsen et
al. (2020) in suggesting a shi beyond individual interpretations. As tourism is a
complex phenomenon taking place with heterogeneous actors, studying tourism as
a social practice allows one to unfold the varied knowledge formation taking place
in diverse tourism spaces/places (de Souza Bispo, 2016). e intimate, intangible
and inconspicuous forms of luxury are gaining attention in luxury research (e.g.
omsen et al., 2020). Accordingly, luxury literature highlights how luxury is at the
same time “material, social and individual” (original Italics) (Berthon et al., 2009, p.
47; see omsen et al., 2020). Understanding luxury demands embracing “the full
dimensionality of the relationships among people, products and brands” (Berthon et
al., 2009, p. 47). Luxury is perceived as a process rather than a thing (Berthon et al.,
2009; Holmqvist, 2023; Joy et al., 2014; omsen et al., 2020). Indeed, some luxury
studies with a practice-theoretical approach strive to complement the personalised
understandings of luxury in investigating how consumers practice luxury in complex
socio-material contexts (Banister et al., 2020; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019; Zanette
et al., 2022). In these studies luxury is understood as co-created and occurring not
only between consumers and brands but also in consumers’ everyday practices,
thus highlighting the centrality of practice. us, the knowing of luxury is forming
while consumers are “practicing luxury” (original Italics) (Nicolini, 2012, as cited in
Banister et al., 2020, p. 464). In these studies, the formation and meaning making
of luxury are seen to occur through consumers’ practices in “complex socio-material
contexts” and as related to material objects and “embodied activities” (Shove &
Pantzar, 2005, as cited in Banister et al., 2020, p. 459).
However, in cultural practice theories an individual is (only) seen as a carrier of
practices (Reckwitz, 2002; see Gherardi, 2012; see Nicolini, 2012, 2013). Practices
are socio-cultural in their nature, taking place in the situated, historical social site
and accomplished together with diversied human, nonhuman, material and natural
19
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
actors (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2012, 2013). e shared knowledge formation,
meaning-making and understanding allow (individuals) the capacity to act and
organise the social order (Valtonen, 2012). Similarly, tourism is a liquid phenomenon
in which the boarders of home and away overlap and, therefore, touristic practices
cannot be separated from the society that created them (Cohen & Cohen, 2019;
de Souza Bispo, 2016). e complex knowledge production of contemporary
tourists necessitates complementing approaches to the conventional rational forms
of contextual knowing. us, for the purpose of this thesis, a mere emphasis on the
experiencing, agentive consumer in the forming of luxury practices seems limited.
Rather, luxury studies should contribute to the understanding of how knowing
emerges within sociomaterial practices – both human and nonhuman – that are
relevant in social practice theories challenging dualistic thinking (see Gherardi, 2019;
Nicolini, 2012, 2013; see de Souza Bispo, 2016). at is, many luxury studies explicitly
highlight the search for individual experiential meaning and decentring from the
material. Yet, this is understandable against the ongoing debates of unconventional
luxury aiming to move away from the traditional luxury marketing built around the
material product or brand features (Atwal & Williams, 2009) as luxury (products)
have a long history within branding and marketing studies. erefore, seeing luxury to
emerge within shared sociomaterial practices especially contribute to extension of the
existing unconventional and practice-theoretical studies of luxury that today advocate
the subjective, psychological and rational-cognitive understandings of luxury.
To summarise, interpreting luxury to emerge within sociomaterial practices
guides to explore the luxury phenomenon in engaging within the situated, ongoing
tourist practices. e practice-theoretical approach allows one to see practices as
non-individualistic; the individual is the carrier of cultural practices. Hence, the
practice approach appreciates the human body as an inborn actor in practicing. It
enables to see the knowing of luxury as relational to the wider practices of tourist life
in contemporary society. Luxury is a sociocultural construct (Berry, 1994), and the
nature of luxury evolves along the phenomena of contemporary societies. Individuals
interpret luxury in various ways bonded to their own life (Banister et al., 2020;
Kauppinen-Räisänen, Gummerus, et al., 2019; Mora et al., 2018; omsen et al.,
2020) and as entangled within the practices of surrounding society with its sources
and eects. Yoga industry provides valuable insights into “the sensory dynamics of
luxury market” (Mora et al., 2018, p. 173), in addition to which a yoga retreat holiday
entails various sensory practices in which the bodily knowing of luxury may emerge
(see Eskola et al. , 2022; Mora et al., 2018; see also Valtonen & Veijola, 2011).
In this thesis, I set out to explore the embodied knowing of luxury in engaging
within the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices of a yoga retreat holiday and
as interpreted in the embodied practices of a contemporary tourist. is thesis is
positioned in the discussions of luxury and tourism research. e multidisciplinary
approach enables the explorations of embodied knowing of luxury in tourist practices.
20
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
I interpret the luxury phenomenon within sociomaterial practices and explore
the embodied knowing of luxury in tourism practice (Figure 1). More specically,
engaging within sociomaterial practices and autoethnographic methodology enables
to reect the nature of practices ‘within’ to unfold the appropriate aecto-rhythmic
nature of practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019) that allow luxury to emerge in the
practices of a contemporary tourist. By this approach, I aim to complement luxury
literature, luxury tourism literature and particularly the unconventional and practice-
theoretical discussions of luxury as well as the discussions on luxury and embodiment in
tourism research in considering fresh ways of understanding the luxury phenomenon
by moving beyond external, cognitive-rational sensory perceptions. Further, in
tourism research discussions this thesis complements the existing studies in drawing
attention to the tourism knowledge production that founds on the aesthetic tradition
of practice theories (de Souza Bispo, 2016; Soica, 2016; see d’Hauteserre, 2015). e
thesis conceptualises the tourist’s body as knowledgeable (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994)
aecto-rhythmic agencement (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019) beyond the object/
subject body and, therefore, continues the discussions on an aective body (see
Everingham et al., 2021). It can be argued that when the tourist is engaging within
situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices, the knowing of the appropriate aecto-
rhythmic nature of practices aects the emergence of embodied luxury.
UNCONVENTIONAL
LUXURY & PRACTICE-
THEORETICAL LUXURY
STUDIES
(e.g. Thomsen et al., 2020;
Iloranta, 2021;Cristini, et al.,
2017; Cristini & Kauppinen-
Räisänen, 2020, 2022; Seo &
al., 2019; Zanette et al., 2022;
Banister et al., 2020)
EMBODIED LUXURY
EMBODIED KNOWING IN TOURISM
(e.g. Gherardi, 2009a, 2017a, 2019; Strati,
2003, 2007; Nicolini, et al., 2003; Gherardi
et al., 2013; Gärtner, 2013; Yakhlef, 2010;
Valtonen & Närvänen, 2015, 2016; de Souza
Bispo, 2016; Soica, 2016; Jóhannesson &
Lund, 2017; d’Hauteserre, 2015; Saxena,
2018; Kuuru, 2022; Jokinen & Veijola, 1994)
AFFECT and RHYTHMS WITHIN
SOCIOMATERIAL PRACTICES
(e.g. Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019;
Valtonen, et al., 2017; Rantala &
Valtonen, 2014; Gherardi, 2017b,
2019; Katila, Laine et al., 2019)
AUTOETHNOGRAPHY
(e.g. Dashper, 2015, 2016; Valtonen &
Haanpää, 2018;
Richardson, & St. Pierre,
2018; Ellis, et al., 2011)
Figure 1. Positioning of the thesis
21
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
1.2 Towards embodied approach and research questions
In this study, I set out to theoretically and empirically explore the emergence of the
embodied knowing of luxury in the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices of a yoga
retreat holiday. By doing this, the thesis expands the dominant rational-cognitive
approaches of luxury literature that study luxury ‘from outside’ the practices and
in analysing predetermined elements (see e.g. Berthon et al., 2009; omsen et al.,
2020; Zanette et al., 2022) to enrich them with the ephemeral knowing emerging
within embodied sociomaterial practices. is way, the purpose is not only to ll a
gap, but also to cultivate the understanding for academics and practitioners of how
embodied knowing complements and entangles with the rational knowing of luxury
in tourism practices (see Kuuru, 2022). To be able to unfold the ephemeral knowing
emerging in my body, I apply – and develop – a sociomaterial practice-based
approach entangled with rhythms and aects to understand the embodied knowing
of luxury. Exploring the sociomaterial practices allows to see how the knowing
of luxury emerges in intercorporeal and within corporeal tourist practices as the
body is engaged with dierent sensorial ows (see Gherardi, 2017a, 2019; Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Strati, 2007; Valtonen et al., 2017).
e practice-theoretical approach demonstrates how practicing is accomplished
together with heterogeneous actors beyond unbounded tourism encounters (see de
Souza Bispo, 2016). To meet the purpose of this study, I have engaged in multi-sited,
longitudinal autoethnographic eldwork. Based on my study, I hereby present three
research questions.
First, regardless of the shi in luxury “from having-to-being and owning-to-
experiencing” (Cristini et al., 2017, p. 101) and the notions of unconventional
and practice-theoretical luxury literature to know contemporary consumers’ own
mundane luxury practices (Holmqvist, 2023; omsen et al., 2020), studies still
oen aim to understand the luxury phenomenon through subjective cognitive-
rational reasoning. However, tourism research evidences that the “sensuous” in
tourism is understood as a form of relevant knowing aside the cognitive perceptions
in touristic performances (Crouch & Desforges, 2003, p. 6; see d’Hauteserre, 2015;
Obrador Pons, 2003). Tourism practices may entail the capacity to unfold a variable
to the rational one (see Dewsbury et al., 2002; ri, 2008). e sensuous knowing
of luxury through the acting body is much neglected in tourism practices (see Eskola
et al., 2022). Current experiential studies on luxury tourism have been suggested to
be complemented by the characteristics of unconventional luxury highlighting the
inconspicuous and experiential forms of consumption (Iloranta, 2022; see Eckhardt
et al., 2015). Further, it is noted how in the current studies of luxury tourism,
experiences have aorded only a context for the luxury investigations, and therefore
it is proposed that future examinations should focus on studying the luxury tourism
experience per se (Iloranta, 2022) as the current understandings of luxury tourism
22
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
largely lean on traditional luxury characteristics (Correia, Kozak, et al., 2020). Until
today, practice-theoretical studies examining touristic embodied practices hardly
exist. Still, in luxury literature, the formation and meaning making of luxury is seen as
occuring through consumers’ practices in complicated socio-material contexts and as
related to physical intensities (omsen et al., 2020). Some luxury studies recognise
the embodied nature of the consumer experiences, where consumers create their
personal luxury experiences through the their own bodies and bodily movements
(Holmqvist et al., 2020; Joy et al., 2014; Zanette et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the
body is still oen perceived as an aesthetic object, and luxury is understood through
external beauty and predened elements. e knowledgeable body itself is regarded
as a rather passive entity and its knowing is disregarded. Until today, luxury research
has much neglected the role of a human body in the sensuous knowing of luxury,
conceptualising the tourist and body mostly as a static, ‘not-knowing’ object.
Furthermore, luxury research has overlooked the appreciation of the more nuanced
sensory, embodied and societal complexity of the experience (Chandon et al., 2019;
omsen et al., 2020; Zanette et al., 2022). As the diverse meanings of luxury are
embedded in tourism experiences (Correia, Reis, et al., 2020), an interest towards
exploring diversied forms of luxury tourism and how tourists form their luxury
meanings has emerged (Correia, Kozak, et al., 2020).
In tourism studies, the role of a performing and moving body has been recognised
already thirty years ago ( Jokinen & Veijola, 1994; Veijola & Valtonen, 2007).
Tourism encounters are largely practical and embodied ways of interacting with the
surrounding environment through which tourists produce knowledge (Obrador
Pons, 2003). erefore, the recognised embodied and performing human body
needs to be considered as an inherently knowledgeable actor in tourist practices
(Crouch & Desforges, 2003) aording luxury (Banister et al., 2020), and in
interpreting the less rational aspect of sensuous luxury (Atwal & Williams, 2009;
Berthon et al., 2009; Zanette et al., 2022). In order to understand the complex
nature of tourism, it is proposed that tourism should be (re)theorised as practice
(de Souza Bispo, 2016). In tourism research, there is scant attention to the aesthetic
tradition of practices, and hence tourism researchers are encouraged to be inspired
by the aesthetic orientation of practicing in their investigations (de Souza Bispo,
2016). us, in this thesis, having the knowing emerging within the body under
examination guides me to approach the luxury phenomenon in exploring the
situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices (Gherardi, 2000, 2009, 2019; see Strati,
2007). Interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices allows me to complement
the neglected embodied knowing within diverse embodied practices. First, it enables
the exploration of the emerging knowing in the in situ embodied performing of a
tourist as a carrier of practices. Exploring sociomaterial practices permits surpassing
the solely personalised interpretations of luxury and for seeing how the emergence
of luxury in tourism embodied performing is entangled with societal practices.
23
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
Secondly and more importantly, interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices
enables the unfolding of varied forms of aesthetic, embodied knowing emerging
within the entangled aecto-rhythmic practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019) while
the body is engaged within various sensory states inbetween being awake and sleeping
(Valtonen et al., 2017). It shows how embodied practices are accomplished together
with heterogeneous actors. us, to complement the prevailing disembodied
understandings of how luxury emerges in tourism practical encounters and to
complement the tourism research embodiment discussions as an inherent form of
knowledgeability in practice, the following is my rst research question:
1) In what kind of practices does luxury unfold in a yoga retreat holiday?
Second, in tourism and hospitality experiences the inconspicuous sensory pleasure
and intrinsic enjoyment has been recognised as especially signicant in the creation
of luxury (Correia, Kozak, et al., 2020; see Iloranta, 2022; Wiedmann et al., 2018;
Yang & Mattila, 2016). It has been noted how “luxury items” “atter all senses at
once” (Kapferer, 1997, p. 253). Occasionally, the multidimensionality of luxury
aesthetics has been forwarded to take place through embodied acting (e.g. Berthon
et al., 2009; Dion & Arnould, 2011; Joy et al., 2014) and the aective nature of
luxury practices has been highlighted as focal, although this has not been elaborated
much further (see Chandon et al., 2016, 2019; Zanette et al., 2022). Until today,
studies investigating the complex nature of feelings, aects and emotions in
luxury experiences are exceptionally scarce, and they represent novel topics in
luxury research (see Eskola et al., 2022; Chandon et al., 2017). Commonly luxury
aesthetics is discussed as related to visual beauty or solely being shaped through
mental perceptions and sensory stimulation of the external senses (Wiedmann et
al., 2013; Wiedmann et al., 2018; Yang & Mattila, 2016). Additionally, this notion
concerns tourism research, as well. Yet, the common understanding is that the
concept of luxury is inherently sensual and aesthetic, as it has been argued that “the
role that aesthetic sensibility has played in theorising luxury has been conspicuous
in its absence” (Berthon et al., 2009, p. 63; see Chandon et al., 2017; Chandon
et al., 2019). In sum, the current approaches seem inadequate for unveiling the
called studies on the aective nature of luxury (de Kerviler & Rodriguez, 2019; see
omsen et al., 2020) in tourist practices.
Unconventional luxury literature encourages researchers to explore the
ephemeral, physical intensities and emotional involvement in consumers’ intimate
experiences of luxury that, however, aord lasting value (omsen et al., 2020).
Moreover, many luxury studies emphasise how in luxury experiences it is vital to
avoid the overstimulation of the senses and rather create experiences with soothing
aectivities (Joy et al., 2014; Wiedmann et al., 2013; Wiedmann et al., 2018) that
aord comfort, “the feeling of being soothed, and even being ‘at home’ ” (Joy et al.,
24
Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
2014, p. 350). Additionally, this also applies to luxury tourism premises (Wiedmann
et al., 2016). Nevertheless, these studies aord little information on how the
inconspicuous sensualities and soothing aectivities of luxury are accomplished
in practice. Even though the characteristics of branded luxury products have been
studied extensively, the nuanced, aective nature and formation of luxury through
the elevating sensuous characteristics embedded in practices has largely been
overlooked regardless of its recognised importance (Chandon et al., 2016, 2017,
2019). erefore, this thesis draws attention to the soothing aectivities and the
embodied forming of luxury in touristic practice. e rhythmic attuning in natural
and sociomaterial practices is noted to entail the potential to move away from
mundane stress and pressures, thus enhancing well-being and harmony (Rantala &
Valtonen, 2014; see Lefebvre, 2004). In the fast-paced societies and hectic everyday
life contemporary consumers are contesting the rhythm of present life and long for a
more harmonious being (Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2022; see Hemetsberger
et al., 2012) and living as attuned to nature (Joy et al., 2012; Rantala & Valtonen,
2014). In tourism research discussion, aective and rhythmic practices aording
harmony have received only little attention (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). Inspired by
these notions, this thesis sets out to unfold fresh ideas of the harmonising emergence
of luxury in tourism embodied sociomaterial practices, and more specically, the
aective and rhythmic nature of practices, posing the question:
2) How does the embodied knowing of luxury emerge when engaging in practices?
e third and last research question relates to the empirical part of this dissertation.
e empirical investigations of unconventional luxury are still sparse (omsen et
al., 2020), especially in the premises of luxury tourism (Iloranta, 2022). In some
empirical ndings of unconventional and experiential luxury literature, diverse
eeting sensualities of luxury can be noticed that arise in practices and are entangled
with varied social and material actors (e.g. Bauer et al., 2011; Hemetsberger et al.,
2012; Kreuzer et al., 2020; Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020). However, these studies do
not make notice of the subtle but powerful aecto-rhythmic nature of practices
that still aects the body and is present in the verbal illustrations of luxury made by
their study participants. Instead, the studies interpret practices “from the outside”
(see Gherardi, 2019, p. 96) with interviews, through the perceptions made by the
mind, and see the emergence of luxury as related to the processes of consumers selves,
empathy or humanity among others (e.g. Kreuzer et al., 2020; Sudbury-Riley et al.,
2020). Nevertheless, with a dierent kind of approach, aim as well as analysis and
method, the ephemeral yet powerful aecto-rhythmic entanglements in sociomaterial
practices would have become visible and appreciated aside the cognitive perceptions.
How then to know and illustrate the ephemeral embodied aecto-rhythmic reality
that is rich but partly hidden in the corporeal body? How to co-generate material
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that is messy and escapes conventional research methodologies and codication?
From the participants and researcher, it would demand a particular embodied
sensibility and appreciation to know, unfold and capture the emerging aectivities.
e aesthetic, sensible knowledge arising as aective sensations in the inner body
may not be easily known in examining practices by external observations. at is,
as people possess and develop dierent kinds of abilities and capacities to act and
observe (Pareyson, 1954, as cited in Strati, 2007; see Gherardi, 2019). Aectivities
may be considered abnormal, irrelevant or challenging to put in words or they
may be seen as a non-relevant form of knowledge. Sensible knowing is related to
appreciation and taste (Gherardi, 2009b). Further, it demands bodily and mental
openness to be able to ‘access’ the embodied data, which also makes the participants
vulnerable. Not all people feel comfortable in sharing the emerging aectivities
because of their intimate nature. erefore, through interviews or observations,
for instance, it might not be easy to co-generate rich material of the nuanced,
ephemeral aectivities. In addition to oral verbalisation, it might also be challenging
to illustrate the embodied aectivities of luxury in written format. At least some
level of skills needs to be possessed in order to express the aectivities in written
format. Regardless of these methodological concerns, the diverse ongoing debates
on luxury research seem to share an interest in coveting a more nuanced knowing of
the aectivities and physical intensities of luxury (Chandon et al., 2017; Chandon et
al., 2016, 2019; omsen et al., 2020). Additionally, in particular communities and
experiences the aesthetic, embodied forms of knowing are inherent for the successful
accomplishment of practices arousing aectivities (Gherardi, 2009, 2019) of luxury,
like in the premises of contemporary yoga experiences (Mora et al., 2018; see Eskola
et al., 2020), salsa dancing events (Holmqvist et al., 2020), or wine tourism (Taplin,
2015), to name a few. Finding an appropriate methodology to unfold the empirical
sociomaterial practices emanating varied forms of embodied knowing of luxury is
essential for the purposes of this study. erefore, the empirical and methodological
questions have to be carefully reected through the third research question:
3) What does the embodied knowing of luxury empirically mean, and how can it be
methodologically studied?
is dissertations oers a complementing exploration to the cognitive
understandings of luxury in proposing a more holistic knowing that appreciates the
embodied aecto-rhythmic nature in sociomaterial practices (e.g. Gherardi, 2017a,
2017b, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Strati, 2007;
Valtonen et al., 2017). e coveted attention towards a more nuanced knowing
of the aectivities, physical intensities and emotional engagement with luxury
(Chandon et al., 2017; Chandon et al., 2016, 2019; omsen et al., 2020) echoes
with the arguments made in previous luxury literature more than ten years ago,
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
claiming that consumers are not solely driven by rational decision-making (Atwal &
Williams, 2009, p. 345). For practitioners who aim to know of a truly holistic and
sensuous luxury oering, this study and, especially, its Chapter 5 elaborate practical
illustrations in a multiple embodied manner.
1.3 Embodiment in tourism research
In this chapter, I set out to explore the concept of embodiment; how the body has
been theorised in sociological tourism research. Embodiment implies focusing on
the sensuous, non-rational-cognitive experience of the performing body in relation
with “people, places, subjectivities and knowledges” (Crouch & Desforges, 2003,
p. 6; see d’Hauteserre, 2015; see Obrador Pons, 2003). Knowing various tourism
spaces within the body is inborn as we are practically engaged in the world through
our bodies (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994). Along the years, the xed and static notions
of a body have transformed towards a more relational understanding of the knowing
emerging in and through social, material and natural tourism practices (e.g. Rantala,
2010; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). ere are notions of the material, eshy and even
unbounded body being the primary source of knowing the world (d’Hauteserre,
2015; Saxena, 2018; see Everingham et al., 2021).
From passive to sensuously per forming body. e concept of embodiment emerged in
tourism research discussion in the 1990s as a critique against the tourism experience
studies that were dominated by the sense of sight. e tourist gaze (Urry, 1990) and
the ocular-centred stream of tourism research received a great deal of criticism as
they approached the space or place of tourism through the lenses of visual culture
that reduced the touristic body into a representation, an image (Haldrup & Larsen,
2003; Markwick, 2001; Veijola & Jokinen, 1994). e tourist’s body and sensuous,
embodied performing were considered neglected in academic theorising even though
the embodied knowing of the world is inherent in our everyday interactions and even
though it cannot be controlled by the rational mind (Crouch et al., 2001; Crouch
& Desforges, 2003; Edensor, 2000a; Obrador Pons, 2003). e seminal work of
Veijola and Jokinen (1994), e Body in Tourism, demonstrated the agential role of
a sensuous tourist body that is inborn in performing through eating, drinking, sun
bathing and dancing for instance. Notably, Crouch and Desforges (2003) pointed
out how Veijola and Jokinen’s work allows us to understand the multiplicity of the
tourist’s sensual experience beyond the external senses. e performing body itself
was noticed to innately aord unbounded nuances of senses that enable knowing in
relation to human, nonhuman, material and nature environment in tourism. Crouch
and Desforges (2003, p. 7) emphasise that “understanding our sensual relations with
the world is not simply a case of ‘adding in’ other senses: a sensory geography of taste,
touch, smell or sound”. Rather, the body itself is agential and acting. Tourists are not
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
disembodied or bodily passive and do not only base their knowledge on cognitive
processes in various tourism spaces/places. Gazing was noticed to engage sensuous
bodies that, through intimate relationships, negotiated appropriate embodied
performances in the situated socio-cultural environment. at is, the tourists’ bodily
performances and sensual experiences beyond the Aristotelian ve senses were seen
as an empowering approach for understanding the formation of touristic knowing
in the tourism environment beyond the disembodied reexion alone (Crouch &
Desforges, 2003). e subsequent academic discussions demanded a more in-depth
interpretation of tourist encounters as well as seeing the tourists through wider
cultural lenses, apprehending the sensuous tourist as part of the social and cultural
contexts. Tourists are not performing in isolation in a xed tourism container, but
making sense of tourism as humans of contemporary society, culture and life (e.g.
Crouch et al., 2001).
From agentive individual towards situated practices. e paradigmatic thinking of
Veijola and Jokinen (1994) was followed by several researchers, albeit ve years later
in the beginning of the 2000s. e performing human body and its relation within the
tourism (geographical) environment was investigated by geographers and tourism
researchers in particular (e.g. Crouch et al., 2001; Crouch & Desforges, 2003; Li,
2000; Markwick, 2001; Obrador Pons, 2003; Saldanha, 2002; Wang, 1999). ey
explored how the visual tourism place under the gaze was lled with social, cultural
and sensuous performances in which the body is agentive and moving (e.g. Edensor
2000a, 2001; Haldrup and Larsen 2003). “Each gaze depends upon practices
and material relations” (see Matteucci, 2014; see Rakić & Chambers, 2012; Urry
& Larsen, 2011, pp. 14-15). e concentration on a very practical level of tourist
activities steered the investigations towards a wide range of non-representational
practices (ri, 1997, as cited in Obrador Pons, 2003) that were discussed through
the Heideggerian dwelling, being-in-the-world, knowing in esh (Merleau-Ponty,
1968, [2016]), and becoming (Grosz, 1999, as cited in Obrador Pons, 2003). It was
suggested that the concentration on tourist-embodied practices unfold the complex
formation of tourist phenomena beyond the common phenomenological approach;
isolated, teleological and omnipotent ideas of the individual (Obrador Pons, 2003).
In sum, the investigations of embodied tourist practices were seen as an insightful
avenue to rethink the cultural understanding of tourism on the questions of power
and politics (Crouch & Desforges, 2003).
Rejection of dualism. e knowledge of tourism space/place is understood
to emerge in and through various performances that take place in assemblages,
networks of a variety of human, nonhuman and natural actors (Cohen & Cohen,
2012). In these networks of constant making and remaking, various actors,
bodies, sensualities, materialities, emotions and perceptions, discourses and texts,
technologies and mediums entangle and form the knowledge together (Cohen &
Cohen, 2012; Obrador Pons, 2003; Rickly-Boyd & Metro-Roland, 2010). at
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
is, the embodiment discussions move attention and support in overcoming the
dominant “disembodied and masculinist knowledge” ( Johnston, 2001, p. 183),
and therewith fracture the dualistic worldview of body/mind, subject/object,
structure/agency, nature/culture or home/away (Cohen & Cohen, 2019; Obrador
Pons, 2003). Rethinking tourism as an assemblage is seen as an avenue for breaking
through binary thinking.
e discussions have been aected by tourism geographers. Still, subsequent
tourism debates aimed to shi the focus away from the geographical perspective
only towards emphasising a contextual body, a body that is situated but performs
also in relation to other persons, subjectivities, materialities and knowledges in
wider and more complicated cultural networks and assemblages. Along the years,
the sensuous body performing in the tourism environments has been studied
especially as related to tourism experience and destination development (e.g.
Agapito, 2020; d’Hauteserre, 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Rantala, 2010;
Saxena, 2018; Soica, 2016; Wilson et al., 2019). Furthermore, embodiment as
related to tourism experience is discussed as related to the perceptions of identity
and corporeality (see e.g. Elsrud, 2001; Matteucci, 2014; uinlan Cutler et al.,
2014; Saxena, 2018; Wang, 1999) as well as gender and sexuality (Andriotis,
2010; Small, 2016).
It has been emphasised that the social tourism phenomenon is continuously
(re)assembling with the society (de Souza Bispo, 2016). Shilling (2003, p. 62, as
cited in Small & Harris, 2012, p. 687), among others, contends that “the body is
somehow shaped, constrained and even invented by society” as they investigated the
corporeal experience of the body in the context of an airline experience. Small and
Harris (2012) add that the body is not only socially constructed but also socially
experienced.
Relational sociomaterial bodies. Starting from Edensor (2000a, 2001), it is
highlighted that bodies aect and are aected through their diverse sociomaterial
interactions in various tourism spaces. Following the ideas of Science and
Technological Studies and Actor-Network, the social takes place through interaction
between human bodies, but also within objects and diverse materialities (de Souza
Bispo, 2016; Latour, 2005; Orlikowski, 2007). Haldrup and Larsen (2006, p. 275)
contend that “tourist practices are much more tied up with material objects and
physical sensations than traditionally assumed” (see Chronis, 2015). Baerenholdt et
al. (2004, p. 31, as cited in Rickly-Boyd & Metro-Roland, 2010, p. 1176) maintain
the following: “Tourists need to engage with the materiality of place. Tourists’
consumption of places is a way of networking material, social and cultural elements”
(original Italics) (see Franklin, 2014; see Rantala, 2010). Noticeably, tourism
spaces are materially organised to aord meaningful touristic settings assisted by
tourism employees ( Edensor, 2000, 2001; see d’Hauteserre, 2015; see Rantala,
2010). Further, Saldanha’s (2002) prominent study of dancing bodies at a beach
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
rave demonstrated how it is through the entangled sociomaterial arrangements
that merge in the body and qualify the emerging knowing of the tourism space in a
particular manner that enables the body into the ow of rave. Since then, tourism
researchers have illustrated how the surrounding nature, weather, darkness, cosmic
world and electricity materialise in the knowing of the bodies (e.g. Jóhannesson &
Lund, 2017; Rantala, 2010; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020;
Saldanha, 2002). Accordingly, Rickly-Boyd and Metro-Roland (2010) argue that it
is through the mundane, banal material features of the landscape that bodies form
the knowing of the tourism space as a place in their study on how various elements
aect the tourist experience. Matteucci (2014) and Chronis (2015) continue on the
same note by suggesting that landscape features, form of the built environment and
the quality of the clothing, among others, aect the arising knowing of the moving
bodies (see Haldrup & Larsen, 2006). Rantala (2010) states that in analysing
(sociomaterial) practices, the attention should be stirred particularly towards their
embodied pre-reexive and reexive nature in the given tourism environment as
they bring out the aecting materility. e arising knowledge emerged in Rantala’s
(2010) study through the materiality of a vehicle and the nature of the ground,
among others (see Wilson et al., 2019). Rhoden and Kaaristo (2020) echo these
views as they discuss how water as a mundane materiality generally in tourism social
science research is understood as being nothing more than a background to diverse
touristic activities and extraordinary experiences. Still, water aects the knowing of a
body as they analyse the relational interaction between the body, boat and water as an
assemblage. With the Deleuzian notion of assemblage, they highlight the processual
and entangled nature of the bodies interacting with the qualities of water. Water in
its nature is liquid and constantly moving. Water also aords a foundational resource
in tourism as tourists utilise it in various activities, such as river draing, swimming,
skiing, scuba diving or surng (Arnould et al., 1998; Merchant, 2011; Ponting &
McDonald, 2013; see Woermann & Rokka, 2015). Indeed, citing Obrador Pons
(2009), Rickly-Boyd and Metro-Roland (2010, p. 1177) demonstrate how tourism
has disregarded the relational agency of mundane (materialities) in focusing on the
extraordinary and exotic sides of touristic social life.
Further, knowing through the material human body has received surprisingly
little notice among tourism researchers (d'Hauteserre, 2015). Tourism researchers
have directed their attention to knowing through the material human body through
their phenomenological studies of embodied experiences and studying touristic
performances and practices (e.g. Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Soica, 2016; Valtonen
& Veijola, 2011). Still, bringing the eshy human body under investigations is still
rather scarce although it could entail a potential to disrupt the prevailing, more
traditional examinations of embodied experiences in tourism (Everingham et al.,
2021). e aective turn in geography and in tourism research could aord some
potential to unwrap the corporeal reality of tourist in perceiving the human body as
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
a “situated site of [emerging] aect(s)” /aectivities (Everingham et al., 2021, p. 75),
as briey discussed in this chapter.
Already Saldanha (2002, p. 56) took notice of the “embodied experience”, how
the bodies listen, connecting not only with their ears but as eshy human bodies
(see Waitt & Duy, 2010). Rhythm and particular tone of the music allow capacity
for a body to move through the kinaesthetic, haptic and emotional aectivity and
in interconnection with other bodies. However, Saldanha (2002) also notes that
music does not only ll the external tourism space but also the inner space of a
body. In addition, Saldanha (2002, p. 51) illustrates how “the electric energy” of the
beating bass “makes your intestines twirl” (see Waitt & Duy, 2010). In referring to
Deleuze (1981, as cited in Matteucci, 2014, p. 36), Matteucci further argues that
“sensations are felt within the bodily materiality” as related to how his participants
described their amenco feeling. Accordingly, the passions and intense emotions
of the embodied practice of amenco dancing were described as something visceral
felt deep inside of a body and resulting in the feeling of nourishment and being
alive and grooving. Leaning on Deleuze, gives room for Waitt and Duy (2010)
to question the pre-xed ideas of a material body as a pre-set social or biological
container. e knowing of sounds emerges through the practice of listening that
emphasises listening through the eshy, material, haptic and emotional body, as an
aective assemblage of sounds. is means that employing the concept of aective
assemblages enables a simultaneous tracing of the social and individual modes as well
as capturing the inner body space (Ringrose, 2011, p. 600, as cited in Saxena, 2018,
p. 102) containing “aective energies” that found complicated desires, intensities
and relational entanglements (Saxena, 2018, p. 102). e body has the capacity to
be “an animal, a body of sounds… a social body or a collectivity” (Deleuze, 1970, p.
127, as cited in Waitt and Duy, 2010, p. 461).
Rantala and Valtonen (2014, p. 28) draw attention to the “inner aspects of the
body” and how chronobiology as part of a rhythmanalysis (Lefebvre, 2004) may
enable theorisations around sociomaterial practices. Wilson et al. (2019) illustrated
“VW campervan tourists’ embodied sonic experiences” in which bodies entangle,
fuse with vehicles through sound. ey talk of creative body-vehicle assemblages as
they conceptualise the immaterial sound as emerging sonic material. is way they
break the dualism between the material and immaterial, suggesting that it opens new
creative potentialities of Deleuzian becomings that, however, may not always result
in being as harmonious as they highlight. e emerging knowing of disharmony can
further be related to what d’Hauteserre (2015) calls negative aectivities.
Valtonen and Veijola (2011) introduce the ‘sleeping body’ into tourism research
discussions. eir article is paradigmatic in the sense that it opens a new eld in the
debates on ethical and sustainable development in the tourism industry. It means
that it understands how embodied knowing is aected by multiple materialites and
immaterialities even while asleep. Touristic bodies are not always awake and alert;
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
rather tourists spend a long time sleeping and resting while holidaying. Valtonen
and Veijola (2011) do not discuss assemblages, but study the sleeping practices of
bodies related to material arrangements in terms of resting and recovering from
the requirements of contemporary life. ey highlight that sleep is not only related
to its cultural meanings, but rather it is the body’s practical relationship with the
whole material, social and natural tourism environment. erefore, they also adapt
a practice approach to study sleep and state that it enables sharing the knowing of
the agency of entangled social and nonhuman materialities that inherently aect
tourist’s performances. at is, tourism spaces entail a range of social, material and
aesthetic practices that are ordered by general normative assumptions of the tourism
industry (see Edensor, 2000, 2001) is way their study illustrates the diverse ways all
senses – and not only sight – can be materially “touched” in a tourism environment
(Valtonen & Veijola, 2011, p. 183). Rantala and Valtonen (2014) continue to discuss
the aective-material arrangements of embodied sleeping practices. e attention is
drawn to the practices of sleeping as related to the rhythmic qualities emerging in
tourism space. For instance, the immaterial luminous summer nights materilise in
the body’s active performing, enjoying the nature activities such as sitting around a
camp re until late at night. On the other hand, the dark winter season encourages
the body to a slower performing, sneaking into a thick sleeping bag early in the
evening. is way Rantala and Valtonen demonstrate how nonhuman weather and
light entail relational agency that aects, orders and materilises in tourist’s body and
practices.
e body as a site of situated aectivities. As illustrated, tourism researchers
have conceptualised the body as an assemblage with diverse relational intensities
characterised as aective forces (e.g. d’Hauteserre, 2015). Aect is also characterised,
among others, as non-representational emotions that guide embodied practices,
although there is no generally accepted denition of aect in tourism research nor
in the academia (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020; Saxena, 2018).
Aects spread among bodies and in spaces and their ow forms the social worlds
through the ones they have aected (Carter, 2019). I will present a more extensive
discussion on the concept of aect in Chapter 2.2.2. and concentrate here on the
body as a site of situated aectivities (see Everingham et al., 2021).
It is noted how tourist bodies aect and are aected in various tourism spaces
through various practices (e.g. Chronis, 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Rantala
& Valtonen, 2014; Saldanha, 2002; Waitt & Duy, 2010). Aectivities guide the
diversied practices of the body, enabling the body’s capacity to act (e.g. d’Hauteserre,
2015; Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020; Saxena, 2018). e common understanding is
that the emerging non-representational aectivities do not ascribe solely to an
individual body, but are formed in sociomaterial intra-actions (d’Hauteserre, 2015).
d’Hauteserre (2015, p. 79) also relates here the societal level and discusses how
“emotion (an active state) creates “ ‘modications of the body, whereby the active
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
power of the social body is increased or diminished, aided or constrained’ ” (Spinoza
(1997-1678, Denition III, as cited in d'Hauteserre, 2015, p. 79). e “culture tunes
our neurons” (Howes, 2005, p. 21, as cited in d’Hauteserre, 2015, p. 81), therefore,
the individual characteristics in sensuous acting, together with cultural biological,
psychological and other personal actors, are connected to the understandings of the
appropriateness of arising aectivities in tourism encounters (d’Hauteserre, 2015;
Rantala, 2010). e emerging aective forces move the individual bodies and, in
turn, form their own assemblages and social world (d’Hauteserre, 2015). “To have
a body is to learn to be aected, meaning ‘eectuated’, moved, put into motion, by
other entities, human or nonhuman” (Latour, 2004, p. 205, as cited in d’Hauteserre,
2015, p. 80). e corporeal body is perceived as a foundational “transmitter and
receiver of energies” as the body is not bound to the skin (d’Hauteserre, 2015, p.
80; see Everingham et al., 2021). Rather, the body is seen as continually emergent,
in the state of becoming of varied intensities of aective forces “… of biology, of
environment, of culture and reexivity and of the aspirational potential which all
living things possess… dening (constraining, elaborating) the body’s relations or
aects… [that] together constitute the becoming-body…” (Fox, 2002, p. 356, as
cited in Saxena, 2018, p. 108).
e above illustrates how in leaning on Deleuze and Guatarri, the tourist bodies
have been conceptualised as “bodies without organs … occupied, populated only by
[circulating] intensities (1998, as cited in Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020, p. 3; see Saxena,
2018). With reference to the relational materiality of a body within a tourism place ,
Rhoden and Kaaristo (2020) refer to Bennett’s (2004, p. 365, as cited in Rhoden &
Kaaristo, 2020, p. 3) claim that places emerge through the ow of “matter-energy”
that is accommodated in bodies and thus relating bodies to each other through its
alliancing “forces”. Rhoden and Kaaristo (2020) note that these alliancing forces
are the foundational feature of bodies without organs, and this approach sets the
focus of the investigation on aective assemblages of social bodies, materialities and
abstractions, instead of subjectivities. e emerging assemblages and their numerous
social and material actors are in a constant process of becoming (Rhoden & Kaaristo,
2020). Still, its non-representational nature has made aect mostly inaccessible to
tourism scholars, since in comparison to emotion, aect is not intentional and thus
transcends the realm of the signied (d’Hauteserre, 2015). Until now, aect studies
in tourism research are still developing (Everingham et al., 2021).
Multiple bodies. Signicantly, the ongoing embodiment discussions in tourism
and other disciplines have also extended the conventional understanding of a white,
male and middle-class body to cover multiple bodies. In today’s tourism research,
it is acknowledged that there is not only one type of a touristic body. ere are
multiple bodies with varying cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds,
gender identities and other characteristics that are exhibited and acted out in
touristic performances in various tourism spaces that Everingham et al. (2021) list in
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
their study. Nevertheless, we must keep in mind that the listing is not exclusive as the
development is ongoing, and could be complemented by travelling bodies (Small &
Harris, 2012, 2014); moving bodies (Chronis, 2015) and bodies in pain (uinlan
Cutler et al., 2014), for instance. In accordance with Obrador Pons (2003), this
multiplicity of touristic bodies aords a particular space for tourism researchers to
investigate the knowing arising in and through the manifold, sensual and any other
kind of fabulous bodies. However, Saxena (2018) suggests the sociodemographic
consumption proles of tourists to be rejected and rather focus on the emerging
ows of intensities emerging within the body.
Ethics. In gaining understanding of the diversity of bodies, the embodiment
discussions have contributed to ethical considerations, such as the nature of a
touristic body, what kind of bodies there exists, or how it feels to be an embodied
tourist, or rather an embodied human being/becoming thus, understanding tourists
as corporeal human beings with a living agentive body (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014;
Small & Harris, 2012; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). Embodiment related to tourism
experience is discussed in relation to the perceptions of identity and corporeality
(see e.g. Elsrud, 2001; Matteucci, 2014; uinlan Cutler et al., 2014; Saxena, 2018;
Wang, 1999) as well as gender and sexuality (Andriotis, 2010; Small, 2016). Here,
bodies are used as a way to express disagreement with the established social structures
of tourism or in several manners for self-exploration, self-expression, to support
self-esteem. Moreover, the touristic body is not always alert and awake. e body
is vulnerable. Touristic bodies might search for stillness, rest, recovery and silence
(Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). ese kinds of ethical topics
are evidently emerging in our contemporary 24/7 societies in which good sleeping is
considered as luxury and articial lights instead of stars are ashing throughout day
and night. Everingham et al. (2021) highlight that already accepting the boundless
nature and vulnerability of the body through the powerful aectivities aords an
ethically orientated approach in studying tourism.
Multidisciplinary methodologies. From the perspective of methodology, over the
years the concept of body/embodiment has been discussed in tourism research by
several global authors from diverse angles. Many of the sociological tourism research
studies are multidisciplinary, inspired by other disciplines in developing novel
approaches like anthropology, geography, psychology cultural, feminist/gender
and ANT studies. Cohen and Cohen (2019) note that in theory building tourism
research is increasingly employing particular and innovative thoughts from other
domains, such as ethics and philosophy.
e embodied explorations have mostly been empirically conducted by means
of qualitative methods. In investigating the body/embodiment, researchers draw
mostly on phenomenology, social constructionist and critical tourism or critical
(social) theory. Some researchers apply a practice-theoretical approach to some
extent (Rantala, 2010; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011).
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Ethnography, narratology, semiotics, grounded theory, hermeneutics, feminist
theory and symbolic interaction are applied. Inductive and abductive approaches
are adapted. As a research method, observations and participant observations
complemented by interviews or surveys are the most frequent combination.
Narratives and language aorded by the body have been noticed to be inuential
in understanding culturally and socially constructed communities (Elsrud, 2001).
ere are diverse theories and analysis frameworks applied in the research
designs. e theories used included, for example, the (critical/social) theory on
embodiment (e.g. Merleau-Ponty), theories of aect, rhythms and choreography,
spatial theories of emotion and aect, the theory of meaning, the theory and analysis
of tourist desire and motivation, Cohen and Cohen’s (2012) theoretical framework
of authentication, and social identity theory. In the analysis, many studies adapt
content analysis, but also several other reexive analysis methods were used. For
example, Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, critical discourse analysis, semiotic analysis and
narrative analysis (in which attention has also been given to not only what was said
but to verbal expression as well).
However, beyond identity debates despite acknowledging the relevancy of arising
knowledge through the body, few tourism researchers (Carter, 2019; Rantala et al.,
2020) employ the knowing of their own body. Further, embodied investigations
have mainly been made through the phenomenological paradigm, sourcing from
the conscious mind of individuals and relying mostly in discursive methods. More
recent investigations have turned to practice-based explorations and to examining
aectivity in tourism intra-actions (e.g. Buda et al., 2014; Jóhannesson & Lund,
2017; Rakić & Chambers, 2012; Saxena, 2018; orpe & Rinehart, 2010; Tucker
& Shelton, 2018a, 2018b). Additionally, there are studies enclosing the material,
nonhuman and natural actors as integral to the social for understanding the subtle
knowing arising in and through the tourist body (Rantala et al., 2011, 2020;
Valtonen et al., 2020).
Today it is well noted that the body and knowing through the body is inherently
entangled with the emotional and cognitive knowing in forming the knowledge in
tourism experiences (Eskola et al., 2022; Everingham et al., 2021; Pritchard et al.,
2007; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). Indeed, already in the beginning of the 2000s,
it was acknowledged in regards of the body’s sensual, non-cognitive, pre-reexive
knowing that the forming of tourism experiences is aected by the body’s non-
representational potentiality of knowing. Additionally, contemporary tourism
researchers apply non-representational theory (ri, 2008; Vannini, 2015a,
2015b) to unveil the multisensual, non-representational knowing of a performing
body in tourism environments (Haanpää et al., 2022; Jensen et al., 2015; Obrador
Pons, 2003). Approaching tourist experience through non-representational
methodologies makes sense of dierent kinds of realities than allowed by cognitive
methodologies. at is, besides the visual sense, “multiple corporeal and sensual
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
practices are fundamental to experience, know and feel places” (Obrador Pons,
2003, p. 57; see also e.g. Small & Harris, 2012).
Similarly, Cohen and Cohen (2019, p. 167) contend that the above “trends
reect new directions in the sociological interpretation of tourism, which mirror the
contemporary emphasis in the discipline of sociology on plurality, the dissolution of
bounded entities and social transformation.” In this study I will lean on the presented
notions and continue my discussions towards making sense of the nuanced ways the
body is aording knowledge in various tourism practices. By these considerations,
I aim to enlarge the understanding of embodied knowing in tourism to be related
not only to the extraordinary experiences in tourism, but also to the mundane,
embodied sociomaterial practices.
In the next subchapter, I will discuss how the knowing of luxury is seen to emerge
in the prevailing practice-theoretical luxury studies.
1.4 Knowing luxury in earlier practice-theoretical luxury studies
In 2019, Seo and Buchanan-Oliver oered luxury literature a new approach to
study luxury through practice theory and the consumers’ own meaning-making.
e authors indicated how practice theory (Reckwitz, 2002; Warde, 2005) allows
responding to the noticed gap to study brand luxury consumption with a sociocultural
approach (Roper et al., 2013). Seo and Buchanan-Oliver (2019) contended that the
focus should be shied “from what [brand] luxury value is, towards understanding
how it is constructed by [contemporary] consumers” (original Italics) as meanings
of luxury are situated in the era and arise from the surrounding society and culture.
Berthon et al. (2009) claimed that social meanings of luxury consumption emerge
through functional, symbolic, and personalised experiential dimensions (of value),
and they set out to examine experiential practices. Seo and Buchanan-Oliver (2019)
saw that consumers’ subjective experiences and everyday practices open an avenue to
the social meaning-making of luxury that is salient for researchers and practitioners.
I conducted a brief literature review with the search words “luxury” and “practice
theory” or “social practices” in the subject-eld of the database of University of
Lapland, and continued by making a similar search in Google Scholar. I reviewed
the content of the articles, and will now proceed to discussing the articles in which
luxury is the main theme and “practice theory” or “social practices” are stated in
the keywords. e majority of the articles were published in the Journal of Business
Research (e.g. Ahmed et al., 2022; Banister et al., 2020; Fita et al., 2020; Seo
& Buchanan-Oliver, 2019; Zanette et al., 2022) with one exception, an article
published in Journal of Business Ethics (Moraes et al., 2017). e studies have been
conducted in marketing, consumer research and consumer culture. With a practice-
theoretical approach, they strive towards integrating the personal and social levels of
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
luxury performing beyond the dominant object focused managerial understandings.
Furthermore, the recent unconventional luxury literature (omsen et al., 2020)
examines personal luxury practices, although within these only the study of Banister
et al. (2020) entails practice theory as a keyword. e unconventional luxury
literature demonstrates how luxury practices may also unfold in the most mundane
routine, like activities such as cooking, reading or watching ballet DVDs (Banister
et al., 2020), salsa dancing (Holmqvist et al., 2020) or even as social media lurking
practices (Leban et al., 2020). Indeed, today there are “multiple possibilities as to
how consumers themselves can (re)interpret the meanings of “ ‘luxury’ ” (Seo &
Buchanan-Oliver, 2019, p. 414).
Following Seo and Buchanan-Oliver (2019), subsequent practice-theoretical
luxury studies have focused on describing the consumers’ personal, experiential
everyday interactions with luxury brands and products. For example, clothing
practices (Ahmed et al., 2022; Banister et al., 2020; Zanette et al., 2022) and
organic food consumption (Fita et al., 2020) have been researched. In addition
to brand-related practices, the study of Banister et al. (2020) also highlights how
luxury may arise in the practices of everyday luxury. Accordingly, consumers are
seen as co-creators of luxury meanings as they are “practicing luxury” (Banister et al.
2020, p. 464). In fact, Seo and Buchanan-Oliver (2019) continue by suggesting that
consumers’ lived experiences and creative activities are signicant in the construction
of luxury as they reveal more intense feelings in many senses that enhance quality of
life. However, the intensitive aesthetics of the human body and the knowledgibility
of the acting body are not much further investigated beyond mentioning them in
practice-theoretical luxury studies. Finally, aesthetics is commonly referred to as
visual beauty.
Reecting the practice-theoretical approaches employed in earlier luxury
literature, several notions can be depicted. Firstly, practice-theoretical luxury studies
seem to examine luxury mostly through consumers’ rational illustrations of their
commonsensical activities (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015, as cited in Gherardi, 2019;
see Nicolini, 2013), where practices are interpreted as personal experiences. However,
social practice theories also interpret practicing as being anti-individualistic and
taking place in practice (Nicolini et al., 2003; Nicolini, 2013) and not only in
the mind. Practices are studied by means of interviews which continue the long
heritage of rational-cognitive knowledge formation of luxury in luxury literature.
However, one of the core characteristics of practice theories is that they challenge
dualistic thinking and recognise the body as inborn in practicing (e.g. Miettinen et
al., 2009). e prevailing studies seem to neglect the knowledge emerging within
embodied practices that exceeds cognitive visual observations. e emotionally
related individual’s interpretations are deemed especially problematic as these
move beyond “rational decision-making” in ethical luxury consumption practices
(Moraes et al., 2017, p. 527). Possibly, the concern about engaging with embodied
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
knowing in practice-theoretical luxury studies still circulates around this notion.
erefore, supplementing the cognitive knowledge formation of luxury with the
varied knowledge emerging within practices that appreciate the knowing arising in
the human body complements the current practice-theoretical interpretations of
luxury practice-theories (see Gherardi, 2017a, 2019).
Secondly, many existing studies apply Shove and Pantzar’s (2005) practice-
theoretical approach in their analysis, although other practice theories are also
applied, such as ones by Arsel and Bean (2013), and Magaudda’s (2011) circuit
of practice framework which examines practice through objects, meanings and
activities. None of the studies relates to one individual practice theory only. is way
they echo Nicolini’s (2013) suggestion to embrace the richness of practice theories.
Nonetheless, with these approaches the emergence of luxury is studied through
the predened elements of practice and their relations (see Roper et al., 2013;
Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019). However, in theoretical discussions concerning
practice, it is highlighted that understanding social life through pre-xed theories
promotes a limited view on reality (Gherardi, 2019; Miettinen et al., 2009; see
also Nicolini, 2013). erefore, in this study I strive to curiously employ an open-
ended, unbounded practice approach without predeteminated elements to explore
how luxury may unfold with an alternative approach and to see unforeseen matters
aecting the unfolding of luxury.
irdly, an unbounded interpretation of practices allows for seeing how
knowing-in-practice takes place beyond time and space (e.g. Gherardi, 2000;
Gherardi, 2009; Nicolini et al., 2003). In earlier practice-theoretical luxury
studies, ‘situated’ is interpreted as a study of context and practices are commonly
interpreted aerwards by interviews. However, ‘situated practices’ may also be
interpreted as situating within a practice, which allows us to see how knowing-
in-practice exceeds the physical and temporal bounds (Gherardi, 2000, 2009,
2019). e practices are aected by both past and present embodied acting and
thus aect future embodied practicing beyond the context (Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019; Valtonen et al., 2017).
Fourthly, most studies see the social and material as related, but not that materials
would entail a relational agency in practicing. Still, the common theoretical
understanding of practice is that in the unbound practices social and material are
entangled (e.g. Gherardi, 2017a; Nicolini, 2009; Schatzki, 2001), and, additionally,
also see the human body as sociomaterial (Gherardi, 2017a). e sociomaterial
approach of this study sets out to explore how humans, nonhumans and natural
actors are part of an agencement within which the sociomaterilities continuously
organise and gain shared agency in their temporal connections. Furthermore,
recognising the sociomaterial nature of a human body enables the reection of the
materiality of the body and its aect in knowing luxury in practices (Gärtner, 2013;
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Simpson, 2021).
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
Fihly, recent studies seem to acknowledge the aesthetically and normatively
sustained nature of practicing and taste-making based on aesthetic judgements.
Signicantly, also some more nuanced embodied notions are captured (Zanette et
al., 2022). However, in contrast to the embodied focus of my thesis, these earlier
studies are still based on psychological and market-oriented approaches. is
thesis strives to complement the discussion with a sociological approach and in
appreciating the knowledge arising within the embodied practices as relevant form
in aesthetic knowledge formation, not only as an aesthetic side eect.
Further, the ethically sustained nature of luxury practicing is only discussed in
one study and related to the product (Moraes et al., 2017). As aesthetics and ethics
are oen entangled in practices (Gherardi, 2019), this thesis at hand allows us also
to see “how ethics is ‘done’ ” in practice through the knowledgeability of the body
(Gherardi, 2019, p. 263). However, the more in-depth reection of ethical practicing
remains outside the scope of this thesis.
Finally, in terms of methodology, studies mostly concentrate on describing
the subsequent actions of the practitioner commonly by means of interviews. In-
depth illustrations of the study participants would aord the “much needed emic
perspective” on the ways consumers themselves make sense of luxury consumption
through practices (Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019, p. 414). Seo and Buchanan-
Oliver (2019) state that there should be a more detailed understanding of
consumers’ subjective dreams, biography and activities through which luxury has
earlier unravelled and, further, how consumers invent novel meanings of luxury.
Investigating practices within could enable to reveal the tacit, more nuanced and
ephemeral background factors, sensualities and actors that matter in practicing,
their eects or their socially sustaining formation (Nicolini, 2013, p. 7; Gherardi,
2009, 2019). With the current approach in investigating practices from the
outside, it is challenging to examine practices as ‘order-producing activities’ that
are sustained and rened in real-time doing (Gherardi, 2019). us, as researcher, I
am intrigued to employ autoethnography as a methodology to explore the situated,
ongoing sociomaterial practices ‘within’ that allows the reection of the diversied
ephemeral moments arising through the body that aect the emergence of luxury
(Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). As Nicolini (2013) notes, it is challenging to trace
practices in retrospect as they are embedded in our everyday activities that remain in
the background while still reinforcing our daily life.
To this end, current practice-theoretical studies of luxury seem to contribute
to the commonsensical theories of practice that interpret and reect practices as
activities of individuals (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015, as cited in Gherardi, 2019,
p. 29). I wish to continue the practice-theoretical luxury studies with a domain-
specic aesthetic approach and interpret practice as a way of knowing (Gherardi,
2000, 2019). Secondly, although the studies recognise the socio-material nature of
practices, luxury studies have not yet made much notice of the more nuanced nature
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
of embodied practices and their eects (Gherardi, 2017a, 2017c, 2019; see Gärtner,
2013; Simpson, 2021). us, I curiously draw attention to the sociomaterial practice
entanglements with aects and rhythms (Katila, Laine et al., 2019; Katila, Kuismin,
et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017) to complement the prevailing practice-theoretical
discussions of luxury with a fresh approach.
1.5 Flow of the study
is dissertation consists of six chapters. e rst chapter has positioned the research
phenomenon and presented the purpose of the study with research questions. I set
out to theoretically and empirically explore the emergence of embodied knowing of
luxury within the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices of a yoga retreat holiday.
By this approach, the thesis complements unconventional and practice-theoretical
studies of luxury as well as tourism research discussions. In the rst chapter, I have
discussed how the human body and its role in knowledge formation are perceived
in sociological tourism research. Further, I have briey discussed on luxury
phenomenon and presented how the knowing of luxury is perceived in previous
practice-theoretical luxury studies.
In Chapter 2, I propose a novel approach for interpreting luxury within embodied
sociomaterial practices. I initiate the discussion with the onto-epistemological
starting points of his thesis. is is followed by a theoretical exploration of varied
forms of inconspicuous, non-rational embodied knowing with the support of
multidisciplinary research. e third chapter illustrates the formation of taste-
making within epistemic sociomaterial practices of a contemporary yoga practice
community. It shows how the attachment to the object of practice exceeds the mere
physical yoga practice and demonstrates how taste-making emphases diverse forms
of embodied knowing in situated acting. In Chapter 4, I introduce the methodology
that enabled accessing the studied phenomenon, together with background
reections for studying situated practices through autoethnography. I discuss the
ethical concerns and the process within which the embodied material was allowed
to transform into written text. I then open the analysis agencement which allowed
to unfold the appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature of practices. e h chapter
empirically illustrates the taste-based aesthetic judgements and aesthetic criteria. It
shows how knowing the appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature of practices allows for
luxury to emerge. In the sixth and nal chapter I draw conclusions based on the
ndings of the thesis and discuss the research contributions. Finally, I present an
evaluation of the study and make suggestions for future studies.
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
2 Interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices
In this chapter, I propose an alternative approach for interpreting luxury within
embodied sociomaterial practices. I will theoretically explore how the embodied
knowing of luxury might emerge within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices.
e discussion is initiated by the theoretical and onto-epistemological starting points
of the thesis, leaning on organisational literature and its practice epistemology (e.g.
Gherardi, 2000; Nicolini et al., 2003). I am particularly inspired by aesthetic, sensible
knowledge (Strati, 2007) and embodied knowing (Gherardi, 2019). In Chapter
2.2, I set out to explore the notion of embodied knowing in more detail, basing
my theoretical approach to studying luxury phenomenon within aecto-rhythmic
practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). I elaborate the concept of embodied
knowing and how it emerges within entangled aects and rhythms in practices.
e discussion is derived from a multidisciplinary eld of studies: tourism research,
cultural and human geography, anthropology, philosophy, feminist, organisational
and management studies as well as luxury literature. Notably, the very notion of
sensuous, embodied, aective practices have been le somewhat unexplored in
luxury theorising. Since the sensuous and aectivities are considered to have a central
role in luxury literature, they should be placed under more careful investigation
(Berthon et al., 2009; Chandon et al., 2017, 2019; Dubois et al., 2001; omsen et
al., 2020). Finally, interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices complements
the current cognitive-rational understanding with ephemeral embodied emergences
of luxury.
2.1 Practice-theoretical onto-epistemological starting points
In this chapter I set out to explicate the onto-epistemological starting points. In this
thesis luxury is not solely perceived as rational-cognitive knowledge, but emerging
within the practical sensemaking in everyday practices. e selected approach of
this thesis moves the ontological question of what luxury is to how luxury is done,
noticeably, how the eect of luxury is accomplished within situated, ongoing
sociomaterial practices (see Gherardi, 2019). Simultaniously, the approach proposes
an interpretative, methodological and active ‘frame’ to analyse the emerge of luxury
in sociomaterial practices (see Gherardi, 2019).
Practice theories are part of social and cultural theories, rooted in structuralism,
semiotics, phenomenology and hermeneutics (Reckwitz, 2002). Starting from the
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
beginning of the 21st century in the “re-turn to practice” (Miettinen et al., 2009), a
reborn interest emerged in practice theories for seeking a “nonrational-cognitive view
of knowledge” that challenges the dualistic world view (action/structure, subject/
object, mind/body, human/nonhuman, culture/nature) (Corradi et al., 2010, p.
267). Instead of individual or managerial understanding, contemporary practice
theorists, like Gherardi (2000), Schatzki (2001), Reckwitz (2002) and Nicolini
(2013), address more appropriately the activities and materiality of mundane life
rather than just addressing the meanings, interpretations and intentions of sayings
and actions that result from rational thinking (Schatzki, 2002). e nature of
reality in the practice-theoretical approach highlights the Heideggerian “being-in-
the-world” dwelling, meaning how the bodily interacting with the world is more
relevant in understanding social life than following predetermined theoretical
approaches solely grounded in the knowledge emerging in the mind (see Gherardi,
2019; Miettinen et al., 2009). e bodily interaction is entangled with relational
materialism that also supports overcoming dualistic thinking (Gherardi, 2019;
Miettinen et al., 2009). Practices are sustained in social performing and continue
to exist as the same as long as similar knowledgeable acting takes place (Gherardi,
2019; Nicolini, 2013). e everyday interactions are understood to constitute the
foundation of social order, institutions and societies (Miettinen et al., 2009).
In recent years, the domain of practice-based studies has experienced rapid
growth and today it is thus challenging to map it comprehensively ( Gherardi, 2019;
Gherardi et al., 2019). However, to study practices three distinctive approaches may
be recognised as follows: the commonsensical theories of practice, general theories
of practice, and domain-specic theories of practice (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015,
as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 29). Commonsensical theories of practice usually
understand and reect on practices as the activities of individuals, whereas general
theories of practice, for instance Schatzki, conceptualise practice extensively.
Domain-specic theories of practice, in turn, entail various domain-specic practice
theories, such as a structurationist approach to technology (Orlikowski, 2000),
strategy as practice (Laine, 2010), and a practice-based approach to knowing and
learning (Gherardi, 2000, 2019; Nicolini et al., 2003).
e last domain-specic approach, practice as an epistemology, shis the focus
towards making sense of knowledge (re)production in human performance as
it happens, and that way allows one to unveil the things that matter (Nicolini,
2009) with a particular appreciation of the inconspicuous, sensible reality of the
phenomena (Gherardi, 2009a; Strati, 2007). More specically, this dissertation joins
the aesthetic tradition of practice theories (Gherardi, 2000, 2009a, 2019; Nicolini
et al., 2003; Strati, 2003, 2007, 2008), leaning on the phenomenological roots of
practice theory, where practice is approached as an empirical phenomenon. Finally,
the selected approach draws from the conversations in the context of organisation
and management studies labelled as Practice-Based Studies (henceforth PBS)
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
(Gherardi, 2000, 2019). PBS are inuenced by streams of research listed as follows:
feminist philosophies in Science and Technological Studies, Actor-Network eory,
cultural-aesthetic approach, situated learning theory, activity theory, workplace
studies and relational epistemologies (Gherardi, 2018 as cited in Gherardi, 2019,
p. 385–386).
Over the long history of the study of social practise theory, academics have
drawn from various sources, and dierent interests give rise to diverse approaches,
vocabularies and methodologies to study social phenomena (Corradi et al., 2010).
e particular choice of vocabulary unfolds the particular epistemology behind the
study of practice. erefore, in this subchapter I present the vocabulary characterising
the epistemology of practice applied in this thesis.
Initially, PBS are founded on the notion that practicing is embodied knowing
emerging in acting; it is not solely “applying acquired [rational] knowledge”
(Gherardi, 2019, p. 25). Knowing and acting are inseparable and the “distinction
between knowledge and learning is blurred” in practices (Gherardi, 2019, p. 25;
Nicolini et al., 2003). e acting body is central in practicing as it is the body that
interacts in common practices within which the knowledge is forming as knowing-
in-practice (Gherardi, 2000; 2019). Importantly, knowing-in-practice involves
embodied, corporeal attuning to know the world (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019;
Willems, 2018; see Gherardi, 2019). Attuning is a process which is more than
knowing through our visual or ve external senses. Attuning may be regarded as
skilful corporeal tuning within the practices to know the things that matter in the
practices of a particular community, as a Heideggerian dwelling, “feeling at home”
(Gherardi, 2019, p. 131; Willems, 2018). is understanding is referred to as
‘knowing’ in this study and I will explore embodied knowing in a detailed manner in
Chapter 2.2.1. e knowledgeability, learning, accumulates in recurrent embodied
acting and various social situations in which the inherent bodily acting is seen as
more relevant than rationally emerging knowledge (Gherardi, 2019). Practical
knowledge emerges in collective embodied practicing and is seen as constantly
evolving in the course of practicing. Studying a phenomenon within knowing-in-
practice as common knowledgeable doing, enables to shi the dominance of a mind
and concentration that centralises solely individual level of acting (Gherardi, 2019).
e social site is “not [only] in the mind of the individual but in a social subject, a
subject that simultaneously thinks, learns, works, and innovates” through his/her
body and together with heterogeneous actors (Nicolini et al., 2003, p. 22).
It is through the in situ embodied doing, in the process of practical activity, that
the knowing arises as ongoing accomplishment (Gherardi, 2019). To unveil the logics
behind the situation and to determine which factors aect “‘knowing how’ and
knowing ‘what next’”, there is a need to investigate the practice as it proceeds in
bodily action (Gherardi, 2019, p. 31; see Yakhlef, 2010) “from within”, inside the
practice (Gherardi, 2009a, p. 117). at is, if we read practices “from the outside”
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we are unable to grasp what really matters (Gherardi, 2009a, p. 117). In other words,
we are unable to unfold “what makes a practice recognizable to its practitioners”, and
why and how practices continue to be socially repeated, sustained and reproduced
(Gherardi, 2019, pp. 11, 31). Studying practices ‘from within’ and with an aesthetic
practice-based approach enables us to unfold “intellectual, passionate, ethical and
aesthetic attachment that ties subjects to objects, technologies, the places of practices
and other practitioners” (Gherardi, 2009, p. 538). Further, the accomplishment
of practices is related to other practices that allow capacity, order and sustain the
situated acting of a particular practice (Gherardi, 2009, 2017a).
Knowing arises “in the ow of experience” as situated acting with or without the
conscious mind (Gherardi, 2019, p. 385). Situated acting implies rstly, that the
surrounding ‘context’ is not pre-existing. Rather, “practices create their own context”
(Fox, 1997, as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 46) that is actively emerging within real-time
common practices (Nicolini et al., 2003). Situated practices enclose past and future
practices as well as all diverse sociomaterial actors that facilitate the knowledgeable
practicing. Diverse sociomaterialities support remembering how to attune into the
accomplishment of practices, to note the possible disruptions and how to negotiate
or adjust to them so that practicing proceeds smoothly (Gherardi, 2019). Flow
denotes knowing-in-practice as a smooth, sensible ow (Hultin & Mähring, 2017,
p. 587, as cited in Ghertardi, 2019, p. 154). Knowledgeable accomplishment of
practices is understood to be formed together relationally with all actors and things
that matter. However, this demands that actors perceive and understand the action
and orientation of other actors. e surrounding physical context is not anymore
seen as a container of practices, but as “a resource for action” (Gherardi, 2019, p. 21;
see Nicolini et al., 2003). at is, as a situation in which the embodied “interaction
with others, situated communication, the construction of situations, the relationship
with the physical environment and objects” aord resource in accomplishing the
practice (Gherardi, 2019, p. 21). e concept of situated practices is focal in that it
allows for a more nuanced understanding of how the connecting of various actors
within a practice facilitates attuning to the qualied “ow of practices” (Gherardi,
2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019, p. 10).
Secondly, situated social interactions also move through spatio-temporalities and
societal contexts (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2013). ey are aected by past-present-
the becoming acting. ese are further related to the practitioners’ orientation and
attachment with their object of practice. Attachment denes “what makes practices
socially sustained by judgements” that are not solely related to their utility, but “to
ethics and aesthetics as well” (Gherardi, 2019, pp. 150–151; see Strati, 2007). I will
clarify these in further detail later in this subchapter. However, it should be noted
here that the object of practice is not a pre-set teleological object but an ongoing process
(Gherardi, 2019). e object of practice is the project, or thing that practitioners are
engaged with. e object of practice is forming along with practicing.
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In this dissertation, I empirically follow and report the ongoing ordering -
unpredictable forming of an object of practice in which knowledgeable bodies,
materialities, discourses, norms, aesthetic knowledge, technologies or any other
heterogeneous actors become connected within (Gherardi, 2019). “Ordering
processes are the outcome of conscious and unconscious, deliberate and emergent
operations, processes and events that do not necessarily align in terms of goals,
functions, timing, identities, roles, processes, and power relations” (Guzman, 2013,
p. 436–437 as cited in Gherardi, 2016). e world is seen as a owing “agencement”
with diverse relationalities (Gherardi, 2016; Nicolini, 2013). e French term
‘agencement’ signals emergence and becoming in sociomaterial practicing (Gherardi,
2016). Agencement signies the temporal unfolding, emergence of practices within
the process of connecting that allows or disables the capacity for practicing and
meaning-making (see Gherardi, 2016). Meaning and practices are intermixed
and processes emerge through time and place as “becoming” (Gherardi, 2019, p.
4). is concerns all forms of acting accomplished in heterogeneous sociomaterial
interactions. e social process is relational to the materiality, which is open to
investigation of practice within a network of connection-in-action and dwelling.
is approach is derived from the philosophical works of Schutz, Dewey, Mead,
Garnkel and Giddens (Gherardi, 2009a). us, knowing is something social, taking
place in the common knowledgeable (re)production of practices, in becoming, and
not only as a thinking process between humans, but the agency is shared among
humans and nonhumans (Gherardi, 2009a). In the practice-theoretical approach,
the Heideggerian “being-in-the-world”, the bodily interaction with the environment,
is more relevant in understanding the social life than following predetermined
theoretical approaches that are based solely on rational-cognitive knowledge.
Based on the above, in this dissertation knowing is seen as emerging within
sociomaterial practices, as connections-in-action, i.e., as an agencement of
sociomaterialities that receive agency as they are temporally connecting, entangling
(Gherardi, 2017a). Notably, separate elements or actors alone do not entail agency.
Rather, the interest is in knowing how, through which mechanism the agency
emerges within sociomaterial practices as the body becomes connected with varied
materialities, technologies, rules, discourses, routines or improvisation (Gherardi,
2016). Sociomateriality implies relational ontology, an ecological model in which
agency is continuously forming together with various human, nonhuman and
natural actors (Gherardi, 2019). In this dissertation, the interest is not in particular
practice elements but is shied from “what is connected to how it is connected
and to the process by which the form appears” (Gherardi & Perrotta, 2013, p. 232;
Gherardi, 2019). In conducting an empirical study on practices, as is the case in
this thesis, the idea is that the researcher traces the connections from one practice
agencement to the following, rather than prioritising humans and their practices.
e researcher observes the becoming of the object of practice within sociomaterial
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
practices, and, illustrates how the agencement aords the potential to act and how
that gives meaning to the action (Gherardi, 2016). It is a “creative entanglement of
knowing and doing” in which the researcher is challenged to illustrate knowing-in-
practice “as a ‘doing while inventing the way of doing’ ” (Gherardi, 2016, p. 680).
Having the focus on sociomaterial everyday practices, gives room for exploring and
understanding the ongoing agencement of luxury practicing in which not only social
and material are entangled but also nature and culture entangle in bodily practices.
Excluding the hyphen between the words social and material emphasises the
entanglement of social and material actors as well as meaning and matter in the web
of practices and their relational eects (Gherardi, 2017a, 2017c, 2019; Orlikowski,
2007). Similarly, excluding the hyphen concerns other vocabularies or the formation
of words to overcome the dualistic thinking that aects our thinking, such as using
inbetween instead of in-between or intra-action (Barad, 2003, as cited in Gherardi,
2019, p. 144) instead of interaction (see Orlikowski, 2007).
e nature and culture co-constitute each other in embodied practising (Gherardi,
2017a). at is, the notion of sociomateriality allows us to grasp the knowing
emerging through the materiality of human body in our everyday environments. We
always perceive the world through situated embodiment within our incarnate minds;
we “rely on sensible [embodied] knowledge in order to bring a practice forward”
(Gherardi, 2012, as cited in Gherardi, 2017a). Our corporeal bodies “feel and
judge”, sense and act constantly in everyday practices, bringing out the materiality of
everyday social life that escapes analytical rationality (Gherardi, 2017a; Strati, 2007,
p. 65). is aligns with Merleau-Ponty’s notions: “We are in the world through our
body, and [..] we perceive that world within our body” (Merleau-Ponty, [1962]
2016). is is a dialectic relationship, in other words, the body is “sentient and
sensible”, it “sees and is seen, hears and is heard, touches and is touched” (Gherardi,
2017a, p. 6; see Strati, 2007). Sensible knowledge is a form of aesthetic judgement
that highlights the material culture, how bodies and things are entangled in our
everyday embodied practices (Strati, 2007). Diverse things – clothes, food, norms,
nature, weather, technologies, even intestines and metabolism among others – aect
our everyday aesthetic sentiments and practicing (see Gherardi, 2019; see Simpson,
2021; Strati, 2007). e legitimacy of aesthetic knowing arising in an individual’s
body is social as it is negotiated inbetween heterogeneous actors within situated
practice.
Following Strati (2007) and Gherardi (2019), in this dissertation the concept of
aesthetic is derived from the Greek word aesthesis that refers to all the senses, not only
the visual sense. In his concept of ‘sensible knowledge’, Strati draws on Baumgarten
and Vico’s aesthetic philosophy and roots aesthetic, sensible knowledge to the social
practice of aesthetic philosophy that qualies the social experience in the studies of
society. at is, Baumgarten’s scientia cognitionis sensitivae (original Italics) (1735,
1750–1758, as cited in Strati, 2007, p. 64) and Vico’s Logica poetica (1725, as cited
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in Strati, 2007, p. 64) see that knowledge in society became to be recognised as a
creative and poetic sensibility. eorised in this manner, individuals are regarded as
sensible creatures who communicate sensitive-aesthetic judgement based on their
taste-makings that does not follow societal normative rules (Kant, 1790, as cited
in Strati, 2007, p. 64). Rather, the emerging embodied knowing-in-practice aords
the potentiality for a body to act in an ethical, aesthetic and knowledgeable manner
(Gherardi, 2019).
is implies that within the communities of practitioners constant (embodied)
negotiations emerge as well as discussions on “what is a good practice, which of them
is better or more beautiful, when a practice should be changed and how, or whether
it should be discarded” (Gherardi, 2019, p. 31; see Nicolini et al., 2003). Knowing
is constantly “reproduced and negotiated” in social interactions meaning, temporal
and constantly changing (Nicolini et al., 2003, p. 3). For instance, if we consider the
evolution of luxury from luxury products towards experiences and global common
goods, we notice how the meanings of luxury have changed and reproduced along the
changing and disruptive societies (Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2022; Cristini
& Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2020; Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019). Additionally, we
may notice how the knowing of yoga is today reproduced as a business embracing
multisensory and conscious experience that promises harmony and balance with
sustainable practices (Mora et al., 2018).
Practice is a form of knowing that the community of practitioners recognises and
more importantly, sustains through its “normative basis” of being an “ethical, aective
and aesthetic” activity (Gherardi, 2019, p. 62–63). ‘Sustaining a practice’means that
there emerges ongoing negotiations through the criteria of normative appropriateness
of a particular practice, and that the common orientation in this process forms
the basis of sustaining a practice (Gherardi, 2009, 2019). In traditional sociology,
normativity denotes maintaining a predetermined social order through common
rules. However, in practice-based studies norms are understood dierently. Here
norms emerge in real-time situated practicing and the situations may be interpreted
dierently by dierent actors (Gherardi, 2019). However, rules move in both ways
in that they are negotiated. at is, situated practices are accomplished as related
to diverse public and tacit rules, normative performances (Gherardi, 2019). More
specically, rules and norms of appropriate and inappropriate interacting are
interpreted, (re)produced, legitimated, observed, negotiated, adjusted and rejected
within the practices of a particular social group (Gherardi, 2019). is means that
there is plenty of space for improvised acting that overrules conventional rules
and norms (Gherardi, 2019). As rules are subject to negotiations, this means that
there emerges deviations, variability, and/or regularities in the ongoing practicing
(Gherardi, 2019). From this basis, within various situated practices, actors
continuously negotiate the limits of appropriate practicing within which harmony
is achieved in common agreement and in the common orientation in practice.
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Consequently, the normative appropriateness of “what makes a ‘good’ practice, a
‘nice’ way of practicing” is formed through ethical, aective and aesthetic knowing-
in-practice (Gherardi, 2019, p. 148). e emerging knowledge through senses thus
aords thus the potentiality for a body to act in an ethical and aesthetic manner.
erewith, in practice-theoretical sensemaking the emphasis is on understanding
the embodied knowing that is founded on taste and aesthetic judgements (Strati,
1999, as cited in Gherardi, 2009, p. 540; Gherardi, 2019).
e aesthetic taste-based judgement is something that Gherardi (2009b) and
Nicolini also (2013) understand as a particular practice character of taste, as it is
more than just an observation. It is “a style of action” (Strati 2007, p. 64), a sense
of problematizing how things are aesthetically accomplished together (Gherardi,
2009). Aesthetic taste-based judgement is based on the sociology of attachment
(Gherardi, 2019). Here, attachment is not taking place in the mind of an individual,
but in the situated practices inbetween an individual and other heterogeneous actor
(human, nonhuman, natural). It is thus seen as a “reexive result of a corporeal,
collective, and orchestrated practice regulated by methods that, in their turn, are
endlessly discussed” (Gomart & Hennion, 1999, as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 150).
Nevertheless, attachment concerns not only these relations, related aectivities
or utility, but also applies to the eects of the collective formation of “taste at the
moment when the aesthetic judgements supporting the practice formed” (Gherardi,
2019, p. 151). Taste-based activities cannot be reduced merely to an emotional
impression, a passive sensation (Gherardi, 2019; Strati, 2007). Rather, taste is seen
as a collective acting in taste-making within an ongoing process through which the
knowing of how to judge or appraise particular forms of acting in practice emerges
(Gherardi, 2009, 2019). is shis the focus (Gherardi, 2009, p. 540) “from the
relationship with the object of practice to the formation of an aesthetic judgement”.
To exemplify, as illustrated in this thesis on the bases of my own knowing,
practicing yoga and gaining pleasure from visiting soothing yoga studios are forms
of attachment and taste that are socially supported by the yoga practitioners. e
eects of soothing aectivities form particular criteria of taste accomplished through
the rening of practices (see also Mora et al., 2018). ese forms are reinforced in
the community practices and evolved vocabularies, particularly the “criteria of taste
to communicate, share and rene the ways in which such practices are enacted”
(Gherardi, 2019, p. 151). By employing this kind of approach, the research focus
is on the theoretical and empirical investigations on how practitioners practice
their passions in practical encounters, and how this aects the aesthetic taste-based
judgement in the formation of the object of practice (Gherardi, 2009). Further, the
idea behind noticing how practices are sustained through attachment is related to
innovating, guiding the focus on the renement of practice, in other words, how it
is through acting that the way of doing is invented by the practitioners (Pareyson,
1954, as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 151).
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
e concept of sociomateriality also enables discussions on “corporeal ethics”,
illuminating ethics based on embodied experience (Diprose, 2002, as cited in
Gherardi, 2017a, p. 10; Pullen & Rhodes, 2014). Here, instead of seeing ethics as
a number of values instructing ethical conduct, sociomaterial practices embrase
ethics as “a pre-reective embodied interaction arising from openness and generosity
towards the other as a form of hospitality in which the other is welcome in her/
his dierence” (Gherardi, 2017a, p. 10). is kind of thinking opens pathways to
examining how ethics is done in tourism sociomaterial encounters, in other words,
how the ideas around ‘corporeal ethics’ guide the acting of tourists’ in practical
situations and, moreover, how these might be regarded as a form of ethical luxury
synchronised and accomplished together with various sociomaterialities (see also
Gherardi, 2019). Although I am drawn towards ethical considerations, these are not
in the focus of this study, though being notied as entangled with aesthetics. e
discussions would have been too broad for the scope of this thesis and should thus
be examined in future studies.
erefore, seeing luxury through the concept of situated activity denotes focusing
on a sociological analysis of luxury in tourist practices “as modes of action” (Gherardi,
2019, p. 28). It should be investigated how situated practicing and arising knowledge
might entail aesthetic-embodied capacity for luxury to emerge (Gherardi, 2006, as
cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 9; Nicolini, 2013). inking in this way, it is not enough
to illustrate how a particular performance of individuals occurring in the physical
context might be rational-cognitively understood as luxury (see Nicolini, 2013).
Rather, it also demands a more nuanced in situ exploration of determining how
individuals know through their bodies within the agencements of sociomaterial
relationships. It necessitates an empirical exploration within the phenomenon to
determine what makes particular things matter in sense making, how and by which
mechanism the practices are connecting, what sustains the relations, and how the
common orientation to accomplish the object of practice is achieved (Gherardi,
2019; see Nicolini, 2013). is allows us to unveil the social rather than the
individualistic nature of practices and emphasises the “ne-graded details of their
doings and the eects of practicing” (Gherardi, 2019, p. 56). All forms of actors
and interacting that matter in the accomplishment of practice are considered while
investigating the knowing and sense making of various phenomena through practice
epistemology (Gherardi, 2019). Finally, sociomaterial practices arise from the
surrounding society, and vice versa, practices alike constitute the social that cannot
be separated from the heterogeneous forms of materialities (Gherardi, 2017a).
I now proceed to a theoretical exploration of how the embodied knowing of
luxury might emerge in accomplishing the practices. Initially, I start by clarifying
the concept of embodied knowing in this thesis.
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2.2 Exploring embodiment
In this subchapter I will open my theoretical approach. e formed approach could
be called an exploratory puzzle by its usage of resources oered by multidisciplinary
research (see Gherardi, 2019). e guiding principle in forming my theoretical
approach has been to follow the things that I sensed to matter in exploring my
knowing of luxury in the situated sociomaterial practices (see Gherardi, 2019).
e theoretical approach, methodology and empirical analysis of practices evolved
simultaneously. I was engaging within the practices “as an embodied being and as a
knowledgeable body” and attuned my body and senses to “surrender and catch” to
be able to theorise my knowing (see Gherardi, 2019, p. 331). I explored the arising
sensations within my body, various actors and the eect of practices to truly know
how luxury was forming. is “artistic” approach leans on an exploration within
everyday practices of a yoga retreat holiday that act on their “own operational rules”
(see Gherardi, 2019, p. 330–331). ings that matter guide the forming of my
theoretical approach in an explorational manner in which the researcher is allowed
to be “as creative as the researcher dares to be” Gherardi, 2019, p. 330–331).
Although the theoretical approach of this study is inspired by multidisciplinarity,
its foundation lies in organisational studies, embodied knowing on sociomaterial
practice theory and literature on practice-based knowing (Gherardi, 2017b, 2019;
Gärtner, 2013; Katila, Kuismin et al., 2019; Strati, 2007; Valtonen et al., 2017).
Noticeably, in organisational studies there is already a tradition and a revived
attention of searching knowledge with non-representational approaches which
aligns the tendency among cultural geographers and aect researchers (Vannini,
2015, as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 332). Practice-based studies (PBS) have received
criticism for being too descriptive (Gherardi, 2019), yet, non-representational or
more-than-representational approaches give room for making the researcher and
his/her situated reexivity visible which, in turn, allows to unfold the creative
practices and imaginative abilities of a human (Lorino, Tricard & Clot, 2011, as
cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 332). Simultaneously, PBS wish to demonstrate how the
non-presentational text is formed in researcher’s practices. In this way, PBS aim to
escape conceptual dualism inbetween representational and non-representational
(Gherardi, 2019). Upon returning to the beginning of my research process, it should
be noted that I was the most inspired when having discovered Gherardi’s concept
of embodied knowing, but gradually, during the progress of my research, I found
it challenging to describe my knowing of luxury solely in terms of practice-based
illustrations or observing practices ‘from outside’ (see Gherardi, 2019).
Not-knowing how to proceed was a challenging time in my research. It drove
me to study embodied knowing with non-representational practices (see e.g. Ingold,
2010), philosophy (Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002) and non-representational
theories (Simpson, 2021; ri, 2008). Non-representational theory, or better, non-
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representational theories (Simpson, 2021) are a collection of ideas rst introduced
by geographer Nigel ri and today followed by researchers through diverse
disciplines such as cultural/human geographers, phenomenologist, post-qualitative-
researchers, post-structuralists, pragmatists, feminists, aect researchers (Gherardi,
2019), as well as tourism scholars (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Haanpää et al., 2022; Jensen
et al., 2015).
Signicantly, non-representational practices seemed to illustrate knowing very
much in a similar manner as I knew them within my own body. eir illustrations
encouraged me to write and materialise the inconspicuous, intimate practices arising
in my biological body, and take my embodied knowing academically seriously.
is is for instance demonstrated in providing practical examples of the aect of
breathing and metabolism that resonated with my knowing of luxury (see e.g. Colls,
2012; Macnaughton, 2020). Aside, I explored tourism studies that also aorded
resources to study embodied practices (e.g. Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). Hence, the
multidiciplinary approach of this thesis facilitates a more intimate and nuanced
manner of writing the embodied knowing of luxury in tourism practices as I knew it.
Indeed, Gärtner (2013, p. 338) states that “practice-based notions of embodiment
provide a promising platform for integrating insights from other views”. Combining
various approaches supports the unfolding of the pre-reexive capacities of a knowing
body (Gärtner, 2013). Gherardi (2019, p. 129–130) echoes that embodiment
entails “multiplicity of experience of embodied knowing”. Additionally, in my
multidisciplinary approach I also form relations with luxury literature (e.g. Bauer et al.,
2011; Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2022; Hemetsberger et al., 2012; Kauppinen-
Räisänen et al., 2019; Kreuzer et al., 2020; Mora et al., 2018; Sudbury-Riley et al.,
2020; Zanette et al., 2022), although it is challenging since the knowing emerging in
the body is not so much recognized in luxury research yet (see Eskola et al., 2022).
In the next subchapter my explorations of embodied knowing and the body
is initiated with a discussion on practice-based studies, gradually joined by
multidisciplinary studies. I then continue to a discussion on aects and rhythms
in practices in further detail. Sociomaterial practice-based studies see that aects
and rhythms entangle within practice and thus subchapters 2.2.1– 2.2.4 are partly
overlapping.
2.2.1 Embodied knowing
In sociomaterial practice-based studies the body and embodied knowing are seen
as inborn in practices. “All knowing is embodied knowing” and we know the
world as our bodies entangle within the sociomaterial practices (Gherardi, 2017a,
2019, p. 99; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). Practice-based
studies assume a relational epistemology within which the body and embodied
knowing are continuously emerging as performative accomplishment together with
heterogeneous actors (Gherardi, 2017a).
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Embodied knowing emphasises diversied forms of non-individual and non-
dualistic knowing that emerges in and through the body in practices (Gherardi,
2009a; Gherardi et al., 2013; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Nicolini et al., 2003;
Valtonen et al., 2017). Embodied knowing unfolds how the body acts in intimate
relationship with the sensory faculties. Sensory faculties refer to all kinds of sensible,
embodied knowledge involving “what is ‘got’ emotionally, the aectivity connected
with what is perceived, taste-based judgment, the style of action” (Strati, 2007,
p. 64). Each sensation is aective; it is a dialectical relation within a practice and
works in close relations with the emotions (Strati, 2007; see Gherardi, 2019). e
illustrations of embodied knowing have shown how knowing unfolds within varied
sociomaterial practices as pre-reexive, pre-discursive, pre-social and inconspicuous
forms of knowing beyond mere rational-cognitive or intentional forming (e.g.
Gärtner, 2013; Gherardi, 2000; Gherardi, 2009a; Miettinen et al., 2009; Reckwitz,
2002; Simpson, 2021; Strati, 2007; ri, 2008; see Yakhlef, 2010). In other words,
embodied, aesthetic knowledge is forming in sociomaterial practices within which
the collective knowing becomes personal (Gherardi, 2019). In interacting with
various spaces and actors “people use their bodies to relate to the practice” that
further aects the knowledgeability of a body (Gherardi, 2019, p. 57). us, we rely
on embodied knowing in accomplishing the practises (Gherardi, 2017a).
e ongoing turn to aect has set questions concerning what may be considered
as a body and how embodied knowing is forming in sociomaterial practices
(Gherardi, 2017b, 2017c; Gherardi et al., 2019). In practice-based studies it has
been illustrated how aect theory essentially contributes to understanding the
relationships inbetween the body, embodiment and embodied knowing (Gherardi
et al., 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). erewith, the body has been dened “as
a site of sensible-aesthetic knowing and resonant materiality that is able to aect
and be aected by multiple human and nonhuman bodies coming together” in
practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019, p. 9). It is shown how the body is entangled
within aecto-rhythmic practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). Further, the body
is conceptualised as a “processual construct” which allows to think the body as
uid, porous and liquid suggesting that bodies are unbounded, thus in a constant
state of becoming (Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 521). is enables to notice not only
how the inter-corporeal practices aect in practicing but also the eect of “within-
corporeality” ( Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 530; see Massumi, 2002). e knowledgeable
body is seen to engage in situated sociomaterial practices with various forms of
bodily existences and sensorial states (Valtonen et al., 2017).
Inspired and aligning the recent understandings of the body in sociomaterial
practice-based studies, in this dissertation the body is understood as ‘an agencement
of embodied knowing and resonant materiality that is able to aect and be aected
by heterogeneous actors coming together in tourist practices’ (see Katila, Kuismin,
et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). Importantly, this thesis sees that embodied
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practicing is aected by the body’s “constant need to keep itself in harmony” and
orientation to sustain the harmony in the body (Yakhlef, 2010, p. 421).
I hereby continue to open the above denition of a relational body and explain
embodied knowing more closely. e concept of agencement highlights the
unforeseen entanglements of a body within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices
and sees that the body is in constant state of becoming (Gherardi, 2017a, 2018;
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019, p. 9; Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 530; see Kuuru, 2022).
e body as a resonant materiality unfolds the entangling relationship inbetween
the body, aects and rhythms in practices (Gherardi, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). It emphasises the aecto-rhythmic attuning of a body
and knowing within sociomaterial practices inbetween corporeal bodies and within
corporeal body and as accomplished together with heterogenious sociomaterial
actors (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). Hence, “bodies are
therefore the eects” (Gherardi et al., 2019, p. 310) of entangling aecto-rhythmic
sociomaterial practices (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
I will elaborate the concept of aect and rhythms more closely in chapters
2.2.2–2.2.4 though, at this point, it is necessary to briey open the nature of aects
and rhythms entangled within situated practices applied in this thesis. Embodied
knowing within sociomaterial practices inherently involves knowing through
diverse rhythms and aects (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). Within a practice there
exists several rhythms that aect practitioners and their practices (Valtonen et al.,
2017). For instance, while tourists are overnighting in a hotel, their stay is paced by
check-in time, evening/morning sauna/spa time, breakfast serving and check-out
time. e hotel practices follow clock time, linear rhythms that tourists are expected
to follow (see Lefebvre, 2004). In many tourism practices there exists dominating
rhythmic sequencing in which tourists need to synchronise their own sociomaterial
practices (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). In addition, there exists cyclical rhyhms
that aect practices. Cyclical rhythms such as the circadian rhythm originate
from cosmos (Lefebvre, 2004). e shiing hours of light and darkness aect our
biological body that shis inbetween being awake and sleeping. Likewise, tides
are aected by the movement of moon and earth. Similarly, the body recognises
rhythms not only through the rational-cognitive mind, but also unconsciously, as
an embodied, pre-reexive act through diverse “sensorial cues” (Katila, Kuismin, et
al., 2019, p. 5). Studying practices in reecting the entangling cyclical and linear
rhythms is essential, since these are in ongoing interaction, mutually aected and
aecting within practices (Lefebvre, 2004). Rhythmic practices entail a capacity to
aect those engaged within (Gherardi, 2017b; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
In this thesis aect is understood through its eect emerging in practices (Gherardi,
2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). e Deleuzian tradition sees aect through its
eect to increase or decrease the bodily capacity to act and attune (Katila, Kuismin,
et al., 2019; Massumi, 2002). Aect is sensed as bodily arousal and transformation
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in bodily state before we actually perceive it as emotion (Massumi, 2002; ri,
2008). In the introductory chapter, I recollected how the vibes of excitement and
corporeal arousals went up and down in my body. Aect, the moving sensation,
embodied force set my body in motion (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). Aects
circulate in sociomaterial practices and in various tourism spaces/places.
erewith, aiming to comprehensively understand knowing emerging in the
tourist’s inventive practices, this thesis sees embodied knowing as entanglement of
aectivities, emotions and feelings of a lived and living body (see Gherardi, 2019).
e “living body is sensing itself in the world and sensing the world in itself”
(Gherardi, 2019, p. 128). Embodied knowing concerns not only inter-corporeal
practices, but “intimate, personal and corporeal” knowing (Strati, 2007, p. 62;
Yakhlef, 2010) and knowing emerging “within the body” (original Italics) as well
(Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 521; see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
Knowing oen takes place while knowledgeable touristic bodies are engaging
within tourism practices in dierent sensory states (Valtonen et al., 2017). Touristic
bodies are not always alert and awake but engage in tourism practices also when
being half-awake, half-asleep and sleeping bodies (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018; see
Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). It is rather common that travelling entails early mornings,
late nights or night time ying to the (long-haul) destination. e internal circadian
body rhythm clashes with the rhythms of the travel schedules and this arrhythmia,
asynchronisation (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; see Lefebvre, 2004) aects tourist
practices. For a jet-lagged body it might take several days to recover from ying over
time zones and to become temporally synchronised with the local linear time and
tourism practices. is means that tourists engage in practices not necessarily when
being fully awake but oen in a half-awake state (see Valtonen et al., 2017). For
instance, at the pool area of hotels, it is common to see many (jet-lagged or tired)
touristic bodies lying on sunbeds. One could say that the bodies are ‘doing nothing’.
Still, when for a while carefully scrutinising the acting of these bodies, we may see
how touristic knowing of being-in-the-world unfolds as bodies are simultaneously
engaging in dierent realities when moving back and forth inbetween various
sensorial states of being (fully) awake, half-asleep and (deeply) asleep (Valtonen et
al., 2017, p. 520). e tourists’ bodies are acting and knowledgeable although the
knowing emerges as they are engaging in dierent “existential and corporeal realities”
(Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 522). Many of us probably also know the embodied feeling
aer spending many hours on a sunbed while oating inbetween various sensory
states, how we might not be able to distinguish between what is ‘real’ and what is not.
e dierent existential and corporeal reality of the intimate world of dreams might
even aord longer eects in the tourist’s practices in wakefulness as the aroused
aectivities of dreams remain in the body (Valtonen et al., 2017). It is possible
to be simultaneously physically present with the eyes open, but still, at the same
time, being sensorially released from the surrounding sociomaterial environment;
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knowing of the world may take place when being partially engaged (Valtonen et al.,
2017). us, touristic knowing takes place not only in engaging within the practices
in dierent sensory states, but also as sensory release and aective entanglement in
the world of dreams that aect tourist practices (Valtonen et al., 2017).
Bodies might temporally be engaged with dreams, but dreams also tend to dwell
in our body-memory for a longer time, in a similar manner like any other practices
we encounter in our life (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). Our past situated practices
remain in our bodies and aect other situated practices –current and future practices
(Gherardi, 2019; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). e tropical, humid warmness that
caresses our bodies in ailand, for instance, stays in our body-memory and may lead
us to book a yearly visit in the same premises. e “embodiment of temperatures is
perhaps one of the most enduring and interceptive sensuous dimensions in tourism”
which indeed aects our practices (Jensen et al., 2015, pp. 74, 64). Mora et al.
(2018) also note how the multisensory experience of luxury is essentially founded
on the expected spatial thermal environment.
e discussion above demonstrates how the bodies are not the same at all times
and knowing-in-practices emerges as multi-sited. When engaging a dierent mode
of knowing, the dominant view of how tourist know only while being engaged in the
waking state is thus challenged. Bodies may simultaneously be engaging in dierent
“existential realities”, sensory states and body-memories that aect their knowing
(Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 531) which is common in tourist practices. Still, embodied
knowing is uncertain in its nature and its emergence is beyond control (Valtonen
et al., 2017). At the same, appreciating embodied knowing emerging as the body
engages within dierent realities, brings forth the vulnerability and sensitivity of a
human body that would demand further investigations (Valtonen et al., 2017).
Hence, in addition to inter-corporeality, the emerging knowing ‘within
corporeality’ (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017) may be regarded as
an inherent form of tourists’ embodied knowing that enriches the aecto-rhythmic
explorations of luxury in tourism practices. In fact, within the premises of luxury
literature Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016a) suggest that dreams may oer an
alternative path to the knowing of luxury and encourage to research the relationship
inbetween dreams and luxury. ey highlight the aect of dreams in knowing
luxury, and claim that luxury is not necessary expensive. Rather, it is more of the
imagination and “sense of spirituality” that are attached to the knowing of luxury as
“incredible experiences” (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016a, p. 121).
Heterogeneous actors signify in this thesis diverse human and nonhuman bodies,
sociomaterialities, the organic and non-organic that are engaging in practices.
Following the vocabulary of non-representational theories (Simpson, 2021; ri,
2008) (henceforth NRTs), and for the sake of simplicity, I choose here to use the term
‘actor’. A number of materialities aect embodied knowing in practicing (Gherardi,
2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Reckwitz, 2012). Accordingly, materialities may
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range all the way from humans, nonhumans, human-made, technical and natural
materiality. ‘ings’ like various objects, sensations, aectivities, emotions, ideas,
rules, norms, nature, social networks, crowds, discourses, and even intestines may be
understood as relevant actors in practices (see e.g. Simpson, 2021). Actors and their
orderings cannot be predicted beforehand as they are only unveiled in the process
of real-time interacting and knowing taking place within agencements (Gherardi,
2019). NRTs describe beautifully the aim of attending the “onow” of mundane
life, “on how life takes shape and gains expression in shared experiences, everyday
routines, eeting encounters, embodied movements, precognitive triggers, practical
skills, aective intensities, enduring urges, unexceptional interactions and sensuous
dispositions … which escape from the established academic habit of striving to
uncover meanings and values that apparently await our discovery, interpretation,
judgment and ultimate representation” (Lorimer, 2005, p. 84, as cited in Simpson,
p. xiv; see also Gherardi 2019).
Hence, various materialities do “not play a merely background role” but rather
“participate actively in the stories, carry history, embody social relationships,
distribute power, and provide points of resistance” (Nicolini et al., 2003, p. 22).
Practices co-evolve with heterogeneous actors (Simpson, 2021, p. xix; ri, 2008).
For instance, tourism studies exemplify how embodied knowing emerges within
smooth practices that evolve along the ongoing situated practicing with water
and other multiple materialities within body-water-boat agencement (Rhoden
& Kaaristo, 2020). Water, as any other heterogeneous actors, is part of eclectic
networks, agencements and their aect depends on the nature of practices. Further,
in this thesis the biological body and many other actors such as nature are seen to
materialise through the arising aectivities (Gherardi, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019; Reckwitz, 2012). is approach allows for exploring the ‘within corporeality’,
biological body as an inherent actor in practices that entails force to order the
practices. As I have demonstrated earlier, the eect of the circadian rhythm on
knowing (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017) as well as the eect
of digestion (e.g. Nichter, 2008) or neural activity or hormones (Gärtner, 2013;
Massumi, 2002) they all aect our process of knowing.
Incidentally, Gärtner’s (2013) study oers a detailed illustration of the ‘within
corporeal’ knowing that he calls ‘physiological embodiment’. is thesis sees that
the concept of ‘within-corporeal body’ (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et
al., 2017) or ‘inner body’ enclose Gärtner’s nuanced understandings presented here.
e ‘physiological embodiment’ suggests mental, rational knowing to be entangled
with the physiological, biological body and its neural system (Gärtner, 2013). e
nervous system is understood to aect sociomaterial practices. e (neuro)biological
body aords knowing through two domains: initially the body is understood as
a biochemical systems and second, aected by the neural system within a body
(Gärtner, 2013). e rst one ‘the biochemical systems’ draws attention to the knowing
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emerging through the biochemical processes within the body, thus drawing attention
to these aect practices. Here physical reactions such as heart rate, hormone levels,
blood pressure or immune system are related to stress level, “bodily well-being and
resilience” (Gärtner, 2013, p. 340). e second domain ‘the body’s neural systems’, in
turn, draws attention to how knowing is aected by neural activity. For the purposes
of this thesis, this domain allows for seeing how knowing emerges through various
kinds of practices that aect neural activity such as “decision-making… preferences…
gut feelings, intuition, reciprocity [harmony, peace], trust”, to name a few (Gärtner,
2013, p. 341). However, Gärtner (2013) argues that the limitation of physiological
embodiment is that it mixes dierent explanatory categories.
Another researcher, Massumi (2002), also takes notice of neural knowing within
the body and autonomy of aect. He observes how there is a “neuronal network in
the gut” which pertains to the “enteric nervous system” (original Italics), and which
functioning has conscious eects (Massumi, 2002, p. 265). e enteric nervous
system transmits information to the brain, that arises as proprioceptive knowing
in the body and aects our mood through hormonal release (Massumi, 2002; see
Nichter, 2008). According to Massumi (2002, p. 266) the “enteric nervous system
provides one of the physiological bases for the autonomy of aect” and illustrates
one form of embodied knowing. To exemplify, making decisions is sometimes
challenging if we are hungry, thus relating Massumi’s notions to Gärner’s statements
discussed above.
NRTs continue in saying that conscious perceptions aord only a limited view
on the perceptive capacities of a body (Simpson, 2021). is notion arises from
ri’s captivation of neuroscience and its testimonials of the “half-second delay
between a body’s action and the ability to account for that action showed that there
was a whole lot going on in our bodies that we might not immediately be aware of
or consciously in charge of ” (ri 1996, as cited in Simpson, 2021; see Massumi).
e “rolling mass of nerve volleys prepare the body for action in such a way that
intentions or decisions are made before the conscious self is even aware of them”
(ri, 2008, p. 7). Aligning, ri (2008, p. 4) proposes to value the pre-cognitive
as more than a mere supplement to the cognitive.
Furthermore, Massumi’s and Gärtner’s (2013) illustrations may be related to
Colls’s (2012) notions of how the neural basis of inner body forces [aects] in fact
constitute us as subjects. Colls (2012, p. 439) echoes Massumi in claiming that these
forces “operate at a range of scales and intensities”. Aects pass through and inhabit
bodies (metabolism, circulation, ovulation, ejaculation); they are intangible and
unknowable and yet, they are sometimes felt by the body and travel between bodies
(fear, hope, love, wonder, hate, condence). Further aective forces are related to
a wider level of practices as aects “are produced by and active in the constitution
of wider social, economic and political processes and structures” (Colls, 2012, p.
439).
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Physiological embodiment may also be illustrated for instance through the yoga
practice. at is, as yoga has been noted to aect the “autonomic nervous system
[that] functions over all visceral systems of the body” (Udupa & Sathyaprabha 2018,
p. 67). Yoga practice has also been related to a “decrease in cortisol levels” as well as
to “increase neurotrophic factors, and changes in neurotrasmitters, such as increases
in serotonin” (Domingues, 2018, p. 249). is way, practicing yoga has been noticed
to be a “perfect antidote for the stress” that lowers the physiological eects of stress
and balances the body towards homeostasis and that way enhances health (Udupa
& Sathyaprabha, 2018, p. 67; see Kuuru, 2022). In fact, Mora et al. (2018, p. 190)
note how in contemporary societies the “yogic body-centric practices” aord “new
meanings of luxury, health, well-being [and aspirational class values]” (see also
Speier, 2020; Eskola et al., 2022). Still, neural activities and physical arousals are
not solely able to adequately clarify embodied experiences like sense making or
emotional states (Gärtner, 2013). Importantly, ‘yogic body-centric practices’ do not
emerge only through the “medical benets of asana” in yoga practice but also in yoga
studios’ various practices (Mora et al., 2018, p. 196). e multisensory interactions
emanate “healing” and enhance “health and wellbeing both physically & mentally”
and spiritually (Mora et al., 2018, p. 180).
e body is attached to harmony, in other words, practices that balance the
body, mind and energy levels (see Mora et al., 2018; Yakhlef, 2010). In addition to
yoga practice (Mora et al., 2018) harmonising practices are noted to emerge when
tourists’ have the possibility to for instance live in the rhythm of nature (Rantala
& Valtonen, 2014). However, in the everyday practices of contemporary humans
it is common that our circadian, “biological rhythms of sleep, hunger and thirst,
excretion [metabolism] and so on are more and more conditioned by the social
environment” (Lefebvre, 2004, viii). ese notions make the growing popularity
of yoga and well-being holidays understandable (Speier, 2020), and tourists’ search
for practices that aord harmony in the bodymind (Mora et al., 2018). Focusing
on exploring the nature of practices allows for seeing how it is the eect of aects
and rhythms that order aesthetic judgements within sociomaterial practices (Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019). Natural pace and soothing resonation in touristic practices
(Rantala & Valtonen, 2014) orientate towards the ‘appropriate’ aective attunement
that allows for luxury to emerge. Hence, in this study it is particularly important to
illustrate how aesthetic judgements are made, and how the soothing ow of practices
is emerging. e thesis complements the noticed lack of theoretical and empirical
explorations of the entangled relationship inbetween aects and rhythms within the
ow of sociomaterial practices. In the earlier aecto-rhythmic study, the focus was
on sensing the ‘upbeat feeling’ emerging within the agencement of various actors,
bodies and materialities (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019, p. 10).
However, not all bodies carry a similar capacity for knowledgeable acting
(Strati, 2007). It is a complex relationship that relates to the dierent capacities of
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a human body. Bodies are not the same; they possess dierent potential for acting,
moving, sensing and practicing (Strati, 2007; see Saldanha, 2002). e particular
appreciation of material environment, distinction and taste, order the formation
of embodied knowing (see Gherardi, 2019). at is, the touristic bodies have to
know how to engage in these diversied entangled sociomaterial interactions
which necessitate some level of familiarity with sounds and emotional engagement
(Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Waitt & Duy, 2010). Capacities to know may also
be learned (at least to some extent) over time, like learning the skill of how to taste
wine, practice salsa dancing (Holmqvist et al., 2020) or yoga, or, as demonstrated by
Zanette et al. (2022), knowing how to re-arrange dressing practices with ugly luxury
wear. ough, it is also a question about how willing the touristic bodies are to let
their bodies be aected by the practices. Yet, sustaining capacities to know and act
necessitates constant engaging in practices as they are continuously (re)negotiated
and rened within epistemic communities of practitioners (Gherardi, 2009b).
At this point, I will proceed to opening the etymology of the word aesthetic as
seen in practice-based studies and exploring its relation within luxury literature.
is is important as this thesis extends the dominant understanding of the concept
of aesthetics in luxury literature into relating aesthetics to embodied knowing
and not only to visual perceptions. Aer all, aesthetics is one of the core features
of luxury (Kapferer & Bastien, 2009). It is common in Western cultures as well as
in luxury literature to associate aesthetics with external beauty judged by cognitive
perceptions. is understanding is rooted in the Aristotelian view of the ve external
senses. However, Strati (2007) in demonstrating the relation between all the senses
and sensible knowledge, draws on Baumgarten’s and Vico’s aesthetic philosophy as
discussed in Chapter 2.1. Strati notes how the concept of sensible knowledge origins
from the Greek word aesthesis that, according to Reckwitz (2012, p. 250), is also
linked to the “routine ways in which things are [both] bodily and mentally sensed
and perceived and to the pleasant or unpleasant ways in which these sensations and
perceptions aect the respective bodies and minds”.
In some experiential and unconventional luxury studies, the consumer narratives
may be found to align with notions corresponding with the above understanding
of aesthetics, how the sensations of luxury are also arisen through the knowing
body (e.g. Hemetsberger et al., 2012; Holmqvist et al., 2020; Zanette et al., 2022).
However, these notions are not much further elaborated in those studies. I will open
the concept of aesthetics more closely in chapters 2.2.2–2.2.4 in which I discuss
embodied knowing as related to the concepts of aect and rhythms. However,
divergently from the dominant Aristotelian understanding of aesthetics in luxury
literature, Berthon et al. (2009, p. 51) align the Baumgartenian and Kantian origins
of aesthetics that, in turn, correspond with the approach presented by Strati’s
(2007). Berthon et al. (2009) discuss “aesthetic judgments” and relate the evaluation
of luxury to “taste” and “aesthetic intelligence” (Berthon et al., 2009, p. 51; see
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Zanette et al., 2022). Furthermore, they notify how the “social becomes embodied
within members of a certain group” through “bodily knowledge” (though as related
to acquiring status through possessing and consuming luxury products) (Berthon
et al., 2009, p. 56; see Zanette et al., 2022). Referring to Heidegger, Berthon et al.
(2009, p. 51) suggest that luxury is a “process” in which the “aesthetic renement”
and expertise of the one experiencing becomes principal (see Zanette et al., 2022).
Accordingly, I draw attention to the ne connecting line in the understanding
of aesthetic knowledge inbetween practice-based studies and luxury literature.
Signifying, aesthetics is understood beyond the cognitive perceptions and external
beauty and the knowing is recognized as arising through the body as “aesthetic
intelligence” (Berthon et al., 2009, p. 51). Still, although some practice-theoretical
luxury studies see that “practice theories focus on understanding consumers through
embodied senses” (Zanette et al., 2022, p. 785) and aesthetics (Ahmed et al., 2022;
Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2019; Zanette et al., 2022), surprisingly few studies have
taken account of the embodied knowing in practices. Hence, aesthetic forms of
practicing are still much seen as cognitive perceptions. As expressed by Zanette et al.
(2022, p. 791): “new aesthetic meanings” are much created as mental perceptions of
brands, products and fashion consumption (see Ahmed et al., 2022; Joy et al., 2012).
Hence, the above discussions reveal the challenges in exploring embodied knowing
with practice-theoretical luxury studies. With the exception of some studies (Eskola
et al, 2022), in luxury literature knowledge is constructed on a rational-cognitive
world view that does not yet recognise the knowledgeable body as an inherent actor
and thus disregards inborn embodied knowing in practices. However, as stated
before, not being recognised does not imply that the knowing body would be absent
in luxury studies. Finally, with a dierent kind of reading and analysis, the embodied
knowing that organises luxury practices would be unveiled; they have not just yet
been noticed in luxury studies.
As the discussions in this subchapter have suggested, contemporary studies
contributing to the embodied knowing of practices aord multifold wordings and
understandings (Gärtner, 2013; Gherardi, 2009b, 2017, 2019; Gherardi et al.,
2013; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Nicolini et al., 2003; Simpson, 2021; Strati,
2007; Valtonen et al., 2017; Yakhlef, 2010). Currently, it can be observed that
academics use the words aesthetic, sensible, corporeal, embodied and aect(ivity)
in a variety of ways in their notions of knowing aorded by the human body. e
vocabulary has evolved in synchrony with ongoing discussions on how knowledge
is forming, depending on the perspective, empirical material and with widening
understandings of what a human body constitutes of. However, regardless of the
diversity in wording, it is highlighted that all forms of knowledge that emerge
through practical knowing – including sensible, embodied knowledge – is a
“form of competent reasoning and doing” (Corradi et al. 2010, p. 267; Gherardi,
2019; Strati, 2007). In this dissertation I choose to use the notion of ‘embodied
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knowing’, seeing that it entails all forms of aesthetic practicing, though also referred
to as ‘aective knowing’ or simply ‘knowing’. ese terms enclose diverse forms of
sensualities and aectivities emerging within practices. e body or ‘inner body’ in
this thesis denote the corporeal body as explicated in this chapter.
In the following chapters 2.2.2–2.2.4, I will explore the nature of aects and
rhythms. I will investigate how these may facilitate attuning to the appropriate ow
of practices and thus enabling the capacity for luxury to emerge (see Katila, Kuismin,
et al., 2019). I allow the exploration process to be open for multidisciplinary
discoveries to enable demonstrating the particular harmonising eect of luxury as
I know it.
2.2.2 Aect
ere is no sensory activity that would be indierent as “every sensation is aective”
(Strati, 2007, p. 64). Recognising the emerging ephemeral aectivities is important
in diverse sociomaterial practices; as in practices “all agency unfolds with a certain
degree of aect and almost all social practices aect their participants in various
degrees” (Gherardi, 2017b, 2017c; see Reckwitz, 2012; Strati, 2007).
Notably, there is no established denition of aect (e.g. Ahmed, 2004; Gherardi,
2017a, 2019; Simpson, 2021; ri, 2008), although aect is commonly related
to feelings, emotions, aesthetics and sensations that act through dierent senses
and arouse bodily arousals (e.g. d’Hauteserre, 2015; Reckwitz, 2012; Strati,
2007). Along my research process, I turned to aect as a bodily arousal (Gherardi,
2017b; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Massumi, 2002), since the term appropriately
illustrates the embodied knowing of luxury that I sensed deep inside my corporeal
body. To specify, in this thesis aect is understood as a broad concept that entails
also access to emotions and feelings (Gherardi, 2019; Reckwitz, 2012; Strati, 2007).
I observe that all embodied sensations are entangled together in knowing and thus
separating them from each other seems challenging, although, in this thesis, the
focus is more on aect as bodily arousal. I will explicate the selected approach briey.
Even if the focality of aectivities is recognised in luxury literature (Chandon et al.,
2017; Chandon et al., 2016, 2019; de Kerviler & Rodriguez, 2019), reecting the
emerging aectivities through luxury literature is challenging as its knowledge builds
on a psychological world view which does not yet recognise aectivities, bodily
arousals and how they (dis)able capacities in acting. Aects and aective practices
are dicult to express discursively; they exist in practise but are challenging to be
explained (d’Hauteserre, 2015).
Aect research has expanded fast and into diverse directions (Gherardi, 2017b).
It draws on ndings from a wide range of elds, including sociology, geography,
anthropology, gender and management studies which expand the knowing of human
experience beyond the limitations of language and text (d’Hauteserre, 2015). Today
the knowing arising through aect(ivities) is becoming increasingly highlighted
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also in sociological tourism research (e.g. Cohen & Cohen, 2019; Everingham et
al., 2021). Aect is seen as a complementary way of knowing through the body to
the dominant psychological approach (e.g Buda et al., 2014; Carter, 2019; Chronis,
2015; d’Hauteserre, 2015; see also Jensen et al., 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017;
Saxena, 2018; Tucker & Shelton, 2018; Waitt & Duy, 2010). In practice-based
studies, aect is aligning a shi towards post-epistemology which emphasises
embodied knowing and sociomateriality (Gherardi, 2017a) that allow unfolding the
non-representational aects (ri, 2008; Simpson, 2021; Gherardi, 2019). In this
thesis, I reect aects through multidisciplinary studies to illuminate the emerging
aectivities of luxury within practices the way I know them.
is thesis follows the Spinozian-Deleuzian understanding which considers aect
“as a-subjective and anti-representationalist, operating across the boundary between
the organic and the nonorganic”, meaning across sociomaterialites (Gherardi,
2017a, p. 209). is approach is carried on in the works of Massumi (2002), yet
rarely referred to by tourism researchers. However, like mentioned above, in this
thesis aect is seen to be entangled with our internal and individual feelings and
emotions (Gherardi, 2019). In the following, I relate my discussions of aect to
some of its common characteristics that are shared within extensive aect studies
(Gherardi, 2017b).
Firstly, aect is a complex, multi-sided movement; bodily capacity to aect and
be aected meaning that aect moves as a two-way acting within situated ongoing
practices (e.g. Gherardi, 2017b; Massumi, 2002). e movement of the touristic
bodies is aected by place and the place is aected by the moving bodies (Saldanha,
2002). is exemplies the multi-sided nature of aect. Aect moves, ows across
sociomaterialities in a complex, unforeseen manner (Gherardi, 2019). Touristic
bodies are thus aected by unbounded tourism practices and bodies (re)produce
practices.
As Massumi’s (2002, p. 1) reects: What does a body do “to earn that name,
two things stand out. It moves. It feels. In fact, it does both at the same time. It
moves as it feels and it feels itself moving”. is notion is founded on the Spinozian
understanding of dening the body through its relations to movement and stillness
(Gherardi, 2019). e notion allows to unfold body’s capacities to aect and be
aected, and the diversied intensities the body entails capacity to feel (Gherardi,
2019). Aect aords a variation of felt bodily intensities (Gherardi, 2019; see
Reckwitz, 2012). Aect is a bodily and mentally ordinary, routine-like way of sensing,
reecting and acting in various practices (see Reckwitz, 2012). More importantly, the
relational denition of movement enables us to discover that feelings and emotions
do not solely belong to an individual body, but the knowing emerging through an
individual body is formed in relation to the knowing and movement within situated
practices (Gherardi, 2019). Regarding the relation of aect to the materiality of a
body, it is noted that aect is also embedded in the physical responses of a body to
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feelings and therewith pertaining to biology as earlier discussed in Chapter 2.2.1
(e.g. Probyn, 2005, as cited Gherardi, 2017b, p. 349).
Secondly, aect is an inconspicuous “ow of entangled forces” situated in practices
whose process is beyond orders as it is materialised through autonomic response
(Gherardi, 2017b, p. 348). Just as I am wondering in this thesis about the reasons for
attending the same yoga retreat holiday every year, I can conclude that the choice was
the result of the ow of entangled forces that I was not able to make sense of in the
beginning. Indeed, d’Hauteserre’s (2015) 20 years’ examination of aect as part of
destination attractivity notes that the non-representational practices inherently aect
tourists’ practices. is, however, is to some extent related to the desire arising in the
body (d’Hauteserre, 2015; see Yakhlef, 2010). Aect, a relational force, ows in social
spaces, bodies, materialities and practices shaping our knowing of the social world
and the spaces that touristic bodies move through (see also Carter, 2019). Emotions,
aect and other sensory elements illustrate dierent modes of bodily feelings which
unite in the body and order the knowing in touristic experiences (d’Hauteserre,
2015). Aect as a non-representational emotion cannot be manipulated to invite
or pass (d’Hauteserre, 2015). Signicantly, its manifestations are unseen as aect
is beyond conscious communication and ordering of external stimulus (Reckwitz,
2012). Still, aect circulates through various bodies, material things and technologies
in tourism place as an “aective energy” oating in the air (see d’Hauteserre, 2015;
Lobo, 2014, p. 101; Reckwitz, 2012). It aords our knowing of the social world and
orders the touristic bodies to move to/within tourism places. is aective energy
generates touristic feelings and desires which, in turn, transform into experiences
supporting the aims of the experience economy to arouse intensive experiences
through the senses (d’Hauteserre, 2015). It is the nuanced sensual emergence and
radiance of aect that makes the “qualitative dierence to the experience of a place
or space” (d’Hauteserre, 2015, p. 82). Furthermore, destinations dier through their
aective elds aorded for instance by particular lightscapes (Jóhannesson & Lund,
2017).
Even though aects are manifold, complex, partial and cannot be ordered (e.g.
d’Hauteserre, 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017), they cannot be disregarded as their
quality foresees the return visits (d’Hauteserre, 2015). All bodies aord aective
energies, although much unconsciously, and they are challenging to be rationally
explained as aective knowing arouses beyond the external senses, in the visceral
body (e.g. d’Hauteserre, 2015; see Gherardi, 2017b; Tucker & Shelton, 2018).
d’Hauteserre (2015) echoes feminist theorisations on aect and thus criticises
the dominant rational knowledge production in tourism research. Organisational
aesthetics is stated to have substantial contribution to the understanding of the
manifold human practices that surpasses cognitive approaches (de Souza Bispo,
2016) such as how weather aects the tourist’s practices and arouses aectivities
(Rantala et al., 2011). Finally, there is a need for a more nuanced, complementary
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investigation on touristic practices where aect is seen “as an important force”
to understand the construction of tourism encounters and social spaces/places
(d’Hauteserre, 2015, p. 79).
In aect discussions similar to post-epistemological reections, the focus is
shied from individuals towards assemblages/agencements. Within agencements
there emerges an ongoing entangling “ow of aects”, bodies aect and are aected
in their intra-actions with other bodies, materialities and things that matter
(Saxena, 2018, p. 101; see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). Understanding aect to
emerge within agencement is considered to bring a more nuanced interpretation of
knowing in practices across several senses. Indeed, “why should bodies end at the
skin?” (Deleuze, 1991, p. 178, as cited in Saxena, 2018, p. 102). As discussed earlier
in Chapter 2.2.1, the ongoing forces within our corporeal body that are aroused
through physiological embodiment (Gärtner, 2013), as well as our body’s autonomic
nervous system or hormonal releases (Massumi, 2002; see Nichter, 2008), entail a
powerful capacity to aect in practices, although being much beyond our control.
Imaginative touristic bodies (re)invent the things that matter for them in touristic
situated practices “through mutually negotiating the use of space” with other social,
material and natural actors (Saxena, 2018, p. 108). is is much beyond control of
the “system of place production” (Saxena, 2018, p. 101; Edensor, 2001). Rather, the
taste of particular tourism practice arise as the tourist makes aesthetic judgements in
various tourism encounters (see Saxena, 2018). e production of the appropriate
tourism practice is related to epistemic practices of the tourist’s own community,
culture, and aected by tourists’ needs and dreams (see Rantala, 2010).
ese above notions demonstrate that aect(ivities) evolve and process
simultaniously (Gherardi, 2017b; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018) within sociomaterial
practices and as entangled with the practices of heterogeneous actors. In these
agencements matters of concern or ideas vary all the way from mundane objects to
technologies and various forms of energies (see Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017). At the
same time, the example claries the relationality of various aects, disclosing things
that matter; that enable, constrain or somehow order the bodily capacity to act. at
is, it is aect that carries the capacities to act within situated ongoing sociomaterial
practices (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019) rather than entailing an agency which
would belong to the individual body (Anderson, 2016).
erefore, thirdly, aect is “an assemblage [agencement]of potentials” that is beyond
orders (Gherardi, 2017b, p. 348). e becoming of agencement enhances or lessens
the individual’s capacity to act and engage with the other practices (Gherardi,
2017b). Aective capacities denote “what a body may be able to do in any given
situation, in addition to what is currently is doing and has done” (Anderson, 2016,
p. 10). is, in turn, exemplies how the capacities evolve spatio-temporally, thus
aligning histories and memories to here and now in an unanticipated manner
(Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). e movement of aect is multi-sided in spatial
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and temporal terms (Gherardi, 2017b). e bodily capacity to be aected and
touched by social, material or natural tourism actors, is highlighted (Carter, 2019).
e common understanding and aectivities of collective bodies aord aective
quality to the social relationships (Ahmed, 2004; Carter, 2019). Bodies thus pursue
sensuous encounters with other bodies: “tourists seek to be touched, to be moved,
to be aected” (Carter, 2019). ese social encounters give places their particular
nature (ri, 2004) that may emerge as belonging, familiarity, disgust, or other
specic emotions.
Aect also sticks, “sustains the connection between ideas, values, and objects…”
in tourism places (Ahmed, 2010, p. 29 as cited in Carter 2019, p. 201). Objects,
materialities are aective by their nature. at is, aect adheres in materialities and
aords things through relating tourist to various materialities and to tourism place.
On the other hand, tourists relate to materialities and places that touch or move
them (Carter, 2019). Recognising the aective force of sociomaterialities enables
to understand how tourists engage, attach and make aesthetic judgement of the
appropriate nature of practices within sociomaterial practices of tourism as active
actors together with other tourists, locals, employees and diverse materialities (see
Carter, 2019; Chronis, 2015; d’Hauteserre, 2015; Little, 2013; Rantala, 2010;
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Ruggerone, 2017). Finally, it is important to note that all
social actors are accountable for aectivities and vibes produced in tourism practice
(d’Hauteserre, 2015; Edensor, 2000a).
rough appropriate aective encounters, bodies connect to each other and an
ephemeral feeling of unity may emerge among strangers within diverse practices
(d’Hauteserre, 2015). e importance of communal experience enabled by the
aective assemblage of sound is underlined (Waitt & Duy, 2010, p. 461). However,
activities taking place in various tourism sites arouse very dierent aectivities. To
exemplify, the soothing aectivities of nature holidays (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014)
aord quite dierent aectivities than the arousals emerging in the dancing bodies
at a rave in Goa (Saldanha, 2002). ese sites encourage imagination, but with
dierent kinds of aective arousals (d’Hauteserre, 2015).e nature holiday aords
potential to engage within the rhythm of nature and its nuanced aectivities through
luminosity, darkness, sounds, stillness and activities (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; see
also d’Hauteserre, 2015) in which the stillness of the social and material environment
induces calmness. e repetitive, cyclical rhythm of nature, appropriate routines and
carried memories reassure a tourist and allow potential for the state of soothingness
and harmony to unfold (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). On the other hand, Goa’s
bombarding sensory experience of collectively moving bodies and intense music
materialises in the knowing of eshy, corporeal bodies. Diverse aective relations
may emerge inbetween the body and imaginative tourism sociomaterial space. It is
also noted that bodies moving together form an unconscious but powerful social
activity, “an imagined community” which creates capacities to connect with each
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other through shared kinaesthetic-aectivities (Anderson, 2006, as cited in Chronis,
2015). Anderson’s (2016) illustration, in fact, encourages us to consider practices in
a ‘more playful way’. “Non-representational theory privileges play” in which “play
is understood as a perpetual human activity with immense aective signicance”
(ri, 2008, p. 7).
Tourism implies encountering unfamiliar places, perceptions and scenes.
erefore, diverse aectivities of familiarity and a sense of safety are fundamental to
the emotive balance and the feeling of being welcomed (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Lynch,
2017; see Gherardi, 2019). In addition, various actors such as the local weather
may aect the creation of a safe “cocoon-like aective space” through a “home-
like” attachment (Saxena, 2018, p. 106). In visiting and returning to a particular
tourism place, tourists hope to be wrapped with these same positive aectivities,
vibes circulating in the tourism space (d’Hauteserre, 2015).
Nevertheless, aects may also emerge as inappropriate or disharmonising
(d’Hauteserre, 2015). Both aectivities – appropriate and inappropriate – stick in
the memory of a body and aord the capacity to aect bodies (see Ahmed, 2004;
see Carter, 2019; d’Hauteserre, 2015; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). Already in the
orienting and planning phase of the approaching holiday, the imaginative tourists are
lled with dreams and emotions tied to the previous knowledge and nature of the
experience (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; see Gherardi, 2019).
If tourists do not feel socially, materially and emotionally harmonised in tourism
practice, this will most likely result in disharmonising aectivities (d’Hauteserre,
2015). Social disharmonising may take place if the tourists do not feel welcomed
and are ignored by the service providers, fellow tourists or locals. e unruly aect
therewith circulates inbetween these social, cultural and sensuous dynamics in an
unseen manner and aords a particular knowledge to individuals (see Ahmed, 2004;
d’Hauteserre, 2015; Närvänen, 2013). Aectivities, such as fear and vulnerability,
are considerably formed and ordered by “sensory-material arrangements” (Rantala
& Valtonen, 2014, p. 25). Aect entails a power over the social performances of
bodies in tourism sociocultural practice (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Jóhannesson &
Lund, 2017; Saxena, 2018). For instance, communities have dierent kinds of
normative expectations about how people should feel and how they should act. is
possibly refers to Edensor’s (2000, 2001) notions of the appropriate performances
in accordance with normative acting of bodies. In fact, the epistemic practices of
a community strongly guide the knowing in the tourist’s practices. Additionally,
the perception and use of senses are rened within the social and cultural practices
of the community. Material disharmonising, in turn, may emerge if, for example,
the beaches are littered and there seems to be no sustainable acts (d’Hauteserre,
2015). Both social and material disharmonising and disruption aect emotional
harmonising. Incidentally, the destinations should support “existential authenticity”
(d’Hauteserre, 2015, p. 85) which also Wang (1999) highlighted in her discussions
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on the inner bodily feelings as a primary source of knowing. e opposite aectivities
and the sense of inauthenticity refers to disharmonising aectivities created by the
orders and constraints over the body (Wang, 1999). Whether it is a question of
positive or negative eects, they both radiate and stick in the sociomaterialities of a
touristic place (d’Hauteserre, 2015). In sum, understanding the emerging aective
knowing is fundamental as it unveils the quality of sociomaterial practices which
engages bodies in touristic places (see ri, 2008, as cited in d’Hauteserre, 2015).
2.2.3 Rhythms
ere are rhythms everywhere in our quotidian life. Rhythms may be found in a
body and in all social spaces and time; they are entangled in social life and within
sociomaterial practices (see Lefebvre, 2004). Lefebvre’s (2004) rhythmanalysis has
been seen to allow access to the aectivities arising in practices (Gherardi, 2019;
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Reckwitz, 2012; Simpson, 2021) and sensualities
emerging in various tourism situated practices (e.g. Edensor & Holloway, 2008;
Jensen et al., 2015; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Rantala, 2010). Rhythmanalysis
allows us, for instance, to unfold how varied rhythms such as stillness, harmony
in touristic practices synchronise in the tourist body (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
Rhythms are found not only in music but in the repetitive movement of acting, in
bodies, nature, situations, events, (technical) objects, gestures, media or discourse,
to name a few. rough their rhythmic movement and practices, touristic bodies
negotiate and (re)produce tourism places with diversied social, material, natural,
mechanical/technological and organisational actors (e.g. Chronis, 2015; Duy et
al., 2011; Edensor, 2000a, 2001; uinlan Cutler et al., 2014; Saldanha, 2002; Small
& Harris, 2012; Valtonen et al., 2020; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011; Waitt & Duy,
2010; Wilson et al., 2019).
e notion of rhythm is founded on life and movement emerging in various
spaces as polyrhythms, a composition of varied rhythms (Lefebvre, 2004). Rhythms
“can be dened as movements and dierences within repetition” (Lefebvre, 2004,
p. 90). Two dierent repetitions may be recognised in movement: cyclical and
linear repetition. Cyclical rhythms are based on the cosmic cycles of nature, the
repetition of days, nights, months or seasons. Linear rhythms, on the other hand,
originate from human activity and social practices. Social life is lled with cyclical
and linear rhythms or organic and mechanical rhythms (Lefebvre, 2004). ey
are “entangled with one another, they penetrate practice and are penetrated by it.
is seems to us true of all times and spaces” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 96). e cyclical
and linear rhythms are in constant interaction, at times compromising, at times
disordering. is constant interaction is in the focus of rhythmanalysis (Lefebvre,
2004). More specically, because in contemporary societies social life and its
mechanical rhythm tend to dominate the organic rhythm of movement, the analysis
of rhythms is particularly interested in the clashing interaction “of natural biological
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and social timescales, the rhythms of our bodies and society” through which we
produce understandings of spaces/places and time in our everyday life (Lefebvre,
2004, p. viii; see Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2022). Lefebvre (2004, pp. viii,
3), in fact, proposes rhythmanalysis as “a new eld of knowledge”, for the purpose of
rethinking practices through the notion of rhythms and that way unveil a particular
understanding of “what happens every day” and their “practical consequences”.
Unveiling the new knowledge emerging in everyday practices and their eects
demands turning to the “producer of rhythms”, that is, to the acting living body
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 98). e body is the inherent reference point in rhythmanalysis
(Lefebvre, 2004). In fact, within the body each organ has its own inborn rhythm
which aligns with the movement of natural rhythms in working towards eurhythmia,
harmony, equilibrium and balance in the body (Lefebvre, 2004). Rhythmanalysis
demands embodied engaging of the researcher as well as an analysis of how
polyrhythms, both cyclical and linear, merge in the body. In an eurhythmic, “normal
and healthy” state, the cyclical and linear rhythms synchronise (Lefebvre, 2004,
p. 67). In turn, in an arrhythmia the various rhythms conict, discord and set the
body into a pathological state (Lefebvre, 2004). Rhythmanalysis has a goal: it works
to unfold how the eurhythmia of the body is accomplished in practices (Lefebvre,
2004).
erefore, rhythmanalysis recognises “ ‘rhythm of the self ’ and ‘rhythm of the
other’ ” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 95). ‘Rhythms of the other’ refer to formal, more ordered
external acting, ‘the rhythms of representation’. e ‘rhythms of the self’ or ‘secret
rhythms’, as described below, are related to the intimate acting of a body (Lefebvre,
2004, p. 95). However, there is no polarity or isolation of “an object, or a subject,
or a relation” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 12) as rhythmanalysis evades a dualistic analysis
of interaction. Rather, it analyses the interacting rhythms emerging through the
triad “time-space-energy”. ese relational three terms are inherent in depicting and
analysing “the cosmological reality” of life (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 60), named “outer
space” by Massumi (2002, p. 201). Without energy, time and space are inactive,
immobile, as “energy animates, reconnects, renders time and space conictual”
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 60). is signies that “everywhere where there is interaction
between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm” (emphasis
in original) (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 15). Rhythmanalysis brings forth the existence
of diversied rhythms beyond the polars. In the same way as particular rhythms,
tempos and melodies of music conjoin, the rhythmic qualities of a tourism space
aord particular connections that sustain particular “moods, energy levels and
actions” (Waitt & Duy, 2010, p. 462).
Within these diversied rhythms, at least four forms of rhythms may be recognised
(Lefebvre, 2004): 1) Secret rhythms, i.e., the physiological and psychological
moving of a body that veil for instance in breathing, pulse or memories of conscious
and unconscious events. 2) Public, social rhythms such as linear rhythms following
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the calendar or linear time, but also socially shared rhythms that for Lefebvre imply
digestion and tiredness. 3) Fictional rhythms that refer to gestures or rhythms that
are a result of a learning process or imagination. 4) Dominating-dominated rhythms
that Lefebvre denotes as completely fake. ese may emerge every day or as long-
lasting and can be found in voices or in music. ese rhythms work towards an
eect that exceeds their duration. is means that rhythmanalysis sees rhythms as
embedded in (historical) time and spatial practices concerning the abstract, absolute,
relative and concrete space (Lefebvre, 2004, p. ix). Temporal and spatial rhythms are
entangled, but they do not fuse as each rhythm works through its own sense. For
instance, we can recall how time feels short at the airport as our energy is diverted
to diversied practices with technologies or security check (see Adey 2009) or as
our own pace of walking towards departure gate is restricted by the slowly moving
human masses. Instead, Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis “seeks to grasp this moving but
determinate complexity” of real time complex life in which rhythms are a mode of
analysis rather than object. is creates the framework for analysing the “particular,
therefore real and concrete cases that feature … the lives of individual or groups”
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 15).
Similarly with the rhythmanalysis, sociomaterial practice-based literature and
non-representational approaches are particularly interested in this interactive
relation between the cyclical and linear rhythms or organic and mechanical
rhythms entangled and emerging through mundane practices (Gheradi, 2019;
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Simpson, 2021). ey see rhythm as “a prominent,
regularly repeated pattern of movement” which is “oen associated with music or
sound” but may be related “more broadly to a range of actions that contain within
them some kind of [temporal] pulse or measure” (Simpson, 2021, p. 39; see Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019). In mundane practices this may be exemplied with the
rhythmic, repetitive movement of a leisurely walk taking place every morning or
the regular rhythm of going to bed or having lunch. us, rhythms also create some
order in their repetition. Further, sociomaterial practice-based literature highlights
how within a practice there are varied rhythms that necessitate various embodied
negotiations and adjustments in order to successfully accomplish the practice
(Valtonen et al., 2017). An example may be the way we might feel when arriving in
a holiday destination while having own over several time zones (see Valtonen et al.,
2017). ere is an arrhythmia, conict between the rhythm of the liner time and the
body’s chronobiological rhythms which aect the touristic practices. e rhythms –
may they be conicting or harmonising – adjust the embodied practices and these
practices also adjust the rhythms (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
erewith, sociomaterial practice-based literature similarly with NRTs consider
that “ ‘the social’ ” practicing exceeds into diverse materialities (Gherardi, 2019;
Simpson, 2021, p. 40). Signifying that the rhythms of cars (Wilson et al., 2019),
aircras, bodies, mealtimes, texts and even rhythms of our metabolism interact
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within a practice and possibly synchronise in a harmonious way. Saldanha (2002),
for instance, demonstrates how bodies, movement, a rhythm, a beach, a smell, ideas,
the earth, the sea, the wind, the light, trees, music, and drugs, engage as appropriate,
temporal agencements. is illustrates how rhythms emerge through “relational
composition of just about everything”, in other words, heterogeneous “human and
non-human, organic and inorganic, technical and natural” elements (Simpson,
2021, pp. 20, 87). Rhythms are manifold, complex, contagious, discording and
harmonising aective agencements. Still, it is the temporal “proper” arrangements
of the entangling interactions and the rhythm (of music) that provides the capacity
for touristic bodies to engage into the touristic practices which arises powerful
aectivities, whether it would be moving their bodies in the tempo of rave dancing
or sitting still in the forest or beach or listening to classical music for instance (see
Waitt & Duy, 2010).
Similarly to music, the sensory tourism space is organised through rhythms,
intervals, vibrations, and orchestration arising through music, to mention a few
(Saldanha, 2002). e ow of these qualities orders and organises the moving of
the bodies and bring people with various backgrounds together (Saldanha, 2002).
e proper ow orchestrated by the rhythmic (music) and moving bodies aord
belonging to the space. rough the “proper” music the “body becomes the music,
and the music becomes everybody” that allows the formation of a “smooth space”
(Saldanha, 2002, p. 59; see also Waitt & Duy, 2010). Likewise, in the formation of
a multisensory luxury experience – a particular beat, the vibration of spatial sounds
urges bodies to quietly explore the space (Mora et al., 2018). However, if the music is
considered as noise, it also provides a sense of nonbelonging (Saldanha, 2002). is
way, the non-representational rhythmic and arrhythmic moving entails a powerful
aect in the formation of luxury in its capacity to aect sensuous (inner) body and
harmonious acting.
Spaces/places enclose diversied aective rhythms. Researchers have found
various aective rhythms through which bodies negotiate the meaning of a place,
such as walking rhythm (Edensor, 2000a, 2000b), rhythms of nature (Rantala &
Valtonen, 2014), chronobiological rhythm (Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen,
2014), circadian rhythm (Valtonen et al., 2017), rhythm of a vehicle (Wilson et al.,
2019), rhythm of dancing bodies (Saldanha, 2002) and musical rhythms (Waitt &
Duy, 2010). It has even been illustrated how the organisational practices enclose
“aecto-rhythmic” nature (Katila, Kuismin et al., 2019, p. 13).
is kind of rhythmic analysis, where the human body is also considered a
biological organism, inherently regards a human body not “as a subject, but uses the
body as the rst point of analysis, the tool for subsequent investigations” (Lefebvre,
2004, xii). erefore, the human body is a “mode of analysis” (original italics)
through which the various rhythms are unveiled (Lefebvre, 2004, xii). Furthermore,
seizing, noticing and understanding these kinds of non-representational interactions
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demands careful listening to the body. us, it demands capacity to give oneself to
the whole, or in other words, to engage in an “open totality” beyond mental act
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 83). For example, while listening to an opera one can be attentive
to tempo, repetition, associations and dierences in tempo. It is a corporeal opening
(original italics) (Massumi, 2002, p. 104) that enables to analyse rhythms through
a comparative act, to be able to notice of nuances and contrasts. Still, our bodies
only perceive and understand what ts “to our own moving and the rhythms of our
organs” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 83). Each body has natural needs and preferences, and
follows a rhythmic movement of sleeping, waking and eating, for instance. Rhythms
evade logic and still involve a logic in the complex reality of the one who carries
them (Lefebvre, 2004).
Even though it is enough ‘just’ to listen to one’s body, Lefebvre (2004) concludes
that rhythmanalysis is challenging. Firstly, working towards the objective of a
rhythmanalysis, to unveil the forming of an eurhyhmia, the strengthening of a
healthy body may take place only within an empirical study in which the body of
the researcher is entangled with the polyrhythms (Lefebvre, 2004). Secondly, as
mentioned rhythmanalysis demands sensitivity and a “corporeal opening” (original
italics) of the researcher (Massumi, 2002, p. 104). Here, the researcher’s body acts as
a “metronome” which characterises being in the aective “mode of analysis” (original
italics) rather than analysing the rhythms as such (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 19). Meaning,
openness for being aected (Massumi, 2002) within the rhythmic practices, to
the dwelling in the “open” (Ingold, 2007, p. S20) within the polyrhythms of
sociomaterial, natural and cosmic actors. Approaching the place “as open” demands
particular embodied acting (Chronis, 2015, p. 126; Ingold, 2007, p. S20; see also
Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017) as well as the routines of a learning process (Lea, 2008;
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
irdly, rhythmanalysis is a method and theory which, in addition to sociology
and psychology, brings together an extensive analytical eld of “diverse practices and
very dierent types of knowledge: medicine, history, climatology, cosmology”, physics,
ethnology, anthropology and chronobiology (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 16). Rhythmanalysis
seems to be an agencement within which “polyrhyhmia analyses itself” (Lefebvre,
2004, p. 16). It exposes how the rhythmic practices become connected with no
predetermined order but follow attachment and taste (Gherardi, 2019). It implies
that rhythmanalysis at some point foresees the success of the analysis in illustrating the
particular organising rhythmic movement, appropriate order within the phenomenon
(Lefebvre, 2004). is way rhythmanalysis aords to alter our perspective within
knowing-in-practice as “it changes our conception in relation to the classical philosophy
still dominant in this eld” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 17). It thus presents “a new content and
sometimes change the form of society” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 17).
In conclusion, as suggested by the concept of aecto-rhythmic order, aects and
rhythms are entangled in practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). We remember
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how Massumi (2002, p. 1) reected upon the body in the following terms: “It moves
as it feels and it feels itself moving”. erefore, in the next chapter I will continue
my multidisciplinary exploration to determine how the body might move within
various tourism practices, how aects and rhythms emerge and, nally, how the
eect of practices is forming.
2.2.4 Moving entanglements
Examining the practical activities of tourists has revealed that the touristic spaces/
places are not static but rather lled with diverse rhythmic movement which aects
the knowing and practicing of bodies (e.g. Edensor, 2000b; Edensor & Holloway,
2008; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). Tourists, along with tourist managers and workers,
produce and reproduce these practises and meanings through their (embodied)
performances. In other words, tourism spaces are organised in specic ways to
provide meaningful settings for touristic practices. Various tourism spaces dier in
their performative norms, habits, the forms of control as well as the material form
and arrangement of space that shape the rhythmic movement of tourists (Edensor,
2000a) and aect embodied practicing. When tourists enter a certain place, they
are assumed to know of pre-existing practical, discursive, and embodied norms
supporting their moving (Edensor, 2001). However, it is also acknowledged that in
addition to the formal tourism space/place, the touristic bodies interact within the
informal tourism space.
Tourists’ formal and informal moving may be characterised in diversied manners
that are uid and situated. Edensor (2000a, 2001) recognises various forms of touristic
movement which rhythms aect practicing, such as normative “appropriate” moving
and nonconformist moving. Nonconformist moving further encloses improvised
moving and involuntary moving that represent more imaginative or innovative ways
of moving that may exist parallel to normative moving. ese forms of moving are
not exclusive, implying that a tourist may perform multiple forms of moving during
one holiday that are relational to the other actors, social, material and natural space
(Edensor, 2000a, 2001). e rhythmic movement of bodies blend the mundane and
touristic rules of action and are processes that depend on the (embodied) skills of
the actors in the same space, and in how it is interpreted by various actors (Edensor,
2000a). erefore, the successful forming of this interactive rhythmic process
demands the routines of a skilful body whose competences are learned and self-
reected during performance (e.g. Lea, 2008; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
Normative “appropriate” moing. Conventionally, it is understood that tourists’
movement in tourism space/place aligns with the normative conventions set by
various social and material actors. is kind of movement may be characterised
as “appropriate”, implying that the performance of touristic bodies is similar to
directed conventions, disciplined orders or eld-specic requisites of doing tourism
“properly” and conformingly (Edensor, 2000a, 2001). Normative performances,
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which adhere to the directives of managers and workers, expose the ways in which
“social and cultural power can inscribe meaning and action on bodies” (Edensor,
2001, p. 78). With this, Edensor refers to how bodies performe and move in tourism
spaces according to the set implicit social, cultural or normative orders. Nonetheless,
this kind of normative moving is frequently susceptible to both the individual’s own
self-reection and the disciplinary gaze of other social actors (Edensor, 2000a).
ese may concern implicit bodily orders concerning, for instance, what to wear,
how to gaze and how to use one’s voice. Additionally, guidebooks, employees, a daily
programme and brochures, also provide essential guidance in the hinting of these
“proper” embodied performances (Edensor, 2000a). is implies that conventionally
touristic bodies are guided to move in a tourism space through discursive practices
(e.g. Chronis, 2015; Waitt & Duy, 2010). However, bare narrative guiding
disregards the eect of embodied practices, meaning “the productive potential of
bodily presence, movement, and interaction with the surrounding space” (Chronis,
2015, p. 126; Veijola & Jokinen, 1994).
e entangled sociomaterial practices may together aect the knowing of
appropriateness of practices. As expressed by Anderson and Harrison (2016, p. 7):
“While we do not consciously notice it we are always involved in and caught up with
whole arrays of activities and practices. Our conscious reections, thoughts, and
intentions emerge from and move with this background ‘hum’ of on-going activity”.
In other words, in this kind of unconscious practicing we are easily adjusting “to
what is ‘normal’, what is expected of us, what we always do, and what others also do”
(Simpson, 2021, pp. 17– 18). Notably, the forms of privacy or the look achieved
through the practice of material dressing up are related to the acceptance of a body
within the community (Matteucci, 2014). Although there are constant negotiations
in attuning within the practices, the shared practices of a particular community
aord social adherence in the form of imaginative and appropriative praxis through
the moving and sensing of a knowledgeable body (Gherardi, 2009b; Matteucci,
2014). Tourism spaces/places are not static but become “socially negotiated” through
practical sense making as “ ‘intelligibility’ of a situation” (ri, 1996, as cited in
Simpson, 2021, p. 27). Indeed, meanings and values are embedded in practice as a
“ ‘thought-in-action’ ” (Anderson and Harrison (2016, p. 6; see Gherardi, 2019).
Nonconformist moing: Improised moing. is form of moving denotes that
there are some general touristic guidelines, but these spaces allow tourists to choose
more freely what to do, how to move and where to gaze (Edensor, 2000a). Here,
the body is released from normative expectations, control and/or conventional
meanings, and tourists purposefully or randomly enter into a space in which the
embodied performances are not totally predetermined (Edensor, 2000a, 2001).
ere are diverse tourism spaces in which the body moves between the conventional
and nonconformist and may interact through various levels of improvised moving
(Edensor, 2000a, 2001). e spaces that allow the improvised moving of the body
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may also be purposeful, as for example among backpackers. Nevertheless, already
ordinary tourism spaces like a forest (Rantala, 2010; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014),
a beach (Saldanha, 2002) or hotel premises (Valtonen & Veijola, 2011) enclose
possibilities for improvised embodied moving. Furthermore, improvised moving
may be prompted by the nonhuman or even cosmic nonhuman actor like Northern
Lights ( Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017), the stars, the moon or a sea breeze which entail
the capacity to order or intensify the rhythmic movement of bodies (Saldanha,
2002). Finally, the improvised moving may also provide moments of surprise or self-
awareness (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
Nonconformist moing: Inoluntary moing. Involuntary moving happens
if the multiple moving of bodies or other actors within the same tourism space/
place does not resonate, i.e., relate harmoniously (Edensor, 2001). Disharmony in
moving aects the various forms of the involuntary practicing of a body as well as
the quality of experience. Common tourism spaces where diverse involuntary bodily
moving may take place include hotels or aircras, where bodies and various other
actors move in numerous ways around the clock which does not align with body’s
inner clock. In the hotel, for example, involuntary moving may appear in the form
of a sleeping disorder, as the body involuntary moves between the dierent states of
being awake and asleep (Valtonen et al., 2017; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). is kind
of involuntary moving aects not only the luxury of sleeping (Valtonen & Veijola,
2011), but aectivities spread temporally to the practices of the following day and
even beyond in multiple ways. Involuntary moving may also emerge in the form of
avoiding or “being forced” to skip or reorganise some touristic activities in order
to safeguard the body of possible disharmonious states aecting in practicing. For
instance, this is exemplied by the willingness to order in-room breakfast, instead
of enjoying the sumptuous breakfast buet in the hotel’s breakfast room, in order
to cherish the peaceful morning moment without crowds of other guests whose
moving does not align for some matter (cf. Harkison et al., 2019). is might be
the case if solo travellers, family tourists and snuggling couples, for instance, are
accommodated in the same hotel or are seated side by side in the airplane (see e.g.
Small & Harris, 2012, 2014).
Touristic places are formed through embodied moving which takes place through
three diagonals: right-le, front-back and above-below (Chronis, 2015). e body
constantly counts on the knowing emerging through various landmarks, signs and
“crucial clues” which orientate the body to the place (Chronis, 2015, p. 127). In fact,
the major activity in interacting within spaces/places is orientation, that is, attuning
to space through the “body’s sensory capacities” (Casey, 1996, as cited in Chronis,
2015, p. 126), in other words, within ‘aective attuning’ as it is called in this
dissertation (Gherardi, 2017b; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). Attuning in practices
is supported by the rhythmic movements of other actors in the same space – such
as tourism employees, fellow tourists or nonhuman actors. Aective attuning in
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practice encourages touristic bodies to engage, i.e. move within the place in a more
intense manner through the body’s “kinaesthetic mapping” (Chronis, 2015, p. 137).
Kinaesthetic mapping is founded on the conscious and unconscious (inner) body’s
senses called proprioceptive and kinaesthetic senses, which are activated as bodies
move within touristic spaces/places (Chronis, 2015). e proprioceptive sense
produces the knowledge of bodily posture and its position in space. e kinaesthetic
sense, in turn, aords knowledge as we move our bodies, through our limbs and
muscles (Chronis, 2015). is way, the moving body serves “as a spatial framework”,
constructing the tourism space into “perceived” knowledge that “creates a powerful
aect” (Chronis, 2015, pp. 127, 138). Similarly, in the premises of amenco dancing
it has been noted that the moving body itself becomes “both praxis as a physical space
for exploration and a site for meaning” in which “desires play a role” (Henriques,
2010; Matteucci, 2014, p. 41). In other words, the moving body itself is considered
“to be a site where existential and meaningful experiences are sought” (Matteucci,
2014, p. 41). Returning to yoga, in the premises of conscious luxury experience,
Mora et al. (2018, p. 190) state that in the transformational economy the yogic body
has become “the main vehicle of exploration” which quests a new Western aesthetic
and ethical ideal of “looking, feeling and being good” through sustainable health
and well-being practices.
When touristic bodies are acquainted with the visited space, they are also able to
move within it in a more meaningful manner (Chronis, 2015). e more familiar
tourism space allows tourists to perceive the “hidden aordances”; more nuanced
possibilities of acting (Chronis, 2015, p. 138; see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014)
beyond our normal moving, signifying that our sensual perceptions know and judge
continuously diversied rhythms “inside our normal perception” and “ beyond them”
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 83; see also Massumi, 2002). ‘Normally perceived rhythms’
denote here the more visible, representational rhythms that we perceive through our
eyes: diverse movement of bodies, light, objects, wind, waves or trees. ‘Beyond them’,
in turn, suggests that in the visibly perceivable movements more nuanced rhythms
may be perceived than the mere representational. Lefebvre (2004, p. 83) exemplies
‘beyond’ rhythms with “infrared and ultraviolet” light as hidden aordances.
Further, Merleau-Ponty (1964, p. 178, as cited in Kosonen et al., 2017) notes that
“we do not so much see light as we see in it” which may be related to the rhythmical
character of light. Meaning, we normally perceive how the natural light is rhythmed
by the seasons, the dierent times of the day and the weather (Ingold, 2000, as
cited in Kosonen et al., 2017). However, the “rhythmic, ephemeral and mystical”
character of light encloses many shades, brilliances, tints, colours, and saturations
which aect and guide our moving in multiple ways (Kosonen et al., 2017, n.p.;
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). rough these nuances, light inevitably entails an
agency that “human and more-than-human bodies utilises to improvise both their
regular and irregular rhythmic performances and choreographies” (Jóhannesson
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& Lund, 2017, p. 184). is kind of thinking inspires one to know the multifold
rhythmic capacities that light might entail. Although in Hemetsberger et al.’s (2012)
study consumer diaries illustrate enjoying the luxury of sunshine this thesis observes
that the arousing aectivities of light emerging as luxury are beyond mere discursive
notions and in most of the time they stay in the background of ‘more sumptuous
luxury practicing’.
Still, it has been illustrated how particularly dim lighting and candle light are
inherent spatial matters in the formation of a specic feeling of luxury (Kauppinen-
Räisänen, Cristini, et al., 2019; Mora et al., 2018). Additionally, the diminishing
amount of light is illustrated to give rhythm to day time and night time practices
through light’s agential role in giving rhythm to the chronobiological rhythms of a
body (Eskola et al., 2022).
ese notions suggest that the moving of tourists is not merely aected and
aligned by appropriate, conventional and dominant tourism practices. Rather,
a variety of a non-conformist practices exist within which touristic bodies co/
reproduce meaning and activities (Edensor, 2001). is is because dierent ways of
moving aord the potentiality to know dierently, not solely through the discursive
narratives or gazing, but also through the particular body-place practices that
connect the bodies to the place. It has been noted how diversied touristic moving
arises through “a common-sense praxis” that “re-encode[s] established norms”
(Edensor, 2001, p. 69). Here, Lefebvre urges us to go deeper, to examine rhythmic
movement beyond our normal perception. “Let your gaze be penetrating, let it not
limit itself to reecting and mirroring” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 80). erefore, I return to
Chronis’s (2015) suggestion that attuning practices does not only concern right-le
and front-back but, rather, the touristic bodies also attune to and are aected by
movement emerging from above and below (see Ingold, 2010). us, it is possible
to turn the attention to the aective rhythms and movements unfolding below the
touristic body that is, the soil and earth, and further above, to the air and sky. at
is, also air and nature are lled with the movement of matter, weather for instance
(Hauge, 2013; Massumi, 2002; see Ingold, 2010; see also Hemetsberger et al., 2012),
aecting touristic practices (Rantala et al., 2011). Consider, for instance, our urge to
join the beach walk in sunny weather as compared to the same activity in very windy
or rainy weather. Here, the movement in the air aects not only our mind but also
our mundane practices of selecting the most appropriate and comfortable clothes,
shoes and hat in accordance with the weather.
Rhythms of nature. I start with the rhythms emerging from below in the
movement of soil and earth. In tourism studies, it is recognised that lying on the
ground enables us to feel the pulsing rhythms and vibrations (of music) more
intensively than through the practice of watching; truly throughout the body (Waitt
& Duy, 2010). Lying on the ground – instead of standing or sitting on a chair –
allows us to be aected by the vibrating rhythms that penetrate and envelope the
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permeable body and arouse aectivities of a pleasure described as “spine-tingling”
or “energy” (Waitt & Duy, 2010, p. 467). Even though soil and earth seem visibly
immobile, they also vibrate through the “movements of the molecules and atoms
that compose” them (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 20; see also Ingold, 2007). e lying body
intuitively “responses to the rhythmic pulse” (Waitt & Duy, 2010) that unfolds in
a nuanced manner through the earth. Similarly, the human body “manifests rhythms
and ows of energy” emerging in the interaction with the gravitational force
through the apparent action of invisibility (Massumi, 2002, p. 104). Yet, entering
this “dierent mode of being-in-the-world” demands non-linear, intuitive listening
(Waitt & Duy, 2010, p. 471). In fact, the lived experience of the arousing transient
and nonverbal aectivities of rhythms generates a sense of belonging, which, in turn,
may be regarded as a collectively sustained accomplishment. e shared aective
routines and practices with other bodies thus enforce communication (Waitt &
Duy, 2010). In addition to this common rhythmic “aural journey” intimately
connects people, places, togetherness, a “sense of being part of a greater whole” is
awoken (Waitt & Duy, 2010, pp. 468, 469), and a pathway to sacred moments and
places is opened (Waitt & Duy, 2010).
Vibrating with the natural environment can also be recognised in luxury literature.
It has been noted that “oscillating with nature is experienced as luxury” (original
italics) and, further, that this kind of vibrating is not a necessary intentional mental
act but ordered “by external forces” (Hemetsberger et al., 2012, p. 486). ese
citations may be seen to refer to the consumers’ interaction with the power of nature
which allows them the mental capacity to vibrate between the dierent states and
processes of the self. It has been noted that these processes aord “(unexpected)
relieving states of self-integration” (original italics), and an “ideal state of liberation
… typically experienced as luxury” (Hemetsberger et al., 2012, p. 486). However, the
background of more explicit consumer notions of luxury diaries demonstrates the
aecting role of rhythmically changing seasons. is implies that the practices and
understanding of luxury of the (embodied) consumers are aected by the season
changing from winter to spring, with sunlight and spring in the air. Similarly, “the
stimulated blood circulation already generated a pleasant sensation” or “the choice
of clothes had a touch of spring” (Hemetsberger et al., 2012; see Holmqvist et
al., 2020). Indeed, the intensities of light materialise (Bille & Sørensen, 2007) as
embodied knowing of luxury. e nuanced character of light, however, remains
unnoticed as diaries are not analysed through the rhythmic or aective lenses.
I continue to look deeper, to right and le, front and back, beyond our normal
perception reaching the non-representational realms in spatial attuning. Ingold (e.g.
2007, 2010) recommends us to live openly and in the open, that is, “to be immersed
in the uxes of the medium: in sunshine, rain, and wind” (Ingold, 2010, p. S30). In
his view, human bodies are entangled with the changing weather and wind. In fact,
bodies mingle, dwell and breath with the “weather-world”, also with light, earth and
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sky (Ingold, 2010, p. S19). e weather-world is in constant motion and that way
gives the rhythm to the moving of human bodies.
e alternative ideas discussed above may be seen as a form of “coming-together
dynamically”, that is, resonation with the rhythms emerging in nature (Massumi,
2002, p. 224) which may enable the unfolding of luxury. ese organic rhythms
could also be compared to how the rhythms of music carry the capacity to aect
bodies, to move to the same beat - the same vibration (Saldanha, 2002; Waitt &
Duy, 2010). It is the “unity in movement” in which the sensed vibration – whether
it be gravitational vibrating or vibrating with nature in general like exemplied –
aords more to the interaction (Massumi, 2002, p. 224). It is an organic “surplus-
value of being” that turns into a more intensive relationality of “belonging-together”
(Massumi, 2002, p. 224) as “plug[ing]-in to forces” (Massumi, 2002, pp. 104),
integrating and liberating the harmonious states of luxury (see Hemetsberger et
al., 2012) through “grounding” (Massumi, 2002, p. 101). Lea’s (2008, p. 94) study
goes even further in arguing that in a similar way as “plants and trees receive their
nourishment” from the earth and soil, in the process of bodymind balancing “the
function of the body is to collect energy from the ground” that though demands
being “connected to the soil”. In contemporary societies, it could be said that yoga
studios apply the same principle. In other words, in addition to the promised
balancing yoga practice, among others, “nourishing foods that balance energy levels”
are oered to “cleanse the body” (Mora et al., 2018, p. 186). ese kinds of practices,
novel forms of grounding through yoga and pure nutrition, are promoted as part
of a conscious multisensory luxury experience that “awakens the self” (Mora et al.,
2018, p. 186). erefore, the yogic body has become a “main vehicle of exploration
… around new meanings of luxury, health, well-being and aspirational class values”
in the search of “the new Western aesthetic and ethical ideal” (Mora et al., 2018, p.
190).
However, there are other tourism spaces/places and practices for enhancing mental
and physical health. Such places include many natural locations, such as a forest.
Natural tourism spaces, in fact, allow the unveiling of several forms of rhythmic
movement that aect, order and organise tourists’ embodied practices. Initially,
in nature holidays touristic practices are ordered by the seasonal, daily rhythm of
daylight. e cyclical, cosmic rhythm of nature guides bodies to attune to “natural
time structure” (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014, p. 26; Lefebvre, 2004). Engaging with
the natural rhythm enables bodies to disconnect from hurries, schedules and linear
time, and guides bodies towards rest, recovery and equilibrium from the hectic
tempo of contemporary society. Secondly, altering weather conditions give rhythm
to the performances of bodies as well as slow down the tempo of moving bodies
(see also Rantala et al., 2011; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). is slower rhythm
ordered by the weather and the cosmic rhythm of the nature aord the capacity to
notice the “aective meanings and nuances related to the activities” that may also be
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spontaneous and still calm the body (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014, p. 24; see Chaplin,
2002), thus guiding us towards natural equilibrium (Lefebvre, 2004). Many routine-
like activities, such as slow mornings with a coee cup, observing the weather,
peaceful rhythm of the day, following the tempo of nature and cyclical repetition of
yearly holidays, are all found to be pivotal practices in enabling a state of calmness
to be reached (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). rough stillness, it is also possible to
sense the wind in a more sophisticated manner, its humidity and coldness as well
as the delicate shadings of warmth radiating from the sun. Tourists’ engagement
with the slower bodily routines and the “ability to follow one’s own rhythm” guide
towards the sensory state of stillness and the state of well-being, harmony and “being
renewed” (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014, pp. 25, 27).
Indeed, touristic bodies are not always socially active, externally moving,
standing, walking or sitting, but merit should still be given to other bodily postures
and ways of being (Valtonen & Veijola, 2011; Waitt & Duy, 2010) within which
the knowing of luxury also may unfold. e knowing arising through immobile
bodily states aording slowness, for example, may be as substantial as the mobile
states of a body (Jensen et al., 2015). It is in fact recognised how today silence
has become a “luxurious travel experience” (Kauppinen-Räisänen, Cristini, et al.,
2019, subchapter 3.6). Instead of being a stable act, a valued moment of silence
can be enacted in diverse ways. In visiting sacred places like churches, the forest,
Finnish sauna or yoga studios, silence is something expected (the code of conduct)
(see Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019). Sacred places oer a physical and mental
well-being break from all acting; they are calming and empowering, aording
energy (Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019). Tourists have described how silence
“revitalises … helps concentration, to stay calm, to think, to make a break” among
others and it is stressed how silence is done with various social, material, natural
and symbolic actors (Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019, subchapter 3.3; see Rantala
& Valtonen, 2014). From the perspective of yoga, practicing silence is also today
a desired ability that many yoga studios oer and bodies practice to know how
to perform inner and external silence (see Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019).
Hence, luxury research would merit from having a continuation for studies that
appreciate bodies that are not always awake and alert, but rather bodies that engage
in practices also in half-awake and sleeping mode. ese kind of studies would
deserve more recognition and ethical debate in tourism research as well (Rantala &
Valtonen, 2014; Valtonen et al., 2017). Indeed, Lefebvre (2004, p. 78) sees silence
as an inherent part of practices in noting: “For there to be rhythm … silences …
must appear in movement”.
Hence, upon a closer reection of the above, the noticeable stillness of a body
enwraps thousands of movements (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 96). It means that “each
organ or function [is] having its own in a perpetual interaction that constitutes
a set [ensemble]” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 89) (original italics). In other words, the
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noticeable stillness of a body enwraps thousands of movements (Lefebvre, 2004, p.
96). Following Matteucci’s (2014) notion as presented above, our inner bodies as
a “praxis and physical space for exploration” contain multiple rhythms, such as the
rhythm of breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, kidneys or circadian rhythm which
also aect the practicing of a body (e.g. Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
Diverse overlapping and entangled social, natural, cultural and biological rhythms
merge with the tourist’s (inner) body rhythms as well (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
erefore, “the living body can and must consider itself as an interaction of organs
situated inside it” and as entangled with the “spatio-temporal whole” (Lefebvre,
2004, p. 81). is means that the “human body is the site and place of interaction
between the biological, the physiological (nature) and the social … where each of
these levels, each of these dimensions, has its own specicity, therefore its space-
time: its rhythm” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 81).
Against the thoughts discussed above, it may also be considered that there is an
unbounded rhythmic “world that oers itself up to us (nature, the earth and what
we call the sky, the body and its insertion into social relations)” (Lefebvre, 2004,
p. 83). “It is becoming cultural [social] of nature. e very ground of life changes”
(Massumi, 2002, p. 10) as “tourists experience themselves both in and as their
bodies” through moving that supports tourists to experience their bodies in a more
visceral fashion (see Joy & Sherry, 2003) and connected to earth (Matteucci, 2014),
weather or nature in general (e.g. Ingold, 2007; Lea, 2008; Rantala & Valtonen,
2014). ese forms of embodied interacting support the shi towards knowing the
body not only through our conscious mind but also as being unbounded and organic
rather than passive and neglected. e body becomes “a eld of creation” which is in
constant “process of transformation” (Matteucci, 2014, p. 36) as the “rhythms insert
us into a vast and innitely complex world, which imposes on us experience and the
elements of this experience” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 82). Further, this approach allows
us to understand how bodies are interacting and aected by multiple “forces of the
(new) spaces” which usher in the fresh forms of being (Matteucci, 2014, p. 36).
Possibly, this knowledge may also set tourists free to feel their bodies as intensely
human. However, pre-cognitively human bodies are aected only by “the universe
movements that correspond to its own movements” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 83).
Harmony may arise “when an activity brings plenitude” no matter how mundane,
subtle, sacred or spontaneous this activity might be (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 76). Examples
include enjoying the rst sun beams of spring or the luxurious state of being
integrated through meditation or unfolding “as a metaphysical experience of oneness
with nature” (Hemetsberger et al., 2012, p. 487). Indeed, it is an activity that is “in
harmony with itself and with the world” (Lefebvre, 2004, pp. 76–77). Regardless,
harmony is not a stable state. Rather, harmony is a “spontaneous ensemble” in which
balance lies in its constant move as it balances with other rhythms and possible
disruptions and disorders (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 8). To add other words into the
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discussion, synchronisation “supposes harmony between dierent rhythms; conict
[disorder] supposes arrhythmia: a divergence in time, in space, in the use of energies”
( Lefebvre 2004, p. 68; see Kreuzer et al. 2020). In harmony, “time that forgets time”,
and “time no longer counts” or is “no longer counted” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 76). is
way, the linear “experience of time” as luxury (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2018)
receives an organic, embodied forming in which the measurement, preference, taste-
making arises as the inner body knowing and not as the time of a clock (see Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019; Lefebvre, 2004, p. 78). Indeed, time that is characterised as
luxury is not related to the length of linear time, but to the appropriate time in
which “nature and people are empowered”, which Cristini and Kauppinen-Räisänen
(2022, p. 8) call Kairos time (italics original).
Playfulness. Tourism spaces/places are oen unruly and chaotic. e knowing of a
body is aected by varied rhythms emerging in situated practices (e.g. Chronis, 2015;
Matteucci, 2014; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). For instance, moving in the rhythm of
the dancing Northern Lights invites all social actors into improvised and involuntary
bodily choreographies which, at the same time, aord playful features (Jóhannesson
& Lund, 2017). is way the involuntary and improvised moving discussed earlier
might emerge from a totally or partly (embodied) disorientation and still carry
the potential of play (see Edensor, 2001). is demonstrates how improvised and
involuntary bodily moving may entail playful and imaginative rhythmic practices
beyond the scripted tour through the mundane and social interplays (Jensen et
al., 2015; Saxena, 2018). e practices and emerging aectivities of moving bodies
cannot be predetermined even in the most common tourism spaces and, moreover,
this playful nature of entangled social and material practices is actually an inherent
part of the experience (Jensen et al., 2015).
Indeed, the analysis of rhythms is natural and rational at the same time (Lefebvre,
2004). However, it is not limited to those only as there are many natural rhythms
that are not ordered by rational laws but rather entangle with the rhythms of the
living body, as “the social just as much as the cosmic body, are equally bundles of
rhythms” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 80). e preferences lie in the measurement, judgement
of rhythmic notion and practice. “e bundle of natural rhythms wraps itself in
rhythms of social or mental function” and unites in an aesthetic arrangement/
agencement, harmony of a body (Lefebvre, 2004. pp. 9, 80).
En route moing. Still, the knowing within the unruly and chaotic rhythmic
practices (taking place for instance at the airport) is not always playful or emerging
only as the body itself is moving. e airport practices may be quite chaotic per se
and create “nervous energies” (see Wilson, 2011, p. 644). Touristic bodies are moved
from one place to another on board of a vehicle, travelling to their destinations (e.g.
Jensen et al., 2015; see Reddy-best & Olson, 2020) or also enjoying a mobile tourism
experience on board of an aircra, for instance (Lee et al., 2021). In various phases
of the journey, bodies are on board and interacting with diverse actors within the
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vehicles (e.g. aircra, bus, boat, train or car) which aects their practices (Edensor
& Holloway, 2008; Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020; Small & Harris, 2014; Waitt & Lane,
2007; Wilson et al., 2019). Particularly in long-haul ights, bodies spend quite a
long time on board which highlights the relationship within the rhythmic practices
of touristic bodies, mobility and tourism place. It means that these mobile phases
involve various kinds of negotiations as the moving body is interacting with other
sociomaterial actors in the same space. Still, “being in the air”, on board an aircra is
“an embodied, aective experience” that cannot be separated from the relationship
of bodies, movement and place (see Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020; Small & Harris,
2014, pp. 28, 38) e tacit knowledge of a body emerges within the collaborated
human-vehicle-air/water assemblage/agencement (Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020).
Mobile phases in which touristic bodies are moved are a meaningful way of “being
in, sensing and experiencing” the mobile tourism space (Jensen et al., 2015, p.
62). is signies that moved bodies aord embodied knowing within the mobile
tourism space that makes part of their holistic experience.
Upon closer look, during the en route or on board phases mentioned above,
the moved bodies are aected by the nuanced rhythmic movements of the vehicle
entangled with the movement/stillness of their own body and other bodies in
the same tourism mobile space like the movements of driver’s body (Edensor &
Holloway, 2008; Jensen et al., 2015; Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020). More specically,
bodies are aected within the embodied interaction inbetween the tourist/driver
and the sound of a vehicle (Wilson et al., 2019). ese interactions may evoke
various physiological and emotional states and involve various kinds of negotiations
as the moving body is interacting with the other sociomaterial actors in the same
space, as well as the material space of the vehicle, resulting in aectivities of well-
being, stress or other bodily manifestations. erefore, car manufacturers aim to
create “relaxing bubbles”, cocoons, comfort air-conditioned interior spaces free from
unsettling engine vibrations or other disturbances with the purpose of supporting
unwinding (Bijsterveld, 2010, as cited in Wilson et al., 2019, p. 15) and reducing
stressful stimulation. Furthermore, in addition to sound, there are other sensory
elements of the vehicle which aect the knowing body on board. Noticeably,
bodies on board are also aected by the driver and his/her rhythmic driving style
that refers to the driver’s “embodied interaction with the car’s engine, brakes and
steering system” as well as the use of the road (Wilson et al., 2019, p. 15). e skilful
human-vehicle-air/water/road assemblage is formed through the communing social,
material and technological elements (Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020). e emerging
rhythmic interactions within sociomaterial practices evidently aect the knowing of
a body like the entangled interaction of rhythms, sounds and temperatures (Jensen
et al., 2015). erefore, the knowing emerging through these non-representational
elements aects and materialises in the mundane practices of a sensuous tourist
experience (Jensen et al., 2015).
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As the discussions in this chapter demonstrate, diverse forms of embodied knowing
are learned in situated sociomaterial practices (Gherardi, 2009b; see Gärtner, 2013).
e knowing is ongoingly negotiated, rened and sustained; sustaining a practice
encloses forming of taste and appreciation. Taste is forming in engaging within
the sociomaterial practicing of epistemic communities (Gherardi, 2009b). Taste
is a subjective attachment to the object of practice, which is learned and taught
within the sociomaterial practices of a community. e sociological attachment in
this thesis denotes the “reexive result of a corporeal, collective, and orchestrated
practice regulated by methods that, in their turn, are endlessly discussed” (Gomart
& Hennion, 1999, as cited in Gherardi, 2019, p. 150) as previously mentioned in
Chapter 2.1 Onto-epistemological starting points. erefore, attachment encloses
also the eect of collective practicing of taste, learning and knowing appropriate
forms of acting and attuning within situated practices (Gherardi, 2009b).
Gherardi (2009b, pp. 537, 538) calls development of taste a “project that centres its
theoretical and empirical inquiry” to see how the attachment to the object of practice
develops through “intellectual, passionate, ethical and aesthetic attachment”, thus
connecting relational individual bodies to heterogeneous sociomaterial practices.
us, it necessitates in this thesis to focus on the detailed practicing of taste within
practices of an epistemic community.
e sociolog y of attachment enables to study the collective forming of the ongoing
situated sociomaterial practices which suggest an alternative interpretation of the
action rather than promoting general theories of practice (Gomart and Hennion,
1999, as cited in Gherardi, 2009b, p. 539). Firstly, studying within practices through
the sociology of attachment shis the focus from action to passion. It explores the
agencements to disclose the logic behind passionate practicing. Second, it moves the
focus from actors to the way acting forms. It pursues to explore the following: “how
is the eect produced” within heterogeneous sociomaterial practicing (Gherardi,
2009b, p. 540). Lastly, it moves the focus from making to feeling, thus unfolding how
aective attuning within practices is enacted (Gherardi, 2009b). Finally, through
these three moves it is possible to continue exploring the normative accountability
of sociomaterial practices in theoretical and empirical terms (Hennion, 1999, as
cited in Gherardi, 2009b, p. 539).
Exploring the becoming of the object of practice within practices complements
the commonsensically conducted empirical practice research in which practices are
regarded being nothing more than doings (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015, as cited in
Gherardi, 2019, p. 29), externally observed and in which rational logic is forwarded
thus, disregarding embodied knowledge (Gherardi, 2019; Strati, 2007). is way they
neglect the inconspicuous aordances emerging in the embodied relations within
situated sociomaterial practices that shape, order, organise and matter as inherent
form of knowing how to act within particular communities and cultures (Gärtner,
2013; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; see Strati, 2007). Indeed, the proposed empirical
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investigations allow an analysis of the evolving tacit capacities of embodied knowing
and necessitate engaging within the in situ practices as bodies encounter each other
in physical environment (Gherardi, 2019; Gärtner, 2013; Nicolini 2013; Strati,
2007). Engaging in the practices of a particular community and empirical eldwork
enables to generate nuanced, delicate yet accurate knowledge also of the emerging
social reality that remains in the background. us, in this thesis it is understood
and accepted that the nature of the descriptions of life I oer is uncompleted and
fragmentary (see Gherardi, 2019; Simpson, 2021). ere is always a surplus that
cannot be captured as things continue to move within. Practice may emerge as a
“relational composition of just about everything” that is, as an agencement of
heterogeneous “human and non-human, organic and inorganic, technical and
natural” things that matter (Simpson, 2021, pp. 20, 87; see Gherardi, 2019). In sum,
there is always more than theorisation is able to capture (Simpson, 2021).
In the following Chapter 3, I will move towards unfolding the particular aecto-
rhythmic knowing emerging within the epistemic practices of a community. It will
start with the “pre-history” which is relevant in the empirical analysis of rhythms
(Lefebvre, 2004, p. 69) and the discussion will subsequently be continued in the
empirical part of the thesis in Chapter 5.
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3 Taste-making within epistemic practices of a
community
In this chapter I will illuminate how the taste-making of luxury is forming within
the practices of a yoga retreat holiday community and how these sensuous epistemic
practices are understood as luxury in contemporary society (see Mora et al., 2018;
Speier, 2020). e notion of ‘epistemic practices’ highlights knowledge as the object
of exploration (Gherardi 2009, 2019). Taste is found in the subjective attachment
to the object of practice though, taste-making is “performed as a collective, situated
activity within a practice” (Gherardi 2009, p. 535). I will illustrate various ways
of common acting within which practitioners know, make aesthetic-judgements,
attune to, contest and rene situated practices (Gherardi 2009, 2019) that allow
the capacity for luxury to emerge. As aesthetic, embodied knowing within situated,
ongoing practices is a theoretical and empirical project (Gherardi, 2009), the
discussions in this chapter necessitate complementing empirical reections that will
be presented in Chapter 5.
3.1 Epistemic practices of a yoga retreat holiday
A yoga retreat holiday has been chosen for the epistemic practices within which I
engage and elaborate the emergence of luxury. Initially, in this thesis, a yoga retreat
holiday serves as a resource for exploring “practical reasoning and acting” to reveal
the forming of epistemic practices (Gherardi, 2019, p. 64). In contemporary society
the luxury phenomenon has extended to cover new forms of luxury tourism such as
various types of lifestyle holidays, retreats, spa and yoga holidays (Correia, Kozak, et
al., 2020; Eskola et al., 2022; Yeoman, 2011).
A yoga retreat holiday is an embodied practice in which tourists use their body-
mind-spirit to aord the sensuous tourism practice they are seeking (Eskola et al.,
2022; see Mora et al., 2018). Yoga retreats are dened as yoga-based holidays which
entail a daily oering of dierent types of yoga classes such as ashtanga, hatha,
yin, kundalini, to name a few (Smith & Kelly, 2017); they are places “for spiritual
renewal, detoxing and pure yoga” (Speier, 2020, p. 71). Although, historically, yoga
is known as a strict and ascetic practice, today yoga retreats are oases oering the
tourist a possibility to concentrate on practicing yoga in the quest for well-being
(Rautaniemi, personal communication, July 15, 2020). In yoga holidays tourism
practices are related to yoga (Speier, 2020).
Today yoga or well-being holidays represent an inherent part of wellness activities
oered by (luxury) hotels such as Six Senses, Mandarin Oriental, Small Luxury or
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St. George and Kuru Resort, to give a few examples. Yoga and yoga holidays are
a sociocultural phenomenon and have turned into a “multibillion dollar industry”
(Mora et al., 2018). In today’s fast-paced societies yoga experiences, retreats and
holidays seem to oer the well-earned retraction and well-being sanctuary to
balance tired bodies and minds (see Correia, Kozak, et al., 2020). Luxury is seen
to emerge through inconspicuous practices like time, personal fullment, well-
being, and related activities (see Yeoman & McMahon-Beattle, 2018) connected
to rest, (re)connection with the self, self-development, and seeking resilience in the
contemporary ever-changing, disruptive life (Eskola et al., 2022). Transformative
forms of tourism with the focus of “health, rejuvenation and a sense of discovery
and purpose for the self ” are becoming more prevailing (Kelly, 2010, p. 108).
Attending a retreat is also seen to emphasise the creation of healthy bodies (Lea,
2008); particular practices are seen to aect well-being and health (Maller, 2015).
Well-being practices allow capacity for physical, mental and cognitive restoration in
contemporary society (Gill, Packer, et Ballantyne, 2019; see Cristini & Kauppinen-
Räisänen, 2022).
A yoga retreat holiday practice pertains not only everyday yoga practice. e
yogic bodies appreciate the holistic sensuous practices of a yoga retreat holiday in the
pursuit of harmony and balance (Eskola et al., 2022; see Mora et al., 2018). Relaxing,
quality sleeping (see Valtonen & Veijola, 2011), healthy eating with minimal or no
alcohol consumption (see Matteucci, 2014), having me-time and reconnecting with
oneself (see Hemetsberger et al., 2012) as well as socializing in inspiring company
are ordinary enlivening practices in engaging within the yogic shangri-la. e
modern yoga retreat holiday practices enclose diverse sociomaterial encounters with
other bodies (fellow yogis and guests, yoga teacher, hotel employees) and human-
made (yoga shala ‘place of yoga’ hotel service and premises, other service providers)
as well as natural materialities (weather, sea, wind, nature) (Eskola et al., 2022).
Further, yogic embodied practices entail not only engaging with other bodies and
heterogenious sociomaterialities, but practices also spread very much to dwelling
within one’s body, engaging the within-corporeal sensorial ows (see Valtonen et
al., 2017), being sensitive and appreciating the embodied sensations owing in the
inner space of a body, in internal organs, blood vessels, muscles and in fascias that
aect the knowing (see Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002; Simpson, 2021). Indeed,
embodied knowing in yoga retreat holiday practices reaches outside the boundaries
of yoga practice, external perceptions and highlights the inconspicuous forms of
knowing arising within the visceral body. Hence, representing a contemporary
well-being trend of luxury tourism, the modern yoga retreat holiday may be seen
as a perfect site to explore the emergence of luxury within diverse sociomaterial
practices (see Eskola et al., 2022). Tourists engaging in contemporary yoga holidays
that enhance health and well-being obtain a perfect lens through which to explore
embodied practices (Speier, 2020).
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Senses and sensuality are entangled in luxury experiences as they aord pleasure
and sensory gratication (Joy et al., 2014). Luxury experiences appeal to all senses
in the creation of a soothing multisensory experience (Wiedmann, Labenz, Haase
& Hennings, 2016). Still, the inborn embodiment is oen disreagarded in luxury
tourism research discussions. ough, as already suggested in my opening vignette
in Chapter 1, travelling bodies might be quite exhausted and thus, sensitive to the
surrounding sociomaterial practices. It is possible that tourists are suering from jet-
lag symptoms, being drained of a yoga practice, or generally appreciate calm practices.
In yoga retreat holiday practice, it calls for sensitivity in sociomaterial practicing to
accomplish the yogis’ dreams of healing yoga retreat holiday practices. Especially,
engaging in a yoga retreat holiday in a luxury hotel setting evokes expectations
towards the practices, with detailed notice on nuances and attentive service to
accomplish the high standards (see Iloranta, 2021). e signicance of atmosphere
and attentive service as an inconspicuous actor in hospitality experiences related to
luxury is embodied in the practices of luxury hotels (Yang & Mattila, 2016). is
demonstrates how luxury is very much a felt sensation that exceeds our visual and
cognitive perceptions. Rather, tourists are sensing the whole sensuous practice also
through moving and being modes (Chronis, 2015; Merchant, 2011; Valtonen et al.,
2010).
Modern yoga is illustrated as ‘a multisensory conscious luxury experience’ in the
transformation economy (Mora et al., 2018, p. 190). In earlier luxury literature
studies on multisensory luxury, the multisensory approach is emphasised (Hennigs
et al., 2012; Wiedmann et al., 2016; Yang & Mattila, 2016). Still, with the exception
of a few of the most recent studies (Holmqvist et al., 2020; Sudbury-Riley et al.,
2020), most commonly, research on the sensory experiences in luxury tourism and
hospitality concentrates on exploring individual senses, like visual perceptions,
auditory impressions, olfactory or palatal sensations. Additionally, the research has
concentrated on the ve senses as commonly acknowledged in the Western paradigm
that follow the Aristotelian tradition of the senses. Notably, previous sensory luxury
studies have explored senses to develop product/brand qualities. Yet, the sensory
luxury experience from the perspective of all human senses, including the sensations
arising in and through the body, has remained neglected. is perspective originates
from the etymology of the Greek word ‘aisthanesthai’ and Baumgarten’s aesthetic
philosophic thoughts that Berthon et al. (2009) have highlighted in luxury literature.
Aligning, that is, engaging all bodily senses has been forwarded by practice theorists
(Gherardi, 2009; Strati, 2007). Furthermore, practice-theoretical aesthetic tradition
has also been noted in tourism research (Rantala, 2018).
Mora et al. (2018) also highlight knowing luxury as a conscious practice. e
yogic practices guide towards a more conscious practice in life in general – socially,
environmentally and ethically through ideas centred around modern yoga. e
postural yoga and philosophy behind it is understood to unfold conscious wellbeing
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and quality experience(Mora et al., 2018). e contemporary notions of luxury
are increasingly related to issues such as a healthy and ethical lifestyle (Yeoman,
2011; see Hauser, 2013). Hence, the modern yoga retreat holidays allow capacity
to explore luxury not only as an embodied practice aording health and well-being,
but also unfolding more enduring forms of practices that are seen as luxury in the life
of contemporary tourists.
3.2 Dening “yoga in modern times”
It is also necessary to dene what the term ’yoga’ means in this study. e yoga
known in the West and discussed in this study diers very much from the ancient
yoga and cultural heritage of India. e contemporary phenomenon called yoga has
become popular worldwide and is manifested in many states. Currently, the interest
and discussion around modern yoga (hereaer MY) is lively and multidisciplinary.
ere is a huge interest in practicing as well as studying yoga as it appears in this
modern era among practitioners as an alternative lifestyle, preventive form of
healthcare, and as a peculiar transnational form of culture (Domingues, 2018;
Strauss, 2020). However, the topic of MY is disputed and, thus, complex to discuss
comprehensively.
e MY researcher Newcombe (2018, p. 569) states that the “overarching
essentialist denitions of yoga are impossible” as yoga is dened dierently by
dierent people with various aims (see Lewis, 2008). However, the denition of
yoga is inherently tied to its historical and sociocultural context (Strauss, 2020).
Newcombe (2018, p. 569) highlights that the ongoing debate over “what ‘is’
and ‘is not’ yoga” and who owns yoga (Fish, 2006) would benet from a wider
understanding of yoga. erefore, based on the discussions above, this subchapter
adapts its name “Yoga in modern times” from Singleton (2010, p. 19) as he suggests
calling the transnational Anglophone phenomena of yoga in our era. In this study, I
base my writing on seminal and distinguished authors to the best of my knowledge
and present multi-layered ideas around the burgeoning practice of yoga in modern
times. Yet, notably, the description of the extensive history of yoga will be le to the
hands of other academics in this study. e origins of yoga will be examined only in a
limited manner to build the background for understanding the luxury phenomenon
under investigation. Hereaer, I am using the terms modern yoga (MY) or modern
postural yoga (MPY) interchangeably when discussing yoga in modern times and
the style of yoga the author refers to.
Yoga is an ancient philosophy and practice of health and well-being originating
from India dating back to approximately 2000 years ago (de Michelis, 2004;
Desikachar, Bragdon, & Bossart, 2005). e practice consisting of asanas (bodily
postures) and applied pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation depending
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on the yoga style (Domingues, 2018). Yoga practice joins the human body, mind
and spirit as a holistic well-being system within the universe. Practicing yoga is a
pathway to exploring our inner world, knowledge and internal power. Although
practicing yoga is rewarding already as such as it brings holistic well-being to the
practitioner, the ultimate aim of yoga is to join (or attain) samadhi, a state of higher
consciousness as dened in the seventh limb of Yoga Sutra.
e term yoga has multiple meanings in historical and contemporary relations.
e etymological root of the word yoga is most commonly translated from the
Sanskrit language term “yuj” meaning joining or yoke (Whitney, 1997, p. 132, as
cited in Newcombe, 2009, p. 1). Depending of the practitioner, joining refers to a
union with the universe, innity, to God or to binding “the conscious attention of
the mind and the body” (Barbour, 2014, p. 81). Yoga is not a religion (Newcombe,
2009, 2018) although the roots of yoga and associated ascetic practices are related to
diverse religious traditions in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Yoga Sutra, the classical collection of yoga aphorisms, provides the foundation
for the holistic well-being practice of the ancient and thereby for M(P)Y. According
to the story, Sutras were collated by Sage Patanjali around 400 C.E. In Yoga Sutra,
yoga and yoga practice are explained through eight limbs or phases of yoga (Barbour,
2014), which guide the yogic path towards enlightenment. In order to provide a
perspective into the foundations of yoga as a holistic well-being system applied in the
modern world, I turn to Donna Fahri (2000), a merited yoga teacher and author, to
open the yoga philosophy as it appears in her yoga practice and in MY: 1) Yama and
Niyama – e ten ethical principles of through within which the practitioner nds
peace with the self, family and community; 2) Asana – Dynamic internal dance in the
form of yoga postures. Asana practice holds the body strong, exible and relaxed. e
practice also strengthens the nervous system and cultivates the spiritual ability; 3)
Pranayama basically means a breathing exercise. More specically, breathing exercises
support to stabilise prana, the life force; 4) Pratyahara – Directing external attention
towards silence; 5) Dharana – Concentrating and cultivating spiritual consciousness;
6) Dhyana – Maintaining consciousness in all circumstances; and ultimately 7)
Samadhi meaning the returning of the mind to authentic silence. As we can see here,
the mix of mental and physical exercise is still performed today in MPY for improved
health and wellness (Hauser, 2013). Noticeably, in addition to regular practice, the
well-being system of MY pertains holistic therapies, preventive medicine and guiding
for nutrition (Lehto et al., 2006). Barbour (2014) concludes that the congruence
between yoga and accords of well-being are inherent in the ancient Indian cultures
and philosophies established in the historical documents during the 2000 year of
the history of yoga. Nonetheless, compared to pre-modern yoga, MPY practice is
featured to be more private, commodied and medicalised (de Michelis, 2004).
e ancient yoga in India was mainly a spiritual practice practiced by sages. Yoga
was exported to North America and Europe as gymnastic sequences in ‘spiritual
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stretching’ (Singleton, 2010, p. 143) in the beginning of the 20th century. Swami
Vivekananda attended the Chicago Parliament of Religions 1893 and exported
yoga from India as a spiritual practice awaited in the materialistic West (de Michelis,
2009; Singleton 2010). is spiritual practice of stretching consisted of rhythmic
breathing, stretching and relaxation, which also govern the yoga of today (Singleton,
2010, p. 152). From those beginnings, yoga has developed into a bodily-mental-
spiritual practice practiced by the global consumers.
In the academia, the origins of MY and MPY can be attributed to the writings of
Elizabeth de Michelis and her book A History of Modern Yoga (2004) as well as to
Mark Singleton’s seminal postural yoga book e Yog a Body: e Origins of Modern
Posture Practice (2010). Common MPY styles are, among others, hatha, ashtanga,
vinyasa ow, kundalini, bikram, iyengar and power yoga. ese styles are the most
taught and practiced in the global marketplace of yoga, from particular yoga shalas
(place where yoga is practiced) to more universal tness clubs or private homes. De
Michelis (2004) denes MPY as a form of yoga centralising on physical postures
(asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama). Domingues (2018) and Singleton
(2010) add a varying amount of meditation in their denition of MPY. In quotidian
language, asana is translated as a bodily yoga posture. Originally, Sutra 2.46 denes
the qualities needed to practice asana as ‘Sthira Sukham Asanam’. Translated from
Sanskrit, the term literally means balance between stability and comfort, or seated
posture. According to Devi (2010, p. 286), it means ‘comfort in being, posture’.
Yoga practice encourages the practitioner to attempt a sitting or standing posture
in which they feel steady and at ease. Similar to Sage Patanjali, the aim in asana
practice is to maintain a straight spine and upright posture, allowing the energy to
ow in the meditation or, as in MPY, in the body. e yoga breathing (pranayama)
is central in yoga. Sequenced yoga practice and series of postures align the rhythmic
and controlled breathing with the aim of purifying the body, the nervous system and
the mind (Schilderman, 2008).
In 2008, De Michelis drew a framework in order to improve the denition of the
MY phenomena with ve ideal descriptions: 1) Modern Psychosomatic Yoga; 2)
Modern Denominational Yoga; 3) Modern Postural Yoga; 4) Modern Meditational
Yoga and 5) Denominational Yoga. Newcombe (2009) notes that this kind of
typology might be helpful in understanding the diversity of the contemporary
yoga phenomena in global marketplaces, as various yoga practices and teachers
oen combine several types of yoga. However, Singleton (2010, p. 18) refuses these
kinds of typologies as they ‘subsume detail, variation, and exception’. According to
Singleton (2010), in global societies yoga is practically a synonym for the practice of
asana (bodily posture), which he sees setting modern yoga apart from pre-modern
yoga. Nevertheless, Mallison (2011) species that it is the act of linking asanas in
the form of a specic set of exercise that is typical for MY compared to the ancient
practice.
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e term MY, in turn, adapts a wider approach to yoga. Newcombe (e.g., 2009;
2018) understands MY in multiple ways between bodily, mental or spiritual
practice, depending on the yoga practitioner. In her recent study, Newcombe (2018,
p. 569) sees yoga as a set of diverse activities unveiling insightful manners in various
social and physical situations. For her, yoga is a “lived space” (Newcombe, 2018, p.
569). Hauser (2013, p. 2) notes that among today’s practitioners, the word yoga
is applied in referring to diverse bodily practices moving between health, tness,
lifestyle and spirituality. Regular yoga practice accounts for having the potential
to relief stress, rene breathing, assemble strength and attain exibility (Lehto et
al., 2006). In the hectic and stressful modern world, yoga has become one of the
most popular practices to balance our mind-body-spirit (Speier, 2020). is has also
awoken arising scientic research interest towars exploring the physiological benets
provided by M(P)Y as a bodily regulator system (Udupa & Sathyaprabha, 2018).
Nevrin (2008, p.119) argues that “taking bodily experience into account is essential
to the study of contemporary yoga, especially when attempting to understand the
eects of yoga practice and to explain its increasing popularity”. However, there
are challenges in understanding the yogic bodily experience as it is a result of
interpreting interrelated bodily techniques and contextual practice (Nevrin, 2008).
It is always challenging to seize intrinsic experiences (Newcombe, 2018). However,
more importantly, the merit of Nevrin (2008) lies in foregrounding the relevance of
practice environment to human experience and apprehension of yoga (Newcombe,
2018). Idealistically, yoga can be practiced everywhere (Newcombe, 2018), but
the restorative spaces of modern yogis are related to particular premises (Gill et al.,
2019).
To this end, in Chapter 3.2 Dening “yoga in modern times”, I have considered
the foundation and elements of yoga in modern times for modern yogis (yoga
practitioners). I am following especially Newcombe’s (2018) and Strauss’s (2020)
ample understanding of MY, parallelled with Jerey´s (2020) view on yoga as
a philosophical and ethical lifestyle system and agencement. Tightly founded on
the ancient yogic health and well-being system, MY unfolds in various bodily,
mental and spiritual applications in lives of Western practitioners. Yoga seems to
adapt to the sociocultural environment of this era (Strauss, 2020) and is topped
with the practitioner’s own imagination and meaning attached to the practice
(Newcombe, 2018). Still, understanding yoga through these convolute denitions,
and furthermore, as a contextual instrument in its particular social and material
spaces, appears signicant (Newcombe, 2018). It is through the diverse denitions
and interpretations that the contemporary phenomenon called yoga can unveil its
multiple facets in the lives of modern practitioners (Newcombe, 2018). us, I will
now move on to present the methodological choices of this thesis.
In Chapter 3, I have discussed the epistemic practices taking place in a yoga retreat
holiday. Signicantly, the epistemic practices exceed beyond the mere physical yoga
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practice to multiple encounters within the yoga retreat holiday practice. ese
discussions demand further empirical elaboration (Gherardi, 2009b, 2019) which
will be conducted in Chapter 5.
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4 Reecting luxury within autoethnography as
methodology
4.1 Evocative autoethnography: embodied knowing as empirical
material
When I began to work on this study, I had been involved in and developing high-
quality customer experiences in a global tourism company for approximately 20
years. At that time, my knowledge of luxury was largely founded on luxury services
and high-class customer encounters that I was familiar with through my professional
background and leisure travelling on a highly practical level. As I discussed in the
introductory chapter, my past practices with luxury services undoubtedly aected
my knowledge of luxury in the yoga retreat holiday practice. Gradually, I started
to consider the origin and nature of luxury in my yoga retreat holiday which took
place in the premises of a luxury hotel. What was behind and underneath the label
of ‘luxury hotel’? How was ‘luxury’ actually forming? As discussed in the earlier
chapters, I started wondering why yoga holidays and retreats had turned into such
a popular form of (luxury) tourism in contemporary societies (see e.g. Condé Nast
Traveller, 2020; Six Senses, 2023; Speier, 2020; Strauss & Maldelbaum, 2013). An
increasing number of luxury hotels seemed to oer well-being holidays involving
yoga practice. I started to relate my personal knowledge to wider communities,
cultural and societal practices. ese questions nally lead me to investigate the
quite ordinary practices along my yearly stay in the same premises.
In reecting the situated practices of a yoga retreat holiday, I recognised that
my embodied knowing of luxury emerging within sociomaterial practices was not
only related to yoga practice, but exceeding into the wider practice of a yoga retreat
holiday and tourism. As I reected upon the arousing aectivities within my body,
I noticed how challenging it was to put the soothing embodied sensations, that I
understood as luxury, into words even in my own mother tongue. Furthermore, the
aectivities were so persistent yet silent, entangled within and hiding behind the
practices (see Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018), that reecting on them was sometimes
challenging as it required careful attuning into them (see Gherardi, 2017b; Katila,
Kuismin, et al., 2019; Willems, 2018). is required pausing, being still and
sometimes grounding with some yoga posture. Many times my eyes were closing
naturally as I was attuning to the knowing arising within me. It necessitated being
open and sensitive to the ephemeral, embodied sensations emerging within my
body to know ‘what is going on within my body’, what are the aectivities like,
how are the aectivities prompted within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices
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and what is their eect on my bodymind. e aectivities of yoga retreat holidays
remained in my body and they still do, even to this day. ey aected my knowing
in a powerful way, allowing me the capacity to attune to my embodied luxury ow
within diverse yoga retreat holiday practices. I began to observe how the aectivities
arising in my body attached my knowing of luxury into everyday practices, though,
sometimes also disrupting my capacity to attune. I became to notice how I was
negotiating within the mundane practices and relying on the arising aectivities to
go on appropriate practicing. How, for the purposes of this study, could I gather
knowledge of such emergences of luxury taking place within the (inner) body? I felt
embodied knowing to be very intimate in its nature. It is not necessarily something
to be revealed or discussed in the course of a formal research interview. It is also
acknowledged that not everyone has the capacity to know, let alone share the inner
feelings, sensible or embodied knowing arising in the body (Strati, 2007, 2008;
Gherardi, 2019). However, like mentioned earlier, unconventional luxury literature
suggests further studies to unfold the physical intensities and the momentary nature
of luxury that matter in luxury practices (omsen et al., 2020). Still, the established
research methods and methodologies to approach luxury did not seem to unfold
and appreciate the delicate, powerful aective nature of knowing-in-practice that I
wished to illustrate (see Valtonen & Haanpää 2018). us, I was challenged to nd
an appropriate methodology (and a theory) to demonstrate my embodied knowing
of luxury with words and sensations.
Autoethnography is a form of ethnographic research that through description
and analysis of personal experience pursues to understand the phenomenon under
study as a cultural experience (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner 2011). Jones, Adams and
Ellis (2013, p. 22) conceptualise autoethnography through four characteristics:
autoethnography intentionally reects cultural practices; it contributes to current
research; as a method it involves vulnerability with purpose; and lastly, it generates
a mutual relationship with audiences to evoke a reaction. In the autographic
tradition, the human body has been performing in multiple manners (Haanpää,
2017; Markuksela, 2013; Valtonen, 2012). It has been argued that the researcher’s
body oers fertile material for generating fresh knowledge of social life ( Valtonen &
Haanpää, 2018; see Strati, 2003). With the knowledge arising within the researcher’s
body, it is possible to unfold the ephemeral, inconspicuous nature of phenomena
that are challenging to know with other methods (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018; see
Bispo & Gherardi, 2019; Gherardi, 2018; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Simpson,
2021; Valtonen et al., 2017).
In practice-based studies (e.g. Valtonen et al., 2017) as well as in studies employing
non-representational theory (e.g. Haanpää et al., 2022), it is illustrated that the
autoethnographic body explores the phenomena from ‘within’ (Gherardi, 2019).
ese studies highlight how the researcher’s intimate, biological and eshy body
becomes elementary in interpreting phenomena and unfolding fresh knowledge
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aecting in practicing (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019;
Valtonen et al., 2017; see Gherardi, 2019, Simpson, 2021). e diversied forms
of embodied knowing are especially salient in the evocative autoethnography
orientation in which researchers aim to generate “aesthetic and evocative thick
descriptions of personal and interpersonal experience” (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner,
2011, p. 277; see Dashper, 2016; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). is dissertation
joins evocative autoethnography in terms of research orientation and does so in
engaging with the embodied, aective and personal knowing of the researcher to
better understand the emergence and nature of luxury within situated, ongoing
sociomaterial practices in tourism.
In the studies of luxury, as in studies on luxury tourism, ethnographic methods
have surprisingly rarely been applied. ere are only few studies applying
ethnography as a part of their research method (e.g. Ahmed et al. 2022; Holmqvist
et al., 2020; Joy et al. 2014). In the premises of luxury brand store experience, Joy
et al. (2014) conducted ethnographic observations complemented by interviews
conducted by a local ethnographer. In unconventional luxury, in turn, rst two
authors in Holmqvist et al.’s (2020) study engaged into a three-year ethnographic
immersion in a salsa dancing community, conducting also participant observations
and in-depth interviews. Within practice-based luxury literature, Ahmed et al.
(2022) studied how social learning and knowing take place in a retail environment.
ey employed a mixed-method approach enclosing the rst author’s ethnographic
immersion and micro-sociology to investigate the consumer-employee interaction
to disclose what people do, say and think in encounters as they happen. In sum, it
seems that long-term cultural engagement, immersing into the cultural community
of the phenomenon and real time observations of practices are seen to produce
fruitful material in luxury investigations. However, the ethnographic research
method has been notied in suggestions for future luxury studies though being
unexpectedly rarely applied (see Zanette et al., 2022). To add, in luxury tourism
literature there is a call to extend conventional methodologies and approaches
especially in the quest to understand the sensual formation of unconventional and
inconspicuous luxury that exceeds the context of cognitive understanding and
experience (Iloranta, 2022).
4.2 Body reexivity – the ephemeral, multi-sited and longitudinal
embodied elds
My rst yoga retreat holidays in the years 2016 and 2017 were not intended for
eldwork purposes. e idea appeared in the course of my research process only
some years later in 2018. Although I was geographically “in the eld” during my
four yoga retreat holidays in the years 2016–2020, along the longitudinal research
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process it was the knowing emerging in my body that gradually became the living
eld for this study (see Gherardi et al., 2019; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018).
In January 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020, I attended the same yoga retreat holiday
in a small ai village in a boutique hotel which is part of the Small Luxury Hotel
Chain. e hotel is located by the sea in a windy gulf and oers a beautiful white sandy
beach with astonishingly few tourists. e yoga retreat holidays were organised by a
Finnish yoga studio. e length of the holidays varied between seven and fourteen
days, depending on whether I stayed in Bangkok prior to the actual beginning of the
yoga holiday. e attending yoga tourists were a heterogeneous group of couples and
(solo travelling) women of all ages. e composition of the travel party altered every
year and the number of participants varied between eleven and seventeen. During
the years 2016–2020 I also attended three other well-being holidays entailing yoga
practice in Bhutan, Finland and in another location in ailand. ese holidays
did not take place in luxury hotel premises. However, engaging in the practices of
other tourism sites naturally aected my embodied knowing (see Valtonen, 2012)
of luxury, and therefore the interpretation of the phenomenon as well (see Haanpää,
2017). e sensations we have felt in the past leave traces into our body-memory (see
Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). e characteristics of autoethnography allowed me
to explore the knowing arising in my body not only while in eld but also at home
and within various other tourism or (service) encounters throughout diverse elds
as well. e knowledge arising within the body was, and is, an ordinary and natural
way of knowing for me, blurred with the cognitive-rational knowledge of the social
world (see Bochner & Ellis, 2016). In other words, knowing the world as a sensitive
person as well as a yogi (a person who regularly practices yoga) I have learned
and naturally attune to the world in trusting the knowing emerging in my body.
Still, it took some time of my rational-cognitive mind to really take the embodied
knowledge seriously in this academic process. e natural way of knowing luxury,
as I know it, was veiling behind professional, historical and conventional academic
boundaries (Bispo & Gherardi, 2019; Gherardi, 2018; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018).
I was – and still I am – carrying and “living in the eld” within my body (Valtonen
& Haanpää, 2018, p. 131).
As I was memorising and reecting my eldwork notes at home, I sensed multifold
sensations arousing in my body. More precisely, the embodied knowing of luxury
felt to be very much related to the intensive inner body aectivities. erefore,
encouraged by several studies (Bispo & Gherardi, 2019; Gherardi, 2018; Katila,
Laine et al., 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Kuuru, 2022; Valtonen et al., 2017)
to accept the emerging diversied aectivities as a relevant form of knowing, I set
out to interpret the emergence of luxury in tourism situated, ongoing sociomaterial
practices (see Buda et al., 2014; d’Hauteserre, 2015; de Souza Bispo, 2016; Rantala
& Valtonen, 2014; Soica, 2016; ri, 2008; Valtonen et al., 2017; Valtonen &
Veijola, 2011). However, for the purpose of my research, I needed a methodology
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which would appreciate the embodied knowing. Valtonen and Haanpää (2018) call
this kind of approach ‘body-reexivity’, a particular technique for autoethnographic
research.
Body-reexivity is dened by its ability to appreciate the body that is in a constant
state of becoming (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). It enables one to unfold and
theorise embodiment in appreciating the ephemeral, owing, porous knowledge
arising in the body that is in constant process of becoming (see Gherardi, 2019;
Haanpää 2017; Simpson, 2021; Valtonen et al. 2017). In accordance with Valtonen
and Haanpää (2018) and Gherardi (2019, p. 133), I see my body as an essential
tool for my research practices in this study. My autoethnographic body-reexive
explorations guided my ethnographic process rst by making notice on the mattering
sociomaterial practices in which the embodied knowing of luxury was emerging (see
Gherardi 2018). However, along with the eldwork and the embodied memories
I became even more attuned to the practices and I noticed that I was judging the
owing emergence of luxury as related to its soothing eect on me. Entangled in
practices, the unfolding soothing aectivities ordered the emerging knowing of
luxury. erefore, in order to “to get in touch with the full range of registers of
thought by stressing aect and sensation” (ri, 2008, p. 12), I am inspired by
the resources oered by practice-based studies (Gherardi, 2019) and particularly
the aecto-rhythmic nature of practices in my body-reexive autoethnography (see
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017).
4.3 The empirical material and ethical concerns
e notion of ‘material’ generation in autoethnographic study is complex (Dashper,
2016). In this dissertation, the empirical material was co-generating along my yoga
retreats during the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020, as I have mentioned above. In
the previous subchapters, I described the forming of my primary material within
the embodied practices. e material generation occurred partly already during my
yoga retreat holidays of the years 2016 and 2017, while I was still unaware of their
becoming the site of my eldwork. e embodied knowing as my empirical material
was generating within the entire research process.
It is quite common that the knowing that has emerged earlier is relevant in
autoethnographic explorations of the phenomena (Dashper, 2013). However, when
I attended the same yoga retreat holiday the subsequent years of 2018 and 2020, I
was more research oriented. Notably, in those years, while in the eld, I noticed how
‘conducting research’ disrupted my practicing of luxury. Apparently, I was not able
to engage into the situated sociomaterial practices in the way I had in the previous
years. I was too conscious of my activities. At rst, I felt desperate. Aiming to attune
to practicing luxury (see Banister et al., 2020) through constant photo shooting
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and making notes of ‘every’ meaningful and aesthetic practice with my mobile
phone made it dicult to know luxury. ose activities only distanced me from
my luxury ow. Besides, I noticed that I was engaging more or less with the same
practices and taking photos of the same matters as in the earlier years. I realised I was
already familiar with the practices of the hotel, yoga studio, small village and beach.
I was not compelled to orientate (Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020) so much only on the
external practices that could be captured with photo shooting. Rather, I needed to
slow down, to stop ‘the material generating’ the way it is conventionally understood.
I needed to focus on attuning into the emerging aectivities and the soothing
eect of practices as practices were temporally connecting. Consequently, I tried
to drop the obsessive conducting of eldwork, the hunting of luxury and just tried
to ‘concentrate’ on attunement. e successful accomplishment was multifarious.
I realised my repositioning as a researcher aorded a dierent kind of eldwork
and reection. I felt perplexed. ere were so many actors aecting the arousing
aectivities. How to continue the material generation?
In cases where the empirical material ‘is generated’ earlier than the research topic
is sharpened or formed, Dashper (2016, p. 219) and Wall (2008, p. 45) suggest
researcher to trust ‘headnotes’. It implies engaging into “systematic sociological
introspection”, imagining being in situ as things happen both physically and
emotionally (Ellis, 2004, 2009, as cited in Dashper, 2016, p. 219). Still, in my process
it was closer to what I discussed in the earlier chapters, attuning to memories within
the emerging aectivities of my body (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). In practice, this
meant driing in time and place, turning inwards with a frozen gaze, letting my eyes
close, lying on my yoga mat beside the laptop, practicing yoga, and more importantly,
dwelling back and forth in the practical encounters of my yoga retreat holiday.
Occasionally, the driing was more systematic and linear, as illustrated in Chapter
5.1, Orienting practices. Other times, it was more of an in-depth exploration of the
particular aective nature of practices taking place in various yoga retreat holiday
encounters. Attuning and waiting for my embodied material to generate took time.
It took a long time to be able to capture the real nature of practices into words. With
time I do not mean months, rather, the generating of rich sensuous material took
years. ere were pauses while I just let the material generate somewhere in my body,
to mature in the background, in my subconscious, in the mode of not-knowing
which yet aroused many aectivities of insuciency in me.
Signicantly, I feel that the richest material was generating while I was not
conducting research in a purposeful manner with my conscious mind during the
rst two years 2016 and 2017. Even though I have numerous photographs, videos,
printed material and audios from my retreat holidays, the material unfolded in a
more engaging manner within my body-memory and reecting the movements
in my inner body. I trusted the arising knowing in my body-memory rather than
memorising various encounters through my cognitive external senses (see Wall,
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2008). Admittedly, the co-generated material described below in Table 1, aorded
only little support in my explorations. Consequently, from the perspective of
conservative autoethnographic writing, the kind of ethnography I conduct in
this study could be questioned (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). However, the
importance of memory in the ethnographic research process has been recognised. “
‘Ethnography is an act of memory’ because eldwork and the unfolding reections
are entangled with the memories that form them” (Coey, 1999, p. 127, as cited in
Wall, 2008, p. 45). Headnotes, or body-memories as in this thesis, enclose diversied
forms of ephemeral, subtle yet powerful knowledge that is too manifold to put on
paper (Ottenberg, 1990, as cited in Wall, 2008, p. 45), though they diuse inherent
essential knowing of the phenomenon under study. Wall (2008) suggests that this
kind of memorising might even be more relevant and reliable than conventional
eld notes. at is because eld notes are formed with the help of memory and
may change the precision of memory as eld notes are read, reread, interpreted
and reinterpreted (Sanjek, 1990, as cited in Wall, 2008, p. 45). However, the more
conventionally generated material of my personal embodied ethnographic stories
covers 128 pages of eldwork diaries. In addition to the eld notes, the co-generated
empirical material from my yoga holidays is briey presented in Table 1. e
material is allocated along the customer journey in the phases of pre-, during and
post-encounter.
Table 1. Co-generated empirical material
Table 1. Co-generated empirical material
In the formation of a credible autoethnographic study, the researcher has to
be reexive in her position in eldwork as well as in regard to the phenomenon
under investigation (Haanpää, 2017). e reexivity of the researcher as well as
the contribution to understanding social life belong to the evaluating criteria set
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for diverse forms of ethnographies (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). In this
thesis, one of my aims is to understand how the embodied knowing of luxury might
emerge in the lives of people living in contemporary societies which also include
myself. e beginning of this dissertation, Chapter 1.1 Entry point – “Soothe my
senses”, is the entrance point to my exploration of the luxury phenomenon in this
study. Chapter 3, Taste-making within epistemic practices of a community, also
illuminates how the embodied knowing of luxury might emerge in the lives of
contemporary humans and within the emerging yoga practice communities. ese
discussions are further continued in this chapter, as I will move on to examining how
I studied luxury with autoethnography as my methodological approach. Further,
Chapter 5 reveals broader socio-cultural entanglements aecting the emergence of
luxury in contemporary societies. ese are entangled in my own position in the
eld. Essentially, I disclose how the knowing of luxury is emerging in the practices
of a middle-aged woman juggling between family and work life; a human living in
a Nordic meritocracy apart from being a yoga practitioner as well. As mentioned
earlier, my observations, reections and interpretations of luxury are aected by
my previous essentially practice-based knowing emerging from working in a global
tourism company for 20 years. While travelling for work, I overnighted all over
the world in high-quality hotels together with developing high-class customer
encounters. Additionally, practicing yoga and engaging in a yoga community over
the past 24 years also inherently aect my knowing of the world.
Ethical concerns. e ethical concerns are complicated in autoethnographic
research. Autoethnography arises through personal knowing and through
investigations of shared interactions and happenings with other people (Ellis,
2007). Writing an autoethnography encloses back and forth reections between
the vulnerable self and unveiling wider situated practices (Ellis, 2007). Writing my
own story also implies writing someone else’s story. is arouses ethical questions of
anonymity and reection regarding how the others may be presented in the research
as the autoethnography is written form the researcher’s position. e consent of the
relevant others should always be considered. Further, as evocative autoethnography
is intimate, personal and revealing, the ethical questions should be thought of also
from the perspective of the vulnerable self. Still, there are no general, standard
ethical guidelines that could be applied in autography (Dashper, 2016). Regardless
of this, the author should explain how the ethical concerns are thought through
(Dashper, 2016). In my research process, I have been following the Guidelines
for the Responsible Conduct of Research of Finnish National Board on Research
Integrity (TENK, 2023). I have followed their principles for research integrity to
conduct research in a responsible manner. I have been open about my research topic
and eldwork during the yoga retreat holidays. I have orally informed the organising
yoga studio, the other members of our yoga group as well as the hotel manager about
my research. I am grateful to them for being so encouraging regarding my research
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process. e topic generated interesting discussions, questions and reections.
Only the research phenomenon, luxury, received one negative notion as the word
as such carries varied connotations that may not always be felt as positive against
the virtues of yoga philosophy. I have explicated how I conduct autoethnographic
research and what it implied in practice in terms of anonymity. In my research, I do
not use any names and refer to our yoga group mostly as a whole. ose who know
me may recognise the Finnish yoga studio and remember the location and name of
the hotel. e organising yoga studio might remember some attending participants
even though I refer to them in very general and anonymous terms such as “the other
woman travelling solo” or “couples”. In regards of the hotel employees – although
the focus of my study falls largely on the emerging practices within my body – the
practices of various actors are entangled with a practice. I sincerely appreciate
the common practicing and their valuable work. e voices of other actors could
have been given more space though, it would have meant the research design
to be dierent. I have been careful not to produce colonial narratives and I have
escaped suppression. I wish to emphasise that the aim is not to evaluate the personal
characteristics of employees, their skills, competences or professionalism on an
individual level, even though these may be illustrated if they are related to the arising
aectivities and rhythms. e main purpose in all vignettes in the following Chapter
5 is to illustrate the emergence of embodied luxury, to concentrate on practices that
though, for the nuanced analysis, may be accessed through the knowing emerging
within my corporeal body within varied sociomaterial practices.
Ethical considerations in autoethnograhic research also involve the author
herself. e strength of the autoethnography arises through the potentiality of
the method to illuminate the attendance “to incomplete, interpersonal, embodied
lived experience” (Gannon, 2006, p. 477). Conducting an autoethnographic study
demands from the researcher to open up and expose herself in a manner that is not
necessary required in other dierent types of research (Dashper, 2015). is makes
the author vulnerable as the personal feelings, matters of concern and intimate dreams
can be read by the audience of the academic text (Dashper, 2015). e vignettes that
can be read in this dissertation illustrate my embodied life and knowing, and in that
sense, I see them as quite intimate matters. ey represent in many parts the unsaid,
mundane, taken for granted, in other words, the ‘so’ emotional things which aect
my knowing of luxury in a powerful way (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). In
retrospect, I noticed how already showing the rst dras of the vignettes to my
supervisors caused embarrassing aectivities in my body. I did not know how they
as readers would react. I was pondering even though I knew they had conducted
autoethnographic studies, too. Waves of relief ushed my body as the comments
turned out to be supportive. My supervisors also inspired me to go on with my own
messy illustrations from the very beginning, allowing me to play with my text that
surely aected the outcome. Furthermore, the rst dras were written in my mother
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tongue Finnish in which I am able to express the sensations in even more colourful
manner. Evocative autoethnography entails the capacity to unveil the sensuous,
subtle and ephemeral nature of knowing the phenomenon under investigation,
and the attachment to particular matters (Bochner & Ellis, 2016; Dashper, 2016).
is opens exciting possibilities to make visible the diversied embodied intensities
emerging in practicing, thus challenging conventional ways of researching
experiential or unconventional luxury through interviews or observations (see
Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). Rewriting the text in English was challenging and
possibly some embodied intensities and nuances faded, though, at the same time my
embarrassment faded away. It was not easy to select the most intensive encounters of
luxury practicing from my wide, messy rst dra. I struggled and carefully reected
what and how revealing passages of the text I would be able to carry (see Richardson
& St. Pierre, 2018). To demonstrate the aecto-rhythmic nature of practices in the
emergence of luxury within the sociomaterial practices necessitates unveiling their
intimate and embodied nature, that also exposes the carrier of the practice - the
vulnerable researcher.
As a researcher I had to make decision regarding what to focus on, how much
to reveal and the ways to take intimacy into account. I also had to consider how
feelings, thoughts and actions are revealed (Dashper, 2016). At the end, I feel that
the vignettes reveal a great deal of my intimate practices. However, these are the
parts I feel comfortable to balance with. I also keep in mind that autoethnography
is a way to illustrate culture and not so much the person. I am quite happy with the
momentary presentation of the ongoing agencements to serve the purposes of my
thesis project. ey are ongoingly in the state of becoming like I am, too, as a human.
It is a matter of balancing between the vulnerable self and the opening of intimacy to
form evocative vignettes that uncover the researcher as an exposed and incomplete
human (Dashper, 2016). Signicantly, the researcher’s self-exposes also form one of
the evaluation criteria set to autoethnography (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018).
However, I also realise that at this stage, towards the end of my PhD project,
I have to prepare myself for publication and public comments that exceed the
comments of my supervisors. Aer being published, the autoethnographic vignettes
are open access material and thus open to public interpretations, comments and
evaluation. is demands preparation of the author in terms of how to react to the
public comments and inquiries in regard of the personal vignettes (Dashper, 2015).
I am excited but also admittedly somewhat concerned about the arising comments
in the academic world, but also in other social relations. Nonetheless, I can only
admit that my dwelling and knowing of the world is exactly like illustrated in the
sensuous vignettes of this thesis (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). ere are
alternative ways of knowing the world (ri, 2008), although Richardson (2018)
argues against this statement. Revealing ethnographies may in fact present a more
desirable representation of the social as they are so easily escaping the academic
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research practice (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). e ‘hard material’ can also be
so, sensual, embodied as the “aesthetic merit” is an additional criteria for creative
analytical research writing practice (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018).
I do also understand that human bodies and their capacities to sense dier from
each other. It might not be easy or natural for all people to know the world through
the senses or to sense the nuanced sensations emerging within the body (see Strati,
2007, 2008). is apparently excludes some people to sense the embodied forms
of luxury illustrated in this thesis. ough, the embodied capacity to know may be
evolved at least in some forms if there exists interest to practice over time. Today
practicing yoga is a global phenomenon and yoga practice aords one possibility
to learn about arising aectivities also at minimum costs. For instance, YouTube
oers diverse yoga videos to follow and learn from; also, many yoga studios oer
yoga classes at reduced prices to various customer groups, and occasionally even for
free. Knowing the embodied sensations does not always demand staying in luxury
hotel premises, ying to long-haul destinations or even dedicating much time to the
activity. Already breathing or mindful mundane walking in the nearby park or forest
may aord possibilities to know momentary sensations of luxury within one’s body.
We may sense the quality of air and feel how the warm, humid wind slowly caresses
our cheeks. Closing one’s eyes enables to shut out the dominant visual sense and may
open possibilities to learn about the world with our other embodied senses. Against
the thoughts presented above, I much see that knowing luxury as illustrated in this
thesis is more related to the appreciation and capacity to enjoy the subtle, emerging
embodied sensations and understanding them as luxury (see Dufour-Kowalska,
1996, p. 161, as cited in Strati, 2007). Accordingly, sensing the embodied forms of
luxury might not be dependent on economic means, but rather conditions such as
an open mind, presence and space for the knowing of the body to emerge. In sum,
I hope I have been able to select, write and form the vignettes in a manner that
touches and inspires the readers not only as an academic text but also as aording
possibilities to learn how to know the world with varied inner body senses that
might oer a form of accessible luxury to people interested in this approach.
However, it may be argued that attending the kind of yoga holiday illustrated
in this thesis sets some socio-cultural-economic barriers, especially if the holiday
includes a long-haul ight and accommodation takes place in a high-class hotel. It
is a discussion related to the inclusion of those who might be included or excluded
in engaging with the practices aording the type of luxury illustrated in this thesis,
and second, on which condition engaging in these practices is possible (Scheyvens
& Biddulph, 2018). Academics have critiqued tourism as an exclusive practice that
is accessible to the global elite and exploits local people and culture (Scheyvens &
Biddulph, 2018). Nevertheless, studying the brochures of the luxury hotel included
in this thesis highlight the various ways their practices support the local culture. All
the employees are local, and the hotel has its own organic garden which supplies
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ingredients to the hotel’s restaurants. Still, it has been claimed that international
hotel chains are not very successful in attending to their socio-economic community
development (McEwan et al., 2017). In the experiential industry, in addition to the
community level, engaging inclusiveness should include actors of both consumption
(guests) as well as production (operational level, management and governance) that
go beyond the mainstream actors (Dashper & Finkel, 2020) so that “all groups and
individuals can play an active and meaningful role” (Finkel & Dashper, 2020, p.
476). To successfully enhance inclusiveness demands recognition of less visible
disabilities that might be related for instance to safety, nancial position or personal
circumstances (Dashper & Finkel, 2020). Inclusiveness in the experiential industry
is a complex topic that requires long-term strategic engagement of all actors, and
thus, remains for further studies to be investigated as the topic is regrettably beyond
the scope of this thesis.
4.4 Processing within the embodied material and text
In the beginning of the process, all the research material, eldwork notes and
happenings were muddled in my head and body. Finding a way to proceed with the
emerging knowing in the body and the research material was not easy. Apparently,
there was no readymade path for my process, which I soon realised while working with
my eldwork material. Initially, I had particular practices in my mind and in my eld
notes which served as a starting point for my work. I set aside my laptop and started
transcribing those happenings to organise some form to my knowing. However,
writing created insecurities in me. I had narratives on the paper, but something
was wrong. I felt that the narratives were partly written and constructing luxury
‘from outside of me’; their soul was missing. ese reections set me out to a long
journey within my research material and threw me into multidisciplinary theoretical
discussions. I engaged in dwelling and elaborating the emerging aectivities within
my body that I knew as luxury. I reected the emerging aectivities and diverse
sociomaterial practices against theoretical, multidisciplinary explorations to be able
to demonstrate how the embodied knowing of luxury might emerge. I worked to
interpret and be able to analyse the luxury as I know it as naturally dwelling within
me.
As mentioned, I was struggling to engage and attune to luxury as I knew it by
means of the traditional writing process and methodologies. Yet, it felt eortless to
grasp the ephemeral, nuanced sensations in just sitting or standing aside my laptop
and writing only through the mental processes. My body was restless. I had to nd
another way to be able to transfer my sensations on paper and to turn them into
academic knowledge. At the end, I might have found the appropriate way to proceed
partly by accident – non-intentionally at rst. At some point, I remember being so
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frustrated and broken with my research process, not nding the connection with my
material and the words, that I retreated to my yoga mat aside my desk at home. I felt
despondent and therefore settled on my mat on my back. I bent my knees towards my
lower abdomen and let my body oat in its own calming pace. I was just breathing to
gather some strength to continue. Maybe I also cried a little bit. I do not know for a
how long I stayed on the mat at that time, but I know that I was oating somewhere
else, in another reality. No, I was not asleep. Sleeping during daytime is not easy for
me as I have things to accomplish and work on. Anyway, something appeared to
happen in my knowing as I was lulling in this half-awake state (see Valtonen et al.,
2017). e encounters, practices I was working on suddenly became subtler. I was
plunging within them and started to see some connections inbetween aectivities,
luxury and theories! As I at some point was oating back into the external reality, my
body felt somehow light. Words started to unfold on the paper I had aside me. My
body was open, and the access enabled writing down the emerging aectivities and
supported the cognitive process.
Aer this, the research and writing process became at least a little more reachable.
Especially while writing and analysing the vignettes I found myself in a lying posture
or in some yoga asana on my yoga mat at home and hoping to be able to produce vivid
and evocative text. I emphasise hope as the writing practice taking place on my yoga
mat proceeded in various ways which I could not foresee or force (see Richardson &
St. Pierre, 2018). From the perspective of an external observer, it might have looked
as if I was just ‘lying down’. Such atypical research method caused me a bad conscious,
though unnecessarily. I did have an intention, a purpose to perform while staying
externally still as part of my research writing practice. With the research practice
taking place on my yoga mat, I was turning inwards, reconnecting, attuning to my
research material residing in my body. While having no methodological guidelines
regarding how to go on, I started following my embodied intuition. us, as a result,
I had developed my own embodied research and writing practice.
I travelled back to my yoga retreat through my body-memory to be able to recall
the multifold nature of arousing aectivities of luxury for my writing process (see
Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). While settled on the yoga mat, I oriented in various
ways in wearing woollen socks my mother had knitted to make sure that I had a
warm feeling in my body. I made myself as comfortable as possible, sometimes under
a warm blanket. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, paused and attuned
inwards to listen to my body. I felt the secret, physiological, hormonal, neural and
breathing rhythms circulating (see Gärtner, 2013; Lefebvre, 2004) within my inner
body space (Massumi, 2002), and how they were moving quite intensively without
any conscious eort. It is actually noted how “standing in a place without moving”
might unveil the forming of the phenomenon (Gherardi, 2019, p. 347). Releasing
from rational thinking for a moment, aorded space for things to unravel in a
natural way. I rst travelled in my mind back to my yoga retreats, maybe to some
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particular happening I had already been writing about. I refreshed the memory of
imagining being there. I mean really being there, dwelling in the memory with my
whole body, mind and soul. In the beginning, I had no pre-set formula regarding
what to make notice of while then dwelling in my yoga retreat holiday practices. I let
the things, actors and happenings organise themselves. is way I gradually found
a way to illustrate the connection-in-action, agencements, within nuanced aects
and rhythms in practices as they kept arousing in the knowing of my body while
body-reecting the memories. ough, the manifold, messy embodied knowing and
multifaceted theoretical discussions made no promises of a smooth analysis process
and knowledge forming.
One might easily consider lying on a yoga mat and reecting as eortless research
practice. I have to disagree at least in regard to attuning to know within the body.
Sometimes it was easier than other times. In this hectic and disruptive world,
it seems that ‘concentrating’ on ‘just being’ or concentrating on one thing (like
remaining still as described here) is easier said than done for contemporary humans.
To write of aectivities appeared to me as ‘moving’ somewhere else in space and
time, in another reality and demanded a release of whatever was going on in my life
(see Valtonen et al., 2017). Naturally, it is not always so easy to put the distracting
hum of the ongoing world aside for thesis writing. I can easily recall several other
actors in this research practice agencement that aected my writing process, such as
the earlier night sleep, the time of the day, the argument I had in the morning with
my daughter, things waiting to be done, library books that were overdue and the
pressures of furthering my thesis, just to mention some. It may demand some skill to
‘let go’ of everything to attune to writing of embodied knowing. Just to be there with
your pulsating, breathing body.
Sometimes I even played singing bowls, an ancient instrument for meditation, to
allow the reconnecting to happen, or to intensify, get deeper within the embodied
memories. I felt how the vibrations of the bowls caused my inner body liquids to
vibrate and carried me into the subtle knowing of sensations felt in the yoga retreat
holiday (see Gärtner, 2013). Miraculously, if I happened to play the bowls in the
evening, my brain felt more refreshed in the following morning and I felt the creative
ow in my researching and writing. Aer all, our brains are oating in brain uid
and they cannot resist the “laws of nature” (Massumi, 2002, p. 224). I wondered
if this was the “surplus of eect” (Massumi, 2002, p. 224) because the rhythmic
vibrations arrived to remove waste from my brain as I noticed the metabolism in
general was more quick. It is probably needless to admit that not all writing sessions
were like this, and I also applied more conventional writing practices. Still, the
turning points as related to my thesis writing usually began to appear as I allowed
myself to release from the conventional, rational writing eorts. e releasing half-
awake, unconscious moments usually oered as much or even more fruitful capacity
for my research process.
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Apparently, I understand that I set myself in a vulnerable position in sharing these
intimate ways of working. However, I hope that with this reection I have been
able to disclose the practices the way they really took place, how I was working with
the empirical material and knowledge formation within my embodied research and
writing practice. e emerging research practices were commonly fruitful in some
parts of writing, like nding the right words, modes, nuances or poignance of text.
erefore, I was engaging with them throughout my research process and applied
this peculiar embodied research practice also in working with other matters of
research or life in general.
Along the process, I kept persistently reading Massumi’s poetic articles which,
in addition to Lefebvre’s writings, appeared quite philosophical particularly in the
beginning, though they were referred to in many articles and books my knowing was
resonating with. Knowing ”within-corporeality” of Valtonen et al. (2017), NRTs
(Simpson, 2021; ri, 2008), Gärther’ s (2013) notion of ‘knowing in esh’, and,
nally, Valtonen and Haanpää’s (2018) body-reexivity in autoethnographic research
process, supported me to validate the knowing within the ephemeral corporeality
and enlarge my verbalisation of embodied practicing. Valtonen et al. (2017) coined
knowing beyond the external practices taking place while the body is awake. NRTs
oered practical corporeal examples and validated the aecting heterogeneous
actors (like metabolism for instance) in the background of practices as ‘serious’
knowledge through which to rationale my knowing (Simpson, 2021; ri, 2008).
Gärtner (2013), in turn, complemented with embodied knowing through detailed
knowledge of neural and hormonal aects. Valtonen and Haanpää (2018) oered
a particular embodied technique to generate rich material for theory-making and
analysis and to form the research questions of my non-rational luxury phenomenon.
Little by little, was I able to nd the right pieces for my research puzzle and analysis.
However, luxury literature turned out to be an exception as it was quite challenging
to demonstrate my practices on the basis it provided. Even though arousing aective
relationships have been recognised as focal in knowing luxury (Berthon et al., 2009;
Chandon et al., 2017, 2019), they have not much been approached through the
body (Zanette et al., 2022).
ese major events supported me in seeing the empirical and at the same time
theoretical emergence of luxury within the sociomaterial practices involving
soothing, harmonising aects and rhythms. e emerging approach felt appropriate
as it was not a static framework, but rather an agencement that allowed me to explore
luxury within the situated, ongoing practices (Gherardi, 2016). Moreover, the
ongoing agencement of sociomaterial practices allowed me to see how the knowing
of luxury emerged as entangled with aects and rhythms and with heterogeneous
human, nonhuman and natural actors. I began to see how the knowing of luxury is
aected beyond the tourism practices, and being part of a wider communal, societal
and natural agencements of practices. e multidisciplinary and philosophical
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studies were eye-opening as I applied them in forming my own interpretation of
luxury.
As noted before, the analysis process was messy and multifaceted. As the rst dra
of the vignettes and their analysis was in Finnish, I had to rst translate the vignettes
into English. e translation work demanded some reattuning to the vignettes. I
worked carefully not to lose the aectivity I had demonstrated in the original
versions written in my mother tongue. Choosing the English vocabulary and the
forming of sentences was not always easy as English works through dierent rhythm
and logic than Finnish, a trochaic language with the stress on the rst syllable. e
form of the text looks dierent in English, maybe not as poetic as the initial version.
My translation work also inuenced the way the analysis was written. I worked a
great deal with a foreign language to accomplish aesthetic narratives which would
arouse imaginative, nuanced aectivities, the similar eect that the happenings had
on me. Although I feel that the English version does not ow like the original one, I
am quite content with the aective accomplishment. Still, it remains to be seen how
the vignettes will aect readers.
Yet, the original vignettes written in my mother tongue were the starting point
to my approach in which multidisciplinary theories informed the analysis of this
material. In the analysis, I applied body-reexivity and body-memory (Valtonen
& Haanpää). I was oating in time and space to dwell in the yoga retreat holiday
practices illustrated in the vignettes. It demanded pausing, owing between being
still and moving the body, sensitivity for the silently arising knowing within my
body. As stated earlier, I mostly listened to the answers arising in in situ practicing or
my body-memory. For most part, I did not use conventional co-generated material
such as photos or videos. I feel that visual mediums easily turn the attention away
from embodied knowing towards cognitive forms of knowing. erefore, inbetween
the time of my yearly yoga holidays I preferred ‘just’ to dive, be open and attune to
the emerging inner sensations of my body. As discussed earlier, for me this implies
the natural way of knowing the world. It was a back and forth movement between
the knowing arising within my body and theoretical multidisciplinary texts. is
way, being open and sensitive, I also found the practices and their messy relations
with the inner body acting, through which I was able to trace the epistemic practices
into a wider cultural, communal and societal level of aectivities. Signicantly, it
was not like coding the material. e rich material was too sensuously nuanced and
varied in intensities for categorising or a machine-based analysis. Finally, I also came
to nd relations with luxury literature which were related to the recent notions of
unconventional luxury (omsen et al., 2020).
During the analysis process, I rened and compiled the vignettes for this study.
ere are many practices, mundane and extraordinary, that I engaged year aer year
during my annual yoga retreat holiday. Each time they still aroused aectivities of
luxury, such as sensing the warm humid air caressing my body or, alternatively, the
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feeling of slow walking barefoot or having a spa treatment. Some of the vignettes
have been formed based on the basis of my eld notes, though, as many have been
formed through the body-memory work as well (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). At
some point, I systemically started to go through and reect on the holiday practice as
a process. I began from the very moment the idea of a yoga holiday appeared into my
bodymind and proceeded dwelling, exploring and reecting the arousing embodied
knowing throughout the whole holiday practice. It felt like a good way to organise
my knowing. Like said, I continued to the analysis of the practices taking place at
home upon arrival. I also continued to my practices aer the holiday, although I had
to leave those reections out of this thesis. e discussion would have expanded too
much if added to the already extensive analysis chapter, although such entity would
have complemented my practices.
During the process, some vignettes were searching for their place. e material
was a puzzle, just as life is, messy and entangled with heterogeneous actors. us
placing it into a framework felt challenging. Consequently, for the purposes of
this thesis, I had to go with my embodied intuition, with the temporary forming
that became in dwelling within them. For the momentary division, the vignettes
unfold here as practice agencements. I have labelled them as follows: Orienting,
Reconnecting, Adjusting, Guarding and Releasing. However, I wish to highlight
that in many parts the agencements overlap and could have been formed, draed
and divided in another manner. To clarify the disposition, Chapter 5.1, Orienting
practice agencement, focuses on my body-reections and memories related to the
very rst yoga holiday in the year 2016. It complements the discussions in the very
beginning of this thesis in showing how the “intellectual, passionate, ethical and
aesthetic attachement” to knowing luxury develops and is practiced in unbounded
and multi-sited practices (see Gherardi, 2009b, p. 538). is is followed by the
practice agencements in Chapters 5.2–5.5, which are a collection of all the four yoga
retreat holidays. ey illustrate the “harmony, which results from a spontaneous
ensemble” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 8), the soothing aecto-rhythmic nature of practices
which year aer year harmonised my bodymind and which I interpret as knowing
of luxury in this thesis.
4.5 The analysis agencement
In my analysis of the empirical material, I illustrate the emergence of embodied
knowing of luxury within the agencement of situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices
of a yoga retreat holiday. I empirically demonstrate the temporal entanglement of
connecting aects and rhythms in practices, and the forming of appropriate aecto-
rhythmic nature of practices that enables attuning to the smooth ow of practices
that allows embodied luxury to emerge. In being engaged within the agencement
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of sociomaterialities that are entangled with aects and rhythms, I am able to
illustrate the aesthetic entanglements within the practice (see Gherardi, 2017a,
2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). Engaging takes place
within an open-ended process as the heterogeneous actors (human, nonhuman and
natural) connect to each in action (Gherardi, 2016, p. 687). e ‘analysis within the
various agencements’ allows me to demonstrate how the aesthetic judgements are
made within the aecto-rhythmic practices and illustrate attuning into the ow of
embodied luxury (see Gherardi, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Lefebvre, 2004;
Massumi, 2002).
In my analysis, I engage in body-reexivity (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018).
Reecting the knowing of luxury within agencement of sociomaterial practices as
a lived and living corporeal body, allows me the capacity to sense the varied aecto-
rhythmic entanglements and sensorial states in which the embodied knowing of
luxury emerges in within-corporeal and inter-corporeal practices of heterogenious
actors (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). With body-reexivity
I analysed the material emerging in my body (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). I
analysed practices as a matter of attuning to the smooth ow of practices, sensing
how I became attuned within tourism practices that allowed embodied knowing
of luxury to emerge (see Gherardi, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Willems,
2018). e analysis unfolds as an evocative reection within sociomaterial practices
to demonstrate the varied emergences of knowing embodied luxury (see Gherardi,
2009b; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). In sum, the
illustrations in the form of vignettes enable me to unfold the negotiations, aesthetic
judgements and demonstrate the forming of the object of practice as attachment to
the harmonising nature of aecto-rhythmic practices.
e aesthetic taste-based judgements are illustrated as ve practice agencements
which were generating while I was practicing and dwelling on body-reexivity
within my material (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). I label them as follows: Orienting,
Reconnecting, Adjusting, Guarding and Releasing practice agencements. e
generating and naming of the practice agencements was a heuristic move which
allowed me to show the temporal connecting of aecto-rhythmic practices to trace
and illustrate the emergence of embodied luxury for the purposes of this study (see
Gherardi, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). ey illuminate knowledgeable
practicing in a more general sense in the various encounters of a yoga retreat holiday.
Each agencement is further unfolding in the subchapters that I name ‘micro-
agencements’. ey invite readers to engage within the “micro-politics of everyday
aesthetic judgements and [in relation ]to know[ing] through the senses” (Strati,
2007, as cited in Gherardi, 2009b, p. 539–540). Micro-agencements in the form
of empirical vignettes elaborate in detail how attuning into the embodied knowing
of luxury unfolds within ‘appropriate’ nature of aecto-rhythmic practices and how
attuning is accomplished together with heterogeneous actors.
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e Orienting practice agencement illuminates the forming of appropriate
aecto-rhythmic tourism practice as the tourist is dreaming and planning the
coming holiday. e micro-agencements unfold how the entangling societal, natural
and micro-level practices aect to the embodied knowing of luxury (see Gherardi,
2019). Accordingly, they show how the aective memories the body carries of past
sociomaterial practices aect, how embodied memories evoke aectivities in present
time, and further aect the coming practices (see Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018).
Orienting practices are foundational as they demonstrate how the aesthetic taste
and criteria of ‘proper’ aecto-rhythmic order is developing (Gherardi, 2009b).
Furthermore, they also show how the attachment to the object of practice is forming.
In the Reconnecting practice agencement the embodied knowing of luxury unfurls
in and through aectivities which arise within engaging familiar and safe practices.
e micro-agencements illuminate how the familiar and safe practices allow for the
capacity to attune to the private bubble and ow of practices that allow luxury to
emerge at a more rapid pace. ey show aesthetic judgements in the entanglements
between ‘within-corporeality’ (Valtonen et al., 2017) and technological rhythms,
and how service encounters attune to the knowing of luxury with their proper
aecto-rhythmic nature. Further, reconnection into the smooth luxury ow takes
shape in a particular sacred place emerging as jointly moving bodies form vibration
of energy that traverses the body (see Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002).
e Adjusting practice agencement highlights the negotiations within
sociomaterial practices. e micro-agencements demonstrate how the ‘within-
corporeality’ knowing aects clothing practices. e agencements show how
disharmony arises in the form of inappropriate sounds. Furthermore, they reveal
how learning a new embodied skill unfolds new ways to know luxury.
e Guarding practice agencement demonstrates the knowing of luxury as
chronobiological rhythms of the body - natural and linear time rhythms become
connected. e micro-agencements shed light on how the knowing of luxury is
entangled in appreciating and in carefully listening to the “secret rhythms” of the
body (see e.g. Lefebvre, 2004), here as related to eating, sleeping and emerging
dreaming practices. Finally, the agencements show how knowing of luxury unfolds
within spatio-temporally moving private practices in sensory-release rather than in
sensory attachement (Valtonen et al., 2017).
In the Releasing practice agencement, the aesthetic judgements of luxury arouse
within diverse rhythmic and aective practices of touch (Gherardi, 2019; Strati,
2007). e micro-agencements illustrate how knowing luxury within aective touch
is not limited to hands or sociomaterialities. e bodies touch and are touched, aect
and are aected with their whole corporeal being (Massumi, 2002; Strati, 2007) and
the energy body as well (Philo et al., 2015). e last vignette shows how attuning
into the harmonious ow of embodied luxury is surprisingly emerging within the
inventive practices with nature actors that let the emerged arrhythmia fade away.
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As I aspire to assist the reader to sense the embodied luxury, the following
Chapter 5 presents subtle and extensive vignettes to introduce the aectivities
and rhythmic ow of knowing luxury within the situated, ongoing agencement of
sociomaterial practices. I have chosen these vignettes as they poignantly illustrate
the intensive aective entanglement of aects and rhythms within practices
unfolding as embodied luxury. In the beginning of each subchapter, the reader is
invited to engage with the empirical vignettes which illustrate the agencement of
aecto-rhythmic practices and aesthetic taste-based judgements, each with a slightly
dierent approach. ese are followed by a theoretical reection and analysis on the
practices and the aecto-rhythmic entanglements within each micro-agencement in
a detailed mode. Within micro-agencements, I empirically show and elaborate the
emergence of embodied luxury within the sociomaterial practices entangled with
appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature.
In conclusion, with the evocative vignettes, I invite the reader to corporeally
imagine “ ‘being there’ ”, by which I mean bodily engaged within the practices of
a yoga retreat holiday (see Gherardi, 2019, p. 134; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
Applying “our own embodied knowledge, we can imagine and imaginatively sense
what another body has heard or smelled” or felt (Gherardi, 2019, p. 133). Hence,
I welcome the reader to pause and sensitise him/herself into the nuanced aective
notions possibly arising in the body. I encourage the reader to engage into the ow of
aective intensities. Even better, if possible, I suggest someone else with appropriate
rhythmic voice to read the vignettes for you. is would make it possible for you to
gently close your eyes and solely engage with the imaginative embodied practicing
taking place within your own body.
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5 e emergence of luxury within the situated yoga
retreat practices
5.1 Orienting
5.1.1 Embedded in contemporary Western culture and Nordic nature
How did I originally decide to leave on a holiday alone, to practice yoga in luxury
boutique hotel premises in ailand and with a yoga studio that I was not familiar
with? Why and how did this holiday become my yearly retreat holiday every January
since 2016? A retreat holiday in which I found balance into my life.
I remember that in the year 2015 I was thinking over and carefully reecting on
what kind of a holiday I was longing for at that point. A calming enironment and a
balance between just being and pleasurable activities were materialised in my reections.
My conentional Western life, approaching middle age, was quite scheduled and busy:
balancing between work, family, leisure time and iends. Too little rest and too many
activities. e gasping feeling inside me adduced a need for a pause, to take time just
for dreamy being instead of constant performing, to breathe in my own pace, to wonder
about life, rest, restore and energise in some harmonious surroundings. I didn’t long for
anything special or for an extraordinary experience. I just longed for harmonious being
in a sunny and warm climate with regular sleep and some similar restorative exercise I
had in my everyday life.
e above vignette describes the sociomaterial setting and the knowing emerging
in my body through which my journey for this study begins. erefore, the vignette
acts as a starting point to the taste-making and inventing luxury within sociomaterial
practices. e vignette shows how the forming of the object of the practice is
related to the embodied knowing of being-in-the-world, i.e., the hectic everyday life
practices, and aectivities aroused by giving rhythm to my life within the ow of
meritocratic society. e external, dominating rhythms of on-going life (Lefebvre,
2004) seem to allow too little time for restoration, the luxuries of one’s own time
(Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006; see von Wallpach et al., 2020), (inner) silence
and sleep (Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). e body
has dried into a discordant state, into an arrhythmia (Lefebvre, 2004). ese –
quite common premises in Western society – set out the forming process of luxury
in the Orienting practices.
e vignette shows how the body’s natural, internal rhythms are not in natural
synchrony (Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014, p. 28). e regular, normative,
hectic rhythms of Western life disrupt my body’s biological rhythms between rest
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and active time, causing a need just for being and breathing in my body’s natural
pace. In these circumstances, the knowledgeable body dreams of a sensory state in
which it would be in balance, following its normal inborn state. is aligns with
the thoughts of Sudbury-Riley et al. (2020, p. 453) recognising that normality can
also be considered a luxury. Kreuzer et al. (2020, p. 488), in turn, nd luxury in
“embodied synchrony” in interpersonal relations. Indeed, luxury cannot merely be
related to mundane objects and practices with them (Banister et al., 2020), but to
the most mundane bodily practices such as harmonious being (Hemetsberger et al.,
2012), as expressed in my vignette. A dream arises of being in a place where the body
would be able to follow its natural chronobiological rhythm and not to perform
any extraordinary activities (see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). I am dreaming of
enjoying the luxury of ordinary life experience that is illustrated as luxury in a study
by Sudbury-Riley et al. (2020), though their study being related to palliative care.
e unrhythmic state of a body is also aected by the Nordic nature environment,
which is constantly changing along the rotation and angle of Earth with respect to
the Sun. During winter time, the Northern hemisphere is leaning away from the sun,
granting only a minimal amount of sunlight and warmness into my normal living
environment. e lack of natural light aects the functioning of my inner, biological
body and paces it as my body naturally seeks to synchronise with the surrounding
nature (see Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014), adapting to the dark and
cold winter time of the year. In the eld notes of my retreat holidays, I repeatedly nd
notions of the signicance of the light and the warmness it provides, as expressed in
the following vignette.
It has been many years since I have been on holiday in the sun. I miss peeling my body
om the many layers of clothes to feel the warm air and breezes touching my skin.
---
December. During this phase of the year, I have already forgotten what the natural sun
light looks like, how bright it can be, and how the warmth feels in my body. A shimmer
of a light mercifully shows up only approximately ve hours per a day in order to vanish
at 3 p.m. in the aernoon. ese daily hours of natural light I am spending indoors in
articial lighting. It feels like there is no day at all. I feel sleepy all the time even though
I’m sleeping long nights om ten to eleven hours per night, sleeping half of the day.
Fortunately, my annual yoga retreat holiday is approaching. Every year it is the light
and warmth I notice to be waiting for the most.
e vignette exemplies how the nature’s seasonal rhythm – the sharp contrast
between the amount of light and darkness, warmth and coldness – aects the
embodied being in the world, dwelling (Edensor, 2007; Hemetsberger et al., 2012;
Jensen et al., 2015; Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014) and
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knowing of luxury (see Hemetsberger et al., 2012). In the cold and dark winter
season, I have to protect my body with many layers of clothing and spend a lot of time
indoors. e skin – my largest sensory organ – breathes and produces knowledge
of the outside world (Hauge, 2013) through layers of clothing (see Hemetsberger
et al., 2012; Obrador-Pons, 2007) and under the control of articial light (Bille &
Sørensen, 2007). Indeed, the knowing of light, luminosity and warmth materialises
as luxury within dierent aective states of being (see Rinne & Olsson, 2020;
Saxena, 2018). In Hemetsberger et al.’s (2012) ndings of luxury, the agency of the
sun to consumers’ clothing practices and aroused aectivities is discernible, though
it is not explicitly pointed out. In accordance with unconventional luxury literature,
Holmqvist et al. (2020, p. 510) forward how changing winter clothes to delicate
salsa dresses aects the dancers’ “ways of being” and creates a luxury moment of
“dierent reality”. Furthermore, Holmqvist et al. (2020, p. 486) make note of the
sun as part of the nature as an “external force” contributing to the experience of
luxury. Similarly here, the sun entails a force that aects the emergence of luxury.
Light as part of a weather-related phenomena also guides bodily practices (Rantala
et al., 2011, p. 285; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014, p. 24) such as clothing and sleeping
practices. e body has an innate capacity to “read” the light, know through light,
and synchronise its functions according to the natural environment (Rantala et al.,
2011, pp. 291, 295; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). e aectivities of light and heat
produced by articial light is in many ways dierent from the knowing of natural
light from the sun (see Massumi, 2002). Light illuminates, but I can feel the light
and its quality, brightness, shadows, hue, nuances, colour and saturation (Ingold,
2000; see Saldanha, 2002). Light vibrates not only on the surface of the body, on
the skin (Massumi, 2002), but also in the visceral body (Duy & Waitt, 2013). It
is possible to be aected by countless variations in the amount and quality of light.
e sensations of warmness also vary (Kosonen et al., 2017). Indeed, the dierent
aective sensations of light are deeply rooted in the seasons (see Edensor, 2012;
Rinne & Olsson, 2020).
In the vignette, the described cultural and aective knowing makes me long for an
environment where my body’s own internal rhythm is supported by natural sunlight
and I can feel its warmness on my nude skin. I am dreaming of a place where the daily
variations of light and dark times are steady all year round, such as ailand. In sum,
along with my dreaming practices, my thoughts dried into aective matters that
aorded the luxury of “calmness” (Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020, p. 453), balance and
energy into my life (Mora et al., 2018).
At that time, I had practiced yoga more or less regularly for 16 years. I had become fa-
miliar with various kinds of yoga practice, dierent teachers and yoga studios. Aer my
weekly yoga classes, I always felt inner peace, harmony, stability and good energy within
my body in the yoga studio’s pampering ambiance. Yoga, my happy place… e long
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asanas of a yin yoga smoothened my mind and body and, on the other hand, ashtanga
yoga practice with ujjayi breathing brought me a meditative ow of energy and con-
centration. Indeed, life was better in yoga pants. Could a yoga holiday be one option...
but would it mean travelling without my family and would that be ok for my family…
would I have the courage for a solo trip?
As illustrated above, the everyday hectic rhythm, worries and stress appear to be
le out in the yoga studios’ sociomaterial practices that produce “intellectual
pleasure” (Gherardi, 2009b, p. 538). Instead, luxury unleashes in the dwelling of
a yoga studio’s gentle, “healing and renewal” practices that aord “nourishment of
body, mind and soul” (Mora et al., 2018, p. 180). In addition to knowing emerging
within the physiological embodiment (Gärtner, 2013; see Gherardi, 2019) of
yoga practice and conscious breathing, the diverse actors and calming practices
like dim lighting (Kauppinen-Räisänen, Cristini, et al., 2019), warm-hearted
chattering (Philo et al., 2015), care and hugs (Banister et al., 2020), herbal tea and
tiptoeing in woollen socks intensify a genuine connection to myself, other yogis and
something bigger at the same time (see Matteucci, 2014). Life seems to feel ‘better’
within the pampering practices of this “aective culture[s]” (original italics and in
plural) (Reckwitz, 2012, p. 253; Gherardi, 2019) in which the aective “objects of
emotions” circulate inbetween and connect actors together (Ahmed, 2004b, p. 11).
e practice of “Yoga, my happy place” extends beyond the physical yoga practice
and unfolds within varied aective sociomaterial practices. e arousing aectivities
are forms of attachment that are supported and accomplished among this particular
community based on particular taste (Gherardi, 2009b). A dream arises of similar
aectivities of bodymindsoul harmony that would take place in holiday practices
which illustrate the unfolding attachment to the aective practices of this particular
community. e knowing of luxury emerges not only as the silence of inner state of
mind (Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019; see also Dubois et al., 2001), but also as the
inner state of a body as well.
However, social practices such as holiday plans do not take place in isolation. It
is a common practice that Western families plan and spend their holidays together
as the paid labour takes most of their time in quotidien life. e holiday destination
and its activities are decided together and quite oen as a result of a compromise. In
other worlds, the practice of holiday making is attached to the social rules and norms
of the surrounding society and culture alongside my search for a particular aective
state through the bodily activity of yoga. erefore, I felt hesitant. According to
Schatzki (2002), cultural rules are related to certain activities and they are clearly
formulated, while norms are generally accepted practices, based on tacit knowledge,
and can thus be applied more widely. It happens that an individual family member’s
personal holiday wishes cannot be fullled, at least not completely.
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5.1.2 A woman travelling solo and fellow tourists
Despite my insecurities of leaving for a solo trip, I started to google for yoga holidays. I
found that in many cases yoga classes were oered in resort-type high-end hotels among
other activities like tennis, bowling, ping-pong, minigolf and water aerobics targeting the
whole family and masses. e pictures in the advertisements introduced special premises
for children, water slides, and a pool for toddlers. How restless ambiance would these fellow
dwelling tourists with various activities induce in the hotel premises… As I was considering
the calmness of the premises, I also turned to my yoga teachers and iends to hear about
their experiences and recommendations of various (yoga) holidays they had attended.
e vignette reveals how the diversied performing of various guests with multiple
activities in the same environment arouse particular “nervous energies” within my
body (Wilson, 2011, p. 644; see Small & Harris, 2014). In fact, von Wallpach et
al.’s (2020, p. 496) study relates luxury moments to various kinds of freedom
from, where the freedom from “having people or noisy children around” can be
recognised as luxury, as suggested in the vignette above (see Harkison et al., 2019).
e aectivities of dierent spaces emerge as bodies interact with the particular
material environment, such as architecture, interior design, and artefacts (Kral &
Adey, 2008; see Rinne & Olsson, 2020; Wetherell, 2012) as well as through various
practices, movement and sensations (Du, 2010) of social environment. Mobile
bodies in the same space aect and are aected by a variety of aectivities (Simpson,
2021), including kinaesthetic knowing through various bodily gestures, ways of
moving and bodily choreographies (Haanpää, 2017, p. 80; Valtonen et al., 2010).
Evidently, the trajectories and fast tempo of the physical performances of families
with children did not synchronise with my understanding of a peaceful holiday
environment (see Valtonen & Veijola, 2011; see Waitt & Duy, 2010). Aer all, I
was not looking for a family trip. Neither was I planning to travel with my partner.
at is why I also readily skipped resorts aimed at couples, even though these hotels
were usually of a high standard. Among snuggling couples I might be feeling a bit
lost, even if the solo trip was my own choice.
Upon glancing at the webpages, the aroused aectivities told me that I would
not be able to attain the luxury of silence in the illustrated premises (Kauppinen-
Räisänen, Cristini, et al., 2019) to calm my body. Du (2010) notes that the
aective aspect is more profound than the experiential element. erefore, I also
asked for recommendations from my own community in order to ensure that the
aecto-rhythmic nature of the holiday practices would resonate with the aective
attuning I was searching for (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
I also reected on how a woman travelling solo would “t” into the particular social
enironments. Would I receive compassionate gazes om fellow tourists while moing
alone? Would I, therefore, be compelled to eat mainly in-room? Eating alone in the
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breakfast room would still be feasible, but how about dinners? As a woman travelling
solo, should I consider my clothing more carefully, maybe to have some more coering
dresses. Phew…
e holiday oerings by private yoga studios felt somehow more welcoming, warmer
and more merciful towards a woman travelling alone. Additionally, I would have
like-minded people around me, maybe also other women travelling solo. at is, a cosy
companion would be available if I would need it – a nice balance between solitude and
being together.
e vignette links my discussion on aective knowing to the sociomaterial and
cultural practices in hotel environments. Even if solo travelling would be my conscious
choice, gazes – directed for one reason or another – can cause uncomfortable
aectivities. e vignette, thus, demonstrates an opposite view recognised in luxury
literature where mainly having the pleasure to be under the gaze of others is discussed
especially in relation to external beauty or an aesthetic experience (e.g. Holmqvist et
al., 2020). However, here ndings by von Wallpach et al.’s (2020) make an exception
in also linking luxury moments to freedom from other people’ gazes. Bissell (2008)
continues discussing bodily comfort as part of a multifaceted bodily sensitivity and
how embodied comfort can be realised in many dierent heterogeneous ways in the
intra-action of bodies like also illustrated in the vignette. In fact, (Valtonen, 2012)
discusses in her study how bodies socialise with each other in many ways, like via
dierent gazes. at is, tourists do not just look at the sights (Urry, 1990) or focus
only on their own performances. Fellow tourists and their bodies, too, are subject
to curious, secret glances. ese gazes may be direct or secretive, more questioning
or blinking from the fellow tourists or sta (see Valtonen, 2012). A fellow body’s
gaze is touching (Valtonen, 2012). e aectivities arise from the performances and
(micro) gestures of fellow bodied. e sta or other people in the same space may
show, for example, either acceptance or disapproval of a tourist’s habitus or practices
of clothing through their behaviour, gestures, register of speech, prosody or other
embodied communication (Coen et al., 2021, p. 544; Edensor, 2001). Again, bodies
aect and are aected by other bodies in diverse manners (Massumi, 2002). In
regards of the clothing practices, I will concentrate on them later in Chapter 5.3.1 as
these negotiations continue.
As the vignette illustrates, in my aective knowing yoga holidays provided by
yoga studios seemed to oer a more “acceptable” social environment and practices
for a woman travelling solo. ey provided diverse kinds of embodied comfort in
the practice of social acceptance, warmth, and respecting personal privacy. In such
social environments, it would be possible to nd a balance between solitude and
togetherness, to enjoy also the luxury of being alone (Hemetsberger et al., 2012)
without the need to carry possibly pitiful glances. However, there was a variation of
holidays provided by yoga studios as well:
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One possibility was to have a round trip in Bali with a joyful yoga teacher I was familiar
with… How tempting, and there would surely be a lot of merriment and laughter, but
still the nature of a round trip inoling several departures and arrivals to new hotel
premises and enironments as well as constant unpacking and repacking would disperse
the feeling of a calming holiday.
e nature of a round trip with ever-changing sociomaterial environments, practices,
and reorganisation of bodies is very dierent in its rhythmic and aective quality as
compared to a yoga holiday taking place in one single physical location (Edensor
& Holloway, 2008). Having a tour around Bali would require my body not only to
familiarise with one new environment as well as its practices, but to be active and
orientated towards the changing practices of diverse sociomaterial environments,
new bodies and rhythms; unpacking and repacking. Surely, the round trip would
not meet my need to pause and enjoy a peaceful environment even if the social
environment would, on the other hand, oer a joyful time, which Hemetsberger
et al., (2012) consider as luxury. Nevertheless, also the meditative state – which I
was longing for – is related to luxury as well (Hemetsberger et al., 2012). Rather,
a yoga holiday with the luxury of routine practices supporting a meditative state
and stillness, a still external and inner body (see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014) would
support my physical, mental and spiritual well-being (Domingues, 2018; Kelly,
2010; Mora et al., 2018). Even my tired body would be able to rejuvenate on a
holiday where my body’s own rhythms would synchronise with the sociomaterial
polyrhythms of the environment into a harmony, and produce a homeostatic state;
in a healthy body rhythms follow their normal, innate rhythms (Lefebvre, 2004, p.
16). In sum, the main goal for this holiday would be to harmonise myself, as a whole,
including my inner body.
5.1.3 Founded on one’s own pace, single room and luxury hotel premises
Aer weeks of googling and consulting my yoga friends, I noticed an Internet
advertisement that made my heart beat faster. It was an advertisement of a yoga
holiday arranged by a Finnish yoga studio in January, in the middle of the Finnish
winter - just like I was dreaming of:
Come along on a yoga holiday in ailand. You are starting the day with ener-
gising and dynamic Flow yoga and ending the day with relaxing Yin yoga prac-
tice. During the day, there is a possibility of asana-clinic practices and relaxing
massage. You can attend the yoga classes as oen as you wish. Whether you wish
to enjoy the sea, walking on the beach, good food, sunbathing, strengthening
yoga practice, or relaxing massage, on this yoga holiday you are ee to do any-
thing as much or as little as you wish. – e advertisement of a Finnish yoga
studio, 2015
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
Beneath the intro text there was a piece of information about the holiday taking
place in a hotel belonging to Small Luxury Hotels chain. I felt waves of excitement
going up and down inside my body. I stared at the advertisement and noticed how
a warm and steady sensation lled my bodymind: is is it. On the basis of my
professional background of developing high quality customer experiences as well
as decades of overnighting in high quality hotels all over the world, I didn’t want
to have any insecurities or disappointments in regards of accommodation or hotel
experience during my fairly short holiday break. I was willing to pay for a premium,
high quality and trustworthy hotel experience. I read further.
Designed with relaxation in mind amidst the gentle waters of the Gulf of ai-
land. e beautiful beach getaway oers just the right blend of relaxation and
revitalisation, with stunning tropical surroundings and a choice of tantalising
indulgences. While complete tranquillity comes rst and foremost, there are also
plenty of inigorating activities to intrigue the mind, awaken the body, and sa-
tisfy the soul. –An extract om a luxury hotel website
But would a single room be available?
e holiday advertisement material above aorded radiating aective knowing that
engaged me through “visceral sensibility” (Carter, 2019; Chronis, 2015; Gherardi,
2019; Hauteserre, 2015, p. 83; Small & Harris, 2014). e illustrated pre-reexive
aects that take place in my inner body space told my conscious mind (Massumi,
2016; Simpson, 2021; ri, 2004) that this was something my body needed in
working towards equilibrium (Yakhlef, 2010). Moreover, the arousing corporeal
aectivities were not only related to the yoga practice, rather, it was the sociomaterial
practices of the holiday as a whole. e depicted practices exude lenient, calming
rhythms, freedom from external, dominating rhythms (see Lefebvre, 2004; cf. Mora
et al., 2018) and the urge to follow one’s private practices performed in one’s own
personal pace. e embodied knowing of luxury is unleashed in the ownership on
my own movement, on the self-generated moving of my body (Lefebvre, 2004) in
the trustful premises at Small Luxury Hotels (henceforth SLH). At the end of the
vignette, I am wondering if a single room is available as I consider a private room to be
one of the most fundamental elements for my restoration. at is, accommodating in
a single room aords luxury by allowing me to follow my own rhythm and sensuous
practices that form embodied privacy and peacefulness (Kral & Adey, 2008), and
are related to the moving and being bodies.
Firstly, the knowing emerging in my body guided to be freed from the dominating
rhythms of my programmed Western life during my holiday (Lefebvre, 2004).
Furthermore, this aective need of a body (Yakhlef, 2010) entailed the holiday
practice and time to be free from “pressures, schedules, deadlines, stress, from cultural
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and social constraints, from routines, banal chores, oces, economic restrictions,
and sources of authority”, luxury perceived as a scarcity of the conditions mentioned
above (Llamas, 2015; von Wallpach et al., 2020). It seemed that thanks to the
practices of the depicted holiday, it would be possible for me to keep my body and
its rhythms, habits and routines as their starting point, and not to force my body
to follow external practices ordered by the hotel or any other actor involved (see
Lefebvre, 2004; see Yakhlef, 2010). I had the idea that it would be socially acceptable
to attend or not attend any oered social practices during the holiday. It would also
be possible to choose to be still, to enjoy the luxury of aective being, as highlighted
by Rantala and Valtonen (2014) as the sensuous being of a body. As the body is
in constant movement, in an ongoing state of becoming, it feels challenging to
“plan” or know the next day’s sensory state of being beforehand (see Saxena, 2018).
Especially, in the case of long-haul trips, it is dicult to anticipate when the body
might be recovered from jet-lag and alert enough to attend yoga classes or other
holiday activities (see Valtonen et al., 2017). erefore, being able to adjust the
ongoing holiday practices to align with the inconstant knowing arising through the
body is related to the emergence of luxury.
Second, the luxury hotel’s sociomaterial practices – which I was used to –
aorded me aective trust on the functional quality of a holiday: silent rooms
with an excellent sleeping environment, attentive service and safety (see Iloranta,
2019). Naturally, a well-rested body is able to be present and conscious with every
part of the body, mind and soul, thus representing luxury to me as described in the
illustration of the hotel. Although tourists may associate luxury with a destination or
hotel as such, von Wallpach et al. (2020, p. 499) also found that luxury itself unfurls
in the feeling of being alive. us, I felt it would be pointless for me to depart for
a holiday without meeting these foundational prerequisites. us, I was willing to
pay premium for obtaining the aective trust. To have value for money is a concern
shared also among luxury consumers.
ere are aective, sensible dierences between the practices of a traditional
luxury hotel and a hotel belonging to the SLH chain. rough the embodied
knowing accumulated in my body of my earlier experiences, overnighting in global
high-class hotels, I have learned that the sociomaterial practice of SLH is less formal
that the one in traditional luxury hotels (see Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). e
premises of SLH are smaller, the ambiance is cosier and warmer, and the diusing
aectivities are more human and homely (Chapman, 2001; Kral & Adey, 2008;
Kreuzer et al., 2020). is aective knowing resonates with Kreuzer et al. (2020,
p. 483) citing Sherman (2007) according to whom caring human interaction is a
“crucial element of distinction” in the creations of luxury moments within the
practices of healthcare consumers. In a way I felt synchrony with SLHs sociomaterial
practices as their premises aroused the aectivities of trust and complete relaxation
in a calming nature environment through various sensory states of a moving, being
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
and spiritual body (see Kreuzer et al., 2020). Further, the more relaxed aective
atmosphere (see Gherardi, 2017b) of SLH enabled being more at ease (see Cruz &
Buchanan-Oliver, 2020, p. 1331; Kral & Adey, 2008). e illustrated aectivities
of cosiness and homely are disclosed in the sociomaterial practices within which
the luxury of a homely atmosphere emerges, that also Kreuzer et al. (2020) and
Sudbury-Riley et al. (2020) relate to luxury. Homeliness is performed through
diverse embodied performances, such as gaze, gestures, distances between the bodies
and in encounters in tourism spaces (Edensor, 2007). For instance, I did not want my
‘liberated’ holiday body with no make-up to not be ‘accepted’ for its external natural
habitus within the normative clothing practices of the hotel and other guests (see
Gherardi, 2009b; Reddy-Best & Olson, 2020; Small, 2016), since within a holiday
practice it is actually the ‘natural look’ without make-up that aords luxury. us,
homeliness can also be understood as an embodied knowing of ”being home in the
body” (Cruz & Buchanan-Oliver, 2020, p. 1331; ompson & Tambyah, 1999, p.
228) in one’s living and sensing body. I will continue discussing “being home in the
body” further in Chapter 5.3.1, Adjusting, in relation to clothing practices.
At the end of the vignette I am wondering whether there are single rooms available
as I consider a private room to be one of the most foundational elements for my
restoration. Obviously a single room as such provides the luxury of privacy in the
meaning of excluding those who are not in the same party (cf. Bauer et al., 2011;
Iloranta, 2019) and based on its up-graded price traditionally dened as luxury.
However, in my aective knowing, the luxury of a single room receives diverse
intensities, as sharing a room requires many kinds of bodily adaptations, compromises
as well as synchronisation with another body. Apparently, accommodating and
sleeping in the same room or apartment is an intimate practice of being together
(Valtonen & Närvänen, 2015; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011) in which the bodies aect
and are aected by each other (Massumi, 2002). Living in the same hotel room
includes a variety of bodily practices, of which some are quite intimate like sleeping
practices, (un)dressing, in-room eating and washing practices. In a shared room, the
dierent bodily movements create polyrhythms that do not necessary synchronise
with each other (see Lefebvre, 2004), like dierent sleeping rhythms, for example.
is kind of situation might prevent relaxation, depending on if you were to share
the room with a family member or, alternatively, with an unknown person. Already,
the mere presence of another person in the same space aects the other person
(see Valtonen & Närvänen, 2016). Particularly for introverts, embodied privacy,
i.e. the luxury of being alone and freedom from other people appear important for
the restoration and for balancing the bodymind. I felt that sharing an apartment
would prevent my aective ow and ‘access to my own bubble’. I aectively felt
more condent (see Colls, 2012) to choose an environment where sleeping well and
recovery would likely to be more easily accomplished. Nevertheless, I was not alone
in requesting the luxury of a single room. I learnt that the other women travelling
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solo had the same request. Some years later, I noticed that the yoga studio had added
a note of the possibility to have a single room in their advertisement. Apparently,
there were others like us.
5.2 Reconnecting
5.2.1 “My summer cottage” – Regular single room with a sheltered terrace
I always request a particular rooop room upon making my reservation – for me a hotel
room is much more than just a hotel room for overnighting or changing clothes. Already
upon making the reservation for my rst yoga holiday, I knew that in this holiday I
would spend a lot of time in my room as well – to restore myself, enjoy the peace and
staying in the harmonious premises, maybe reading a book laying on the terrace sunbed.
Most of the other yoga group members are mostly accommodated in double room
apartments approximately 200 metres om here. Despite being apart om the others,
I feel safe in my regular room as my regular room is located quite near the reception. I
prefer my regular room for many other reasons as well.
As indicated by the title of the vignette, I started to joke that this retreat holiday
with my regular room had turned into my summer cottage. I arrive every year at
the same time at the cherished familiar location to calm down from the restrains of
Western life. Just like Finns do when withdrawing to their private summer cottages
at the beginning of summer to be reawakened. us, the vignette makes visible how
embodied knowing of luxury emerges within the familiar practices (Chronis, 2015;
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Waitt & Duy, 2010). e attachment to the “home-
like”, intimate practices (see Saxena, 2018, p. 106) and aectivities of safety (Colls,
2012; see Gherardi, 2019) allow faster engagement in a “ ‘cocoon-like’ aective
space”, (Saxena, 2018, p. 106) in the “realisation of the peace” (see Sudbury-Riley et
al., 2019, p. 453).
In visiting the same location, I know the general practices pertaining in the social
and material environment of the hotel, its surroundings, yoga and especially how
to synchronise my private practices and rhythms to the external ones (see Lefebvre,
2004). I know the various spaces of the hotel; I am familiar with the general “rules”
and the code of conduct in this hotel’s practices as well as the appropriate ways of
behaviour and clothing, so that I also feel comfortable in my body (see Bissell, 2008;
Kreuzer et al., 2020), and, nally, how a woman moving alone around the hotel
premises is encountered by the personnel. Knowing the familiar environment and
its sociomaterial practices is a way of ordering, holding practices together ‘in the
correct way’ (Gherardi, 2019, p. 157) that supports attuning to the ow of luxury.
It is related, for instance, to Sudbury-Riley et al. (2020, p. 453), who nd that within
the familiar community practices hospice patients conceived the return of “a sense of
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agency” as luxury. Accordingly, in visiting the familiar premises, there is no need to
disperse the energy on connecting to totally new surroundings and its sociomaterial
practices. e smooth, familiar reconnecting aords the capacity to engage into my
ow right from the beginning of my week-long holiday (Chaplin, 2002, p. 218). e
aective knowing of familiarity and safety reduces the stress aroused in a new tourism
practices (see Saxena, 2018). Indeed, in accordance with Edensor & Holloway’s
(2008, p. 488): “ordering familiar and homely rhythms” induces “dwelling that
shapes the ways in which places are encountered and perceived”. For me – a woman
travelling alone – this kind of aective knowing within familiar practices provides
physical safety, which is the prerequisite for opening the path to luxury. I am not
travelling there to experience a new hotel or to do sightseeing (see Urry, 1990), but
to dwell in embodied harmony.
e second part of the vignette exemplies how the luxury of a single room arises
through the aectivities of safety. However, I have to admit that upon booking my
rst yoga holiday, I was thinking whether the other members of the group would
consider me strange as I was accommodating in a single room located away from
the others. erefore, as mentioned in the Orienting chapter, at the time being I felt
somehow relieved to hear that the other women travelling solo had also requested a
single room. us, I would not stand out so much from our group with my special
requests (see Haanpää, 2017, p. 88). As there were two of us, I felt it was more
socially acceptable to be accommodated in a single room. Nevertheless, later it was
discovered that our rooms were close to each other. Still, we respected each other’s
privacy during the entire duration of the holiday. I was able to maintain my “own
free space” as discussed in the Orienting chapter 5.1.3. Nonetheless, as that was my
rst yoga holiday in the premises, having another group member accommodating
next door provided me with the aectivities of safety through social anity. Along
the yearly visits in becoming familiar with the place and its practices served the same
purpose in the provision on safety. is kind of physical and mental feeling of safety
arises from repetitive activities and becoming familiar with the situated practices (see
Frykman, 2020, p. 155) and, thus, they are meaningful in my embodied knowing of
luxury as a woman travelling alone.
e following vignette continues to unfold the ‘other reasons’ aecting the
emergence of embodied luxury within intimate, familiar practices. It continues the
debates on how the bodily comfort (Bissell, 2008), my cocoon, is supported by the
particular architecture of the terrace.
e windows of my room and terrace open to the East, to the dawn. e terrace is large
and sheltered enough, about 15 square metres. I guess this is the largest terrace and
maybe the most private terrace of the hotel as it is located “in the hug of the building” in
the L-corner. All rooms are slightly dierent in their shape, and their terraces are not
next to each other. It is impossible to glimpse into the neighbour’s terrace.
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
e vignette above unveils the embodied knowing of luxury, how it arises through
the particular architectural form of the material terrace (Kral & Adey, 2008)
and, more importantly, through its opening facing a particular compass point (see
Reckwitz, 2012; Rickly-Boyd & Metro-Roland, 2010). Seeing and feeling the dawn,
the rst tender sunbeams of the day and awaking at the same pace with the sun allow
the gentle rousing for the body aer the night. It urges the body to follow the cosmic
time together with the sun (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). e sheltered terrace with
a ‘proper’ compass point aords a resource to follow the natural chronobiological
rhythm of the body (Lefebvre, 2004). e reconnection to the knowing of luxury
occurs through aectivities of being able to awake and live together with the cosmic
rhythm of life ordered by the sun and not through the dominant linear time followed
in my everyday life (see Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). ese thoughts
may be seen to specify the assumptions made by von Wallpach et al. (2020, p. 499)
of luxury unfurling as consumers “feel reconnected with the nature” (see also Bauer
et al., 2011). Further, earlier luxury literature acknowledges that a particular hotel
room view creates a touch of luxury for customers (Harkison et al., 2017) and the
vignette above allows one to understand the statement in the light of embodied
practicing.
Secondly, the material form of the terrace facilitates the reconnection through
its sheltering nature which allows having the luxury of being free from the gaze of
others (see Valtonen & Veijola, 2011; see von Wallpach et al., 2020). e vignette
illustrates the emergence of knowing within embodied privacy practices. is way
the luxury of embodied privacy aorded by the single room (as discussed in the rst
vignette in this subchapter) entails also the sheltering form of the terrace. Deviating
from traditional views, it is not only the size of the terrace or a sea view that makes
the room luxurious, but it is also the sheltering material form that aects the private
embodied practices, thus contributing to the reconnection to luxury. As my intimate
practices of the sheltering terrace are an integral part of my knowing of luxury, with
the following vignette I will unfold their rhythmic and aective nature in further
depth.
Aer the morning yoga and swim, I return to my room. It’s almost half past nine in
the morning. e sun is already shining, burning hot. Fortunately, my regular room’s
terrace is located half in the sun and half in the shade. is enables me to enjoy the
in-room breakfast in the shadow but still cherishing the outdoor warm climate I have
been longing for.
Aer the shower, I choose to wear only a very light, airy dress that coers me om the
sun. It feels liberating as there is no need to blanket my skin with any sticky sun screen
or make-up. e private terrace allows me to enjoy the warm and humid climate in the
shade.
I still have time to pause, to enjoy this miraculous moment before breakfast arrives
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Eskola: Exploring Embodied Luxury
as planned. I make myself comfortable on the terrace sunbed and sigh. I enjoy the warm
humid gentle breezes of air caressing my body, touching my nude puried skin under the
airy dress and feeling the wind blowing my damp hair.
No one can see me on my sheltered terrace – in my own bubble. So calm… Birds
are singing, butteries are uttering around me, and the sea is roaming in its regular
manner which I am already used to. It is very common that I am dwelling in these
feelings until aernoon with my lazy breakfast while enjoying a lot of coee. I change my
sitting and lying position, rearrange the terrace furniture according to the moement of
the sun so that I can enjoy the warmth in the shade.
e vignette illustrates my routine-type morning practices that are aected and
entangled with the particular architecture in the form of a sheltered terrace (Gherardi,
2017c; Kral & Adey, 2008). It demonstrates how the body is reconnecting into
luxury within practices that are related to the ‘proper’ rhythm, surrounding material
and natural elements as well as the eect of clothing (see Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020)
and the weather (see Rantala et al., 2011). e entanglement of these resources
enables the appropriate way of dwelling on the terrace which allows the knowing of
luxury to emerge.
Similarly to the earlier vignette, this one highlights the material, architectural
form of the terrace contributing to the reconnection with the knowing of luxury
within the aective practices. However, here the focus is not on the compass point
as such as suggested by the material form of the terrace aording a suecent amount
of sun shine, shade and shelter, but also on the possibility to be touched by the wind
in a pleasant manner (see Ingold, 2007). As only one ank of the terrace wall is
fully open and the other ank half open, the speedy breezes of wind (typical to the
area) do not strike my body and make me disorderly with their constant uttery
movement. Instead, the terrace architecture has the power to tame the rhythm of
the breezes to suit my sensitive morning body and mood (see Saldanha, 2002). is
allows for more engaging socialising with the nature and weather as my Nordic
body prioritises spending time outdoors, to be touched by the warm and humid
air (Ingold, 2007; Jensen et al., 2015; Kolehmainen & Kinnunen, 2020, p. 102;
Obrador Pons, 2007; Rantala et al., 2011) and breath the invigorating air (Low &
Hsu, 2007). Occasionally, I retreat to cool my heated body in the air-conditioned
space of the room, then returning back to the gentle air of the terrace. us, the
vignette forwards my embodied practices with the diverse terrace furniture which
can easily be rearranged away from the moving sun to the shadow, and they also
provide diverse ways to sit or lay on them (see Bissell, 2008). Notably, the emergence
of luxury may take place in practices related to the mundane objects and furniture
such as chairs (Banister et al., 2020).
Further, having in-room breakfast aords my body the luxury of just enjoying
being in its most natural state. I am not compelled to follow the normative clothing
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practices of a breakfast room in terms of my external habitus. Again, the body is
freed from sociomaterial constraints (Llamas, 2015). On my sheltered terrace, there
is no need to apply any make-up on my face or cover my skin with any sticky sun
screen. I prefer being without any sun screen so that the nude and pure skin is be
able to breath in direct connection with the warm and humid air. Socialising with
the sun, wind, warm and humid air (Ingold, 2007, p. S19) without any sun screens
produces a dierent kind of embodied knowing of luxury. is being an example of
how the most natural state of the puried showered body, and getting dressed in a
particular form of an airy dress became elevated as luxury. is entangled connecting
between the puried skin, the dress and the natural environment aligns with the
notions of luxury in Hemetsberger et al., (2012), as the vignette above furthers the
earlier discussion in unveiling their aective emergence that is displayed in diverse
forms in the vignette.
e end of the vignette exemplies the embodied knowing of luxury within the
agencement in which embodied privacy, mingling with the natural environment
(Ingold, 2007) and having in-room breakfast become connected. Signicantly,
having the in-room breakfast frees my body from the linear time of having breakfast
ordered by the breakfast room serving time. e dominant external rhythms
would disrupt my harmonious rhythm arising from my own practices and rhythms
(Lefebvre, 2004). If I had the breakfast at the hotel breakfast room, it would mean
following the linear time of the breakfast service.
It is getting dark when I return om evening yoga. Terrace lights glimmer and welco-
me me back. e housekeeper is just leaving my room and completing the turn-around
service. In my room, I am wrapped with so lighting. e curtains are drawn and a
lemongrass aroma oil candle glows steadily. Slippers are set aside the bed, water bottles
relled and my jewels arranged nicely on the bedside table. Peaceful evening atmosphe-
re… I feel secured.
e above illustrated how turndown service is a common practice in luxury hotels.
Traditionally thinking, in turndown service luxury arises from the functional
practice of preparing the room into a multisensory space with various clues (e.g.
see Iloranta, 2019), such as dim lighting or aromas to guide the guest towards the
evening ambiance and a good night’s sleep. However, in my aective knowing – as
a woman travelling alone – the importance of lighting practice provides another
element of cosiness (Bille, 2015), but even more so, of safety. e set lighting aects
my bodily comfort (see Bissell, 2008) and aords continuation of the embodied
ow of luxury from the evening yoga into my in-room evening practices.
In my earlier discussions, I already considered the agency of natural light to my
embodied practices concerning dressing, for example. In this vignette, the attention
turns to the service practices around articial light, and how the dimming practice
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materialises as an aective knowing of comfort and safety elevated as luxury. Various
light practices provide a particular aective feel in a room (Bille, 2015). Similarly, the
vignette describes the feeling in my room rising from dim lighting practice, which is
also aected by the rhythm of light emitted by the aroma oil candle. A candle with
a still ame provides a so feeling in the room, compared to the uttering rhythm
of a candle which an imaginative body might perceive as daunting when preventing
the sense of peacefulness. e turndown service obviously guides the guest towards
relaxation as the dimming practice also provides a signal to my biological body that
the night is approaching. e light practice also connects and gives rhythm to my
evening practices as the service personnel has illuminated light in the bathroom
and next to the bed (see Kosonen et al., 2017; see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). Bille
& Sørensen (2007, p. 264) note that “light is more than just a medium; it evokes
agency”. Appropriate lighting set by the turndown service evokes in me an aective
“presence of a home” (Bille, 2015, p. 60) in “my summer cottage” as well as the
feeling of being protected even though it is dark outside. Being secured may create a
feeling of luxury (Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020, p. 453); I can rest without worries. It is
in and through these cosy and safe practices that luxury is kept owing.
5.2.2 Tranquilising service encounters
Safely here. It is 1 pm ai time but in my inner body time it is 8 am. I have 16 hours
of travelling and a sleepless night in the aircra behind me as our minibus om the
airport arrives at the hotel. e personnel are ready to welcome us at the main entrance.
I am awaking om the naps I had during the bus drive, but still feeling groggy aer the
long night ight. My tiny feeling of unease and headache have faded away a bit into the
background. I guess I am able to survive until the evening yoga and night.
e drive was smoother than before. is was probably due to this new minibus.
It had better suspension, spacy seats, and conenient, silently owing air-conditioning
which the driver tuned according to our wishes. And we didn’t drive the bendy road
this time. e smoothness may also have something to do with the driving style of the
chaueur. In the lap of the stately seat, I was able to wrap myself into a fetal ball as the
steady rhythm of the drive soothed me to sleep.
Before leaving this comfort nest, I take a sip of cold water oered by the chaueur
upon leaving the bus.
is vignette describes a minibus transit practice from the airport to the hotel.
Within the practice, the inner rhythm of the tourist’s jet-lagged body becomes
connected with various rhythmic practices. e agencement of the diverse technical
rhythms of the vehicle, the chaueur’s rhythmic driving style and conicting linear
and chronobiological rhythms aect the knowing of a tired travelling body (see
Edensor & Holloway, 2008; Lefebvre, 2004; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Valtonen
et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2019). While the minibus transit journey as such might
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not be seen as luxury, the practice is part of the hotel’s service system, and as a
“connected service” makes the hotel’s transit service a part of the luxury hotel’s
experience (Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020, p. 454). us, the embodied knowing takes
place en route, in an “inbetween space”, which entails capacity to engage into the
knowing of luxury at a faster pace. Within the sociomaterial practice of a minibus
transit, the arrhythmic state of a body is engaged in tranquilising aecto-rhythmic
practices which enable the body to reconnect into the knowing of luxury in a more
uent way.
Indeed, the knowing of luxury arises as a smooth embodied synchrony
within practices. e synchrony takes place not solely inbetween humans or in a
psychological sense (see Kreuzer et al., 2020), but is also accomplished within
embodied sociomaterial practices and their appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature
(see Katila, Kuismin et al., 2019). e minibus transit practice naturally involves
social actors in the form of a chaueur and a tourist as well as a material actor in the
form of a minibus, all of which become connected (see Edensor & Holloway, 2008;
Wilson et al., 2019). Actors, such as the chaueur’s rhythm of driving, speed, the
texture of the chosen road (straight and sleek instead of curly and bumpy), and the
technical features of the bus such as appropriate ow of the air and comfort of seats,
all aect embodied knowing of luxury.
Further, service encounters in luxury service essentially involve encountering
tourist as a human being (Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020; see Iloranta, 2021). It
necessitates appreciating also the knowing arising within the tourist’s inner body
(Jensen et al., 2015; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017; Valtonen &
Närvänen, 2015). My unease, headache and the dehydration of the jet-lagged body
were eased within the practice. Indeed, a connected luxury service (Sudbury-Riley
et al., 2020) becomes a service encounter entangled with the outer and inner body’s
moving needs (see Yakhlef, 2010). is implies transporting the body from the
airport to the hotel and, at the same time, taking care of the tourist’s various inner
body needs to provide comfortable and smooth luxury service (see Bissell, 2008).
e next vignette shows us how the appropriate aecto-rhythmic practices in the
service encounters of the hotel’s breakfast room give arise to the embodied knowing
of luxury.
I have had breakfast in the half-opened breakfast room a few times. Couples and in-
dividual guests enjoying their unhurried breakfast, in benevolent silence or leisurely
chatting with each other. No children around as is the case here. I remember the at-
mosphere there; as if we would have a common agreement to nurture this harmonious,
warm-hearted atmosphere. No one seemed to be in a hurry. e oices were mued, no
one was running about and the employees were moing or rather oating between the
tables and setting the tableware in a smooth and silent manner. Fans hanging om the
ceiling created a slight moement of the air in the tropical morning, as harmonious as
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in Shangri-La. I was served breakfast with caring, almost imperceptible gestures. No
one wondered where my husband was or if I was really having breakfast all alone. ose
wonderings that I would be able to read om their body language, small micro-gestures,
tiny moements of the eyes that tell so much more than mere words. I was encountered
as an ‘equal’ along with the other guests. It sometimes feels good to ‘just’ be with me and
myself. I just wanted to be, to enjoy, to feel this moment, time and place while tasting the
delicacies of breakfast.
In the sociomaterial practice of a breakfast room, luxury emerges not only through
the served delicacies of a luxury hotel’s breakfast room, but within diverse embodied
practices which diuse harmonious aectivities that elevate the breakfast into the
spehere of luxury. As discussed earlier in the search of a peaceful environment, I had
chosen a holiday resort not targeted to families with children. e bodies moving in
various ways in the shared space aect and are aected by diverse forms of embodied
knowing, including kinaesthetic knowing unfolding through various body gestures,
ways of moving and bodily choreographies (Haanpää, 2017, p. 80; Valtonen et al.,
2010).
e body becomes connected with the aecto-rhythmic moving of other actors
(bodies and fan) and particularly the personnel’s rhythm of working with work-
related material artefacts. e chairs slide back into place without a screeching
sound when they touch the oor, and the cutlery, plates and glasses nd their place
without clatter. Still, the service is ecient and smooth. In my embodied knowing,
the harmonious luxury of the breakfast room practice is formed above all in the
synchronous practices of the rhythmic slowness of the sociomaterial practices
space (see Cruz & Buchanan-Oliver, 2020; Joy & Sherry, 2003). e bodies move
smoothly, which aords the peace and harmony that I was used to on my previous
work and holiday trips, and which I expected of this retreat holiday setting as well.
Since luxury service is a multi-sensory experience, a certain kind of graceful bodily
movement that supports the service environment is part of the embodied knowing
of luxury.
I felt that the personnel were also at ease with me sitting there alone. I was
not subjected to extra care, curious questions or gazes from the sta. is in turn
aorded a soothing knowing of luxury. I was able to enjoy my breakfast in peace and
to know a ‘normal feeling of acceptability”, care as part of the breakfast practices
of a luxury hotel. e sta was not bothered by me sitting there alone (cf. Bianchi,
2016, p. 204). e personnel recognised that I was one of the yoga group members
or they were just used to having women travelling solo as their guest. I have always
been able to experience warm-hearted caring, which is not only transmitted through
cognitive knowing. I feel that warmth and caring are somehow transmitted within
a more holistic encounter, which is based on how the personnel is able to attune to
their customers beyond verbal communication. Sensing each other’s body language,
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sometimes we only exchange a few mandatory polite phrases with the personnel;
sometimes we have a benevolent chat. In this hotel and breakfast room, the social
environment seemed to be balanced. I did not feel embarrassed or out of place, even
though I was sitting alone at the table.
e calming aecto-rhythmic practices are also a relevant part of knowing luxury
within other practices in which the hotel’s employees are inherent actors. e
following short vignettes demonstrate how in the holistic luxury experience the
appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature in the beginning and ending part of the event
are essential.
As I arrive in the spa, I am oered a moment to sit for a while in the spa lobby. e
Massage erapist oats in silently and asks gently how I am feeling. At the same time,
she oers me herb tea and we have a nice small chat. But not too much, to keep in my
own bubble.
---
At the end of the treatment, the Massage erapist touches my arm gently and says in a
whisper: “Take your time, no rush.” I know that I do not have to hurry. ere is all the
time I need.
Back in the spa lobby, I am oered some more esh tea and a comfortable place to sit,
to enjoy the warm touches that I still feel in my body. I may leave the lobby in my own
pace.
e short vignettes above illuminate how the embodied knowing of luxury becomes
available within the practices involving the personnel. e aecto-rhythmic nature
of embodied moving, gestures and discursive practice emanate the ‘proper’ rhythm.
Moving soly and silently along with verbal communication is essential, as illustrated
in the opening vignette of the thesis.
e vignettes show how the spa treatment practice exceeds beyond the specic
treatment room and treatment as such. e aecto-rhythmic nature of arriving and
leaving practices are notied as essential in the forming of luxury. e personnel’s
way of forming the message that the treatment has ended involves a particular
aecto-rhythmic mode in which bodily and verbal practices entangle. is entangled
practice creates embodied knowing, not only about the end of the treatment but
about there being all the time needed to leave the spa room. ere is no rush to
move my body quickly away from the room, even if there would be another booking
coming according to the notion of linear time. is particular communication
practice is supported by the personnel’s rhythmic body language. e Massage
erapist has attuned herself to my embodied state and “harnesses” her aective
knowing into visible actions (see Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020). is particular nature
of practice facilitates the aer-treatment dwelling in the aectivities of luxury, as
demonstrated by the other vignette.
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e following vignette illustrating an encountering with the piccolo is short but
aectively powerful.
Upon arriving in the hotel room: e piccolo places my luggage neatly and with the
correct side up on its reserved place in the room. While leaving the room our eyes do not
meet, but the piccolo raises his hand to a kind sign of good bye and closes the door in a
silent benevolent and cosy manner.
e proper calming rhythm oozes here in the personnel’s slow, but steady, smooth
and competent performing. e gestures illustrate no mannerism, they are not
dominating or fake but tender-hearted and emanate caring (Lefebvre, 2004). is
cosy rhythm of acting and being aords a particular order that gives me the capacity
to engage into my own soothing embodied ow of luxury. In luxury experience,
cordial service emanates also from the gestures of the personnel (e.g. Iloranta, 2019)
that are beyond mannerism. Attuning to the proper ow is aected within a practice
in which humans encounter each other as caring humans; it is more than solely an
employee-customer encounter (see Kreuzer et al., 2020; Sudbury-Riley et al., 2020).
e nature of encountering practice emanates returning home.
5.2.3 The Sacred Yoga Shala
Morning yoga. As usual, I am early. I have settled myself in my own spot in the beautiful
garden where our yoga practice takes place. I lie on my back, knees bent towards each
other. I sense my body lying under the agrant angipani trees, under the morning sky
and in this space. I feel my body grounding to the gravity of the Mother Earth. I gently
close my eyes, turn my attention inwards to sense the energies owing in the place and
inside my body…
In the background, I sense the arrivals of the other members of our group. I feel their
moing sleepy bodies, the unrolling of yoga mats, so yawns, smooth ways to settle on
their yoga mats… Wonderful, respectful silence, like a common agreement, not just
during the practice but also in other relations. I feel safe in this cotton-so atmosphere.
Without opening my eyes, I feel more determined steps. Our teacher arrives. It
is time to start our common practice. Tadasana – mountain pose. I let my gaze rest
forward down, gently focused. e teacher’s so oice instructs us to take the rst
inhale… and exhale. A sense of peacefulness suuses my body and mind. Sans glance I
sense the teacher’s guiding and the moement of the co-yogis’ bodies as we relate to the
common moement of Sun Salutation (an ancient sequence of 12 yoga poses). Urhva
Hastanasana – standing posture with hands up, I reach the sky with my hands. I feel
the releasing breaths aside me. Uttanasana – Standing Forward Fold. In bowing we
show our gratitude to the sun and a new day of life. Ardha Uttanasana – Half Standing
Forward Fold, I open my heart. Bodies moe together in unison, repeating the ow of
asanas. I inhale the energy of the postures. e heat of the sun starts to be burning and
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the air is getting thicker. Exhaling through the mouth reduces the heat inside the body.
Nordic bodies are not yet used to this tropical climate.
As usual, something magical happens in yoga practice. We gather together, start our
common practice and along the daily yoga practice this space is lled with a kind of
sacred and empowering energy. It is a space created by each of us, emerging om the
energies of all participants. From the national team level athletes to the husbands who
have been drawn here by their wives. e participants of this yoga holiday have changed
along the years. Looking at it om the outside, one would say that our group is very
heterogeneous. Still, the ambiance we create together is always quite similar. Or is it
only me feeling like this… ere are many kinds of energies which take the shape as one
uniting us together. We are one.
Already under the Orienting chapter I discussed my aective dream arising within
my regular yoga practice. I described the harmonising sociomaterial practices taking
place in various yoga studios where all mundane worries were le aside. As stated
in the vignette above, these familiar practices are taking place in the yoga retreat
holiday, I am able to sense a similar attachment (d’Hauteserre, 2015; Gherardi,
2009b) within which the (re)connection into the embodied knowing of luxury is
enabled.
Here, the embodied knowing of luxury arises within the reconnecting agencement
in which the embodied practicing is entangled with the aectivities and rhythms
of natural and human actors. Attuning to the ow of luxury is facilitated within
the ‘appropriate’ aecto-rhythmic practices that emerge in the silent and tranquil
performances of yoga bodies, which also Mora et al. (2018) note to create harmony
for the mind and body in the creation of a conscious multisensory luxury experience.
e vignette describes how this reconnecting is nurtured within the ‘proper’ order of
sociomaterial practices (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019) performed along the common
yoga practice that allows the healing yogic space to unfold. Below, I illustrate how
the embodied knowing of luxury arises in the entangling practices of myself, fellow
yogis and collective yoga practice that allow the emergence of particular yoga place,
our common Yoga Shala (in Sanskrit home; yoga space; a gathering place for yoga
practice).
Firstly, in the beginning the reconnecting is facilitated in the practice of arriving
well in time in order to have a private quiet moment before the beginning of joint
yoga practice. With the practice of arriving well in time, participants show respect
to the place, other participants and the joint yoga practice. It is part of Yoga Shalas’s
code of conduct. I use this time in settling down into the place with my body, mind
and spirit. As I close my eyes I (re)connect into another reality (see Valtonen et
al., 2017). I attune to the environment with my ve external as well as inner body
senses (Chronis, 2015; Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020). In settling down, I sense the
harmony of the place rst through my body’s external senses and gradually move to
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sense more carefully the “aective energies” circulating in the space (Lobo, 2014)
to feel how they synchronise with the energies of my body today (see Philo et al.,
2015). at is, “before we can begin to balance, we need to explore our connection
with the earth both imaginatively and physically” (Lea, 2008, p. 94) as “by grasping
the gravity of the earth we become connected to the soil, from which plants and
trees receive their nourishment” (Scaravelli, 1991, p. 41, as cited in Lea, 2008, p.
94; Massumi, 2002). It is through the spiritual practice that yoga aords “harmony
and balance between the interior and the exterior, the mind and body” (Mora et
al., 2018, p. 176).
Reconnecting within this kind of attuning is a foundational part of each yoga
practice which demands the participants to arrive to the location well in time.
Arriving well in time is part of Yoga Shalas’s code of conduct. Similarly, a part of the
code of conduct or ‘dressage’ as Lefebvre (2004) calls it, are the described discreet
and silent moving bodies. In dressage, bodies have learned to know the proper
rhythms to move as a result of bodily training (Lefebvre, 2004; Saldanha, 2002;
Waitt & Duy, 2010), like here the bodies have learned the “appropriate” way of
performing along with practicing yoga in various yoga studios. In other words, the
yoga bodies have become embodied with so and silent ways of settling down on
the mats ahead of the practice as their bodies have been aected and have aected
within the sociomaterial practice of yoga practice. Meaningfully – as noted in
the vignette – this dressage corresponds with other yoga retreat holiday practices
as well, which supports the owing of embodied knowing of luxury. is smooth
embodied ow enables capacity to the holistic (re)connecting into luxury within the
yoga retreat holiday practice. Similarly, exemplifying luxury by another type of of
practice: in the case of salsa, luxury spreads out to the general atmosphere of a salsa
event through the collective performances of dancing and smiling which also link
people together (Holmqvist et al., 2020). However, in the vignette the practicing
of silence and quiet moving connects the bodies together also beyond the core yoga
practice. In fact, yoga spaces encourage yoga participants to immerse themselves in
meditative and silent performances (Mora et al., 2018, p. 174) in the provision of
“multisensory luxury experience” which is part of the healing nature of Yoga Shala.
Just like in churches, silence resides and emerges naturally in a yoga space, too; it
is expected from everyone (see Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019). e quiet and
respectful practices of the yoga space support the bodily transition into the calm
(see Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020) and contemplative state for the coming practice.
Undoubtedly, silence has become a form of extraordinary luxury which entails a
healing power (Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2019) for the contemporary bodies that
are continuously aected by arrhythmia (Lefebvre, 2004) in the sounds of their
mundane life.
Together with other yoga participants, I can safely close my eyes to tune in or to
“surrender and catch” (see Gherardi, 2019, p. 330–331) the ow of luxury – not
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through music like in the study of Saldanha (2002) but through a good moment
of silence. In yoga space, good silence receives its meaning not through a total
absence of sounds, but by the proper, organic sounds belonging to the space, and
the participant are invited to turn their senses inwards (see Mora et al., 2018).
erefore, “turning attention inwards” as mentioned in the vignette, shows how the
aective knowing of tourism space unfolds beyond the tourist gaze (cf. Urry, 1991).
In addition, reconnecting to the familiar energy also takes place as the body interacts
with land and gravity, i.e., the property of the land (Massumi, 2002). Being open
implies being aected by the gravitational eld of the earth (Massumi, 2002, p. 103)
as I am lying in contact with the vibrating earth or ground (Lefebvre, 2004; Waitt &
Duy, 2010) and in embodied moving in yoga asanas. ese ‘grounding’ aectivities
emerge as the knowing of luxury as they bring “harmony and balance between the
interior and the exterior, the mind and the body” (see Mora et al., 2018, p. 176).
Grounding, balance, means to become embodied (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019)
with the surrounding space: the earth, air, sky and sun which create Yoga Shala’s
aective eld (see Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017) together with the other yoga bodies
as well as yoga practice in itself. However, becoming embodied within the space
conditions surrendering, an openness to being aected within natural actors and
“cosmological reality” (see Lefebvre, 2004, p. 60; Chronis, 2015; Massumi, 2002),
dwelling in the “open” (Ingold, 2007, p. S20). As suggested by Hemetsberger et al.
(2012, p. 486), this kind of relating with nature could be called “oscillating with
nature” or intensive “feeling of unity” aligning Hemetsberger et al. (2012, p. 486)”
that opens the gate to luxury.
Secondly, within the agencement embodied knowing of luxury attuning
continues to take place along the core yoga practice which bonds the bodies
together and through which the healing yoga space is shaping. Embodied knowing
of luxury emerges as bodies are moving together in the same pace, but also through
collaborative respiration while breathing in and breathing out. e rhythmic
breathing and coincident moving from asana to asana engage the participants into
the common yoga ow. A mellow way of speaking is essential (Mora et al., 2018)
as the yoga teacher facilitates the practice. In providing a gentle rhythmic order,
the teacher furthers the ow of practice and her practice creates a resource for the
aective atmosphere. is being in accordance with the earlier example of how salsa
events are facilitated by salsa teachers and the participant are joining with happy
music and fast rhythms in the construction of a luxury moment (Holmqvist et al.,
2020). Furthermore, just like salsa dancing, yoga is an intimate practice that brings
bodies together. In addition to collaborative moving, the yogic bodies are conjoined
to each other in the conscious practice of breathing (cf. Valtonen & Närvänen,
2016). Paying attention to breathing, the conscious inhaling and exhaling can be
related to Hauge’s (2013) notion of a strategic way of producing knowing through
particular air practices. e bodies next to each other inhale and exhale the same
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air at the same tempo which makes the yoga practice intimate. e bodies hear and
feel the respiration of other bodies. ey share the same air. e tropical air ows
between the bodies bringing knowledge of the surrounding bodies. e bodies hear
the rhythm and arrhythmia of breathing bodies aside, “the warmth of the breath”
and the smell of the breaths (Valtonen & Närvänen, 2016). Indeed, Low and Hsu
(2007, p. S8) make a special notice of the knowing formed on the smell which in the
vignette is getting increasingly intense as the yoga practice proceeds. Besides the smell
of the air owing from exhaling, the breezes bring the smell or even drops of sweat
touching my skin. Bodies listen to other bodies (Hauge, 2013, p. 184). Listening
through the sensation of air “is motoric as well, kinaesthetic” (original Italics) just
like bodies “listen to music with their muscles” (Massumi, 2002; Sacks, 2008, p. xii
citing Nietzsche, as cited in Hauge 2013, p. 184; see Chronis, 2015). Hauge’s (2013)
notes that in yogic air practices bodies are not only listening and sensing through
their ears or external senses, but with their whole bodies as material bodies echo
“vibrotactile” knowing (Henriques, 2010; Massumi, 2002, p. 78). Similarly, Haanpää
(2017) suggests that the entire body is engaged in knowledge production and relates
kinaesthetic sensing to corporeal intelligence. Knowledge is transferred through
the multiple use of air. e communion among yoga participants emerges not only
within collaborate moving but, in line with Low and Hsu (2007),within sharing the
breathing which bond the yoga participants together and creates a common yoga
space. Indeed, within the joint yoga practicing my body feels like “being at home in
the body” (original Italics) (see Cruz & Buchanan-Oliver, 2020, p. 1331; ompson
& Tambyah, 1999, p. 228).
e end of the vignette takes notice of the common energy emerging in and
through diverse forms of physical bodies or sociodemographic backgrounds.
Signicantly, all kinds of bodies are accepted in the common yoga practice (see
Matteucci, 2014). e luxury moments of communion are not dependant on social
classications (Holmqvist et al., 2020). In yoga holiday practices, participants come
together to be aected by the collaborative atmosphere or, as in the vignette, the
“energy” emanates along the common yoga practice. It is about being one corporeal
crowd, a “collective subject” in which “esh-and-blood” bodies pulsate together with
various rhythms, heartbeats and muscle contradictions (Henriques, 2010, p. 67)
As expressed by Philo et al. (2015, p. 39), participants “energise themselves” in the
“sites” (original Italics) of yoga practice. It is the common energy that diuses in
corporeal being together, the collaborating bodily moving and shared breathing that
allows the becoming of luxury in the healing yoga space.
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5.3. Adjusting
5.3.1 Getting dressed for the breakfast room
Aer the morning swim, I begin to consider the suitable clothing for the hotel’s breakfast
room. Taking into account the tropical climate and the fact of being on holiday, as little
clothing as possible and their sense of comfort seem appealing. Nonetheless, these clothes
should still be chaste for the luxury hotel’s breakfast room and moment of eating.
My stomach is still swollen because of the ight journey, time dierence, irregular
eating and sleeping. I don’t want to annoy it any further, not with any tight clothing.
erefore, comfortable and elastic clothing seems tempting: my stomach would probably
swell even more by having breakfast. Still, this is a hotel belonging to the luxury hotel
chain, which may put some “restrictions” on the style of clothing I ponder. I spread the
clothes that I have with me om home on the bed in my room. I chew over suitable
clothing and dierent options… and end up with a compromise.
As I arrive at the breakfast room, I sweep my gaze for a wide look for the general
dress code. I feel relieved. It seems that my choice has hit it right. e women’s gossamer
summer dresses dance in small breezes of air in the half-open breakfast room. Men’s
casual t-shirts are remarkably white and ironed. Cool, light, not too revealing clothing.
I feel uplied but comfortable in my plain, so, cotton, aniline red glowing dress. I
am able to enjoy the delicacies of the served breakfast and my stomach is allowed to
breathe eely under the protection of the stretchy, loose dress that the warm wind utters
playfully towards my feet.
e vignette demonstrates how the practice of having breakfast in the luxury hotel’s
breakfast room unbounds beyond the hotel’s luxurious surroundings and excessive
breakfast buet (cf. Harkison et al., 2017). It shows how the embodied knowing
of luxury arises through negotiations that move within spatio-temporal, normative
and cultural practices (see Gherardi, 2019; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). Here,
the embodied knowing of luxury is heavily aected by the clothing practices (see
e.g. Simpson, 2021; Zanette et al., 2022). Still, rather than forwarding the visual
aesthetics of a luxury dress (Holmqvist et al., 2020), wearing clothing that allows the
stomach, the living body to take its natural shape and have space to move freely in its
natural breathing pace, aords intensive aectivities which enable the unfolding of
luxury in the situated practice. In doing this, the vignette illustrates how the invisible
breathing materialises within embodied sociomaterial practices of clothing (see
Macnaughton, 2020).
Similarly, the beginning of the vignette illustrates how the tropical air materialises
in clothing practice. It illuminates how the tropical weather aects the breakfast
practice. e Nordic body that has just landed from a cold climate is not yet used to the
hot and humid climate. erefore, the relationship with the air guides the knowing of
wearing the most appropriate dress. Secondly, as illustrated in the Orienting chapter,
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during my holiday I wished to be free from obligations, dominating practices, set
to my body in my quotidian life (Lefebvre, 2004; see Edensor, 2000, p. 338, 2001)
which naturally pertain also clothing practices. However, the vignette illustrates
how I wish not to suer from my external habitus not being accepted within the
normative clothing practices of the hotel and the other guests (see Edensor, 2001, p.
72; Schatzki, 2002). Yet, it also illustrates how the embodied negotiations are heavily
aected by the embodied knowing arising as “being home in the body” (see Cruz &
Buchanan-Oliver, 2020, p. 1331; ompson & Tambyah, 1999, p. 228) within the
comfortable, elastic clothing that would not force my stomach into a dierent shape
than it is naturally seeking at that moment (Eskola et al., 2022, pp. 46–47). In other
words, I appreciate my inner body’s knowing of its jet-lagged state (see Valtonen et
al., 2017). I am adjusting the equilibrium inbetween the diverse forms of knowing
(see Yakhlef, 2010) as the physical appearance aects the mood and enjoyment of
various activities, like here the enjoyment of having breakfast (Small, 2016, pp. 18,
19). Even though I was familiar with the luxury hotel practice, this was my rst
yoga holiday in the given environment. If my choice of clothing would have been
against the general dress culture or the knowing residing in my body, I would have
felt uncomfortable throughout the breakfast and would not have enjoyed having
breakfast as much (see Entwistle, 2000, p. 336). erefore, beyond the exclusive
food and drink oered at the luxury hotel’s breakfast room, the knowing of luxury is
connecting to many other actors related to embodied being.
e vignette highlights liberation from sociocultural clothing practices – liberation
from both normative everyday clothing practices and the clothing practices that
are followed in higher class hotels. Attuning to the adjusting of clothing practices
had already began at home upon selecting clothes to pack. Based on my clothing
negotiations at home, I had packed only stretchy, so clothes into my suitcase. Later
on, on the spot, these negotiations continue. In other words, in terms of temporal
and physical distance the embodied knowing of luxury that emerges in the breakfast
room has already began months and thousands of kilometres prior to the actual
moment on site where Orienting practices are supplemented in attuning through
adjusting practices in place (cf. Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020). Further, wearing as little
clothing as possible for the breakfast room would mean a bikini wear at this point,
which is out of the norms, but also because of the tight feeling aroused in wearing
a bikini. I also do not wish to look at other customers wearing too little: revealing
bikinis or men without a shirt (see Coen et al., 2021; see also Hubbart, 2005, p.
121). Naturally, other travellers are not only gazing at the sights (cf. Urry, 1990) or
focusing on their own performances only. In addition, the other tourists and their
bodies are the object of curious, discrete glances. Further, the sta or other people
in the same space can show either approval or disapproval of the tourist’s habitus
or (clothing) practices with their gazes, behaviour, gestures, manner of speaking or
through other bodily communication (Coen et al., 2021, p. 544; Edensor, 2001). is
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way, the performances of other tourists and the personnel, the carried sociocultural
and bodily practices, can aect the experience of a tourist who deviates from the
general norms (Cruz & Buchanan-Oliver, 2020, p. 1332), for example allowing
capacity of the aectivities of being accepted to emerge. At worst, the dominant
practices can “force” the tourist, for example, to follow clothing practices that do
not align with the embodied knowing. e bodily freedom from uncomfortable and
restrictive clothing (Small, 2016, 2017), being able to let my stomach and whole
body breathe freely, arises embodied knowing of luxury in the clothing practices of
a luxury hotel. ‘Being home’ in diverse (tourism) spaces is related to various bodily
activities (see Dion et al., 2011; Edensor, 2007) which might also take place and be
aected by the acting arising in the inner body space.
Furthermore, according to Entwistlen (2001, p. 35 as cited in Ruggerone, 2017,
p. 577), the body is made meaningful through various cultural clothing practices
and accessories which are part of aective practices (see Meriläinen et al., 2015).
Ruggerone (2017, p. 573) continues that in the case of clothing, the existing dualism
in which the understanding of “how the clothes feel on us” is based on a rational and
mental discussion which should be rejected. Meaning, in clothing , we oen look into
the mirror and sense “how it looks like” instead of feeling the bodily and aective
feeling brought in the chosen clothing. By rejecting this body-mind dichotomy of
clothing, we get closer to the human experience which takes shape together in the
entanglements of our bodymind and clothing (Ruggerone, 2017). is paradigmatic
shi helps to analyse the actual embodied knowing of common entanglements over
the rational and mental state we experience in and through our clothes. In addition
to being fashionable and trendy, our clothing practices represented by the clothes we
wear entail an aective order which determines how a certain piece of clothing feels
when wearing it; the within-corporeal body has forces which aect our embodied
becoming by materializing, making the corporeal actors visible in the analysis of
practices (see Ruggerone, 2017, pp. 574, 577).
At the end of the negotiations with myself, I managed to nd an equilibrium
between the diverse actors and knowing arising from my swollen body. I ended up
wearing a “normal” dress that felt comfortable on my body (see Bissell, 2008). Even
though I was in a luxury hotel environment, I did not wish to wear anything fancy,
extraordinary that would easily align with luxury hotel’s “normal” clothing practices.
Still, the ordinariness of the dress receives a touch of luxury from its glowing colour,
which in turn aords me aesthetic pleasure and more self-condence regarding my
choice of clothing (see Holmqvist et al., 2020; Small, 2016; Zanette et al., 2022).
When comfortable clothing is elevated to luxury, as demonstrated in the vignette,
it highlights the so feeling of the fabric on my skin and the fact that I can breathe
freely with my entire body, up to my abdominal diaphragm, let my stomach expand
and contract in its natural own pace (see Ruggerone, 2017, p. 580). In this synchrony,
my stomach can freely balloon in its own pace (Lefebvre, 2004) while enjoying
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breakfast, and I can still feel as following the normative luxury hotel’s clothing
practices, thus tting in with the crowd.
In short, here the embodied knowing of luxury emerges within adjusting to
various kinds of sociomaterial practices. Firstly, the knowing of a body arises through
the socially and culturally learned ways of practicing (Gherardi, 2009a, 2009b;
Reckwitz, 2002) of how to dress in luxury hotel premises. Secondly, knowing
emerges through the surrounding climate/weather and embodied practices that
aect the material and embodied practices (see Hitchings & Lee, 2008; Rantala et
al., 2011) in terms of adjusting wearing to the most comfortable clothing gentle to
the body (see Bissell, 2008). irdly, the knowing of a jet-lagged body (Valtonen et
al., 2017), a body that is swollen, guides the clothing practice that appreciates the
aesthetics and ethics of a body. Here, the embodied knowing aords an essential
relational agency in adjusting the normative knowing of luxury in the practice of
unfolding an extraordinary luxury breakfast.
5.3.2 Sudden discordance
In the blue moment of the evening I walk leisurely along the empty sandy beach towards
our yoga place. Surprisingly, I hear sounds that do not belong to our sacred place. My
body and mind become alerted and my steps are slowing down. It is like someone tuning
in his/her music devices. e uproar will stop soon, I believe. I arrive to our Yoga Shala,
open my yoga mat and settle down to lie on my back
e sounds are coming om somewhere a bit further away, outside our resort. I try
to rule them out of my consciousness, but I feel uncomfortable. e bass jerk penetrates
my body to its core and stays there pounding. I feel how my body is tensed all the way to
the scalp. It’s hard for me to focus on being present. Even though I choose to concentrate
on yoga practice only, I still feel the notes of the familiar song in the background and
the changing karaoke singers. ere is no spirit; I am just moing my body and limbs
om one asana to another as the practice proceeds. Like this would be a dierent place.
is has never happened here before. e disarranged singing continues throughout the
whole evening yoga.
As the practice is over, I quickly grasp my mat, and nd my way in an unusually
fast pace towards my room. Step by step as I walk away om the ordering disrupting
uproar the aectivities and tension all around the body begins to gradually dilute.
Miraculous peace. I sigh… feels like something is falling o my shoulders… even though
I am still trembling inside. Certainly, I enjoyed the practice and purifying asanas, but
I have to admit that I didn’t get as deep into the practice as I could have without today’s
superuous background music.
I have no interest to return to the place for our joint dinner gathering…
In the vignette, the body is aected by the unexpected sounds and voices that do not
belong to the habitual soundscape of the sacred yoga place. at is, in the vignette
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it seems challenging for me to disregard the embodied knowing emerging within
the unconscious hearing of a body (Waitt & Duy, 2010) that diers from the
practice of conscious listening. e sudden discordance, disharmony in the form
of inappropriate sounds, disconnects the capacity to engage into the ow of luxury
even though I try to adjust to the situation and stir my attention solely to the familiar
yoga practice.
As I walk towards our Yoga Shala under the darkening sky, I am already aectively
attuned to the regular harmony of our yoga place also through its ‘proper’ soundscape.
Here, the ‘proper’ soundscape spreads out through the healing, aective nature
sounds that facilitate the immersion into the knowing of luxury (see Edensor, 2000).
Indeed, in the knowing of luxury yoga place’s particular “aural experience is crucial”
(Mora et al., 2018, p. 187; see Gherardi, 2019). However, the dwelling in leisurely
walking stops abruptly as the body is aected by superuous sounds (see Saldanha,
2002; Waitt & Duy, 2010) that do not belong to the harmonious nature of the
approaching yoga practice. e “visceral sensibility” of a body instantly perceives
the sounds before conscious rational knowing and external acting (Massumi, 2016,
p. 60; ri, 2008). A sudden discordance emerges in the soundscape which aects
the body and slows down the rhythm of the steps (see Gherardi, 2019, p. 104). e
rational mind attempts not to be aected by this discordance causing arrhythmia
within the embodied practicing, though to little avail.
As I settle down on my yoga mat and try to engage in my spatial grounding
practices, I cannot escape the disturbing voices and sounds (see Strati, 2007). ey
vibrate in the air, traverse the body, and disable turning the senses inwards (see Mora
et al., 2018) causing disorder in my aective knowing (see Lefebvre, 2004). e air
has relational agency as it is entangled within the sociomaterial practices meaning
that the voices resonate through the air and wind. is aects the body’s ability to
be present (Lefebvre, 2004) along the proceeding yoga practice in which the body
is externally moving from asana to asana. e discordances aect to the yoga’s
foundational “nourishment of the body, mind and spirit” (Mora et al., 2018, p. 188)
causing arrhythmia. ere is a disconnection with the embodied ow of luxury. e
bodies in the healing yoga space are aected by something else than OM1 (see Mora
et al., 2018). Still, the participants persistently continue the practice. rough the
external gaze it is not possible to tell the whole truth of the aective attuning as the
participants do not reveal all their inner body aectivities. e usual calming rhythm
of breathing and collaboratively moving bodies are not capable to break the order
coming in and through the neighbourhood’s musical gathering. is causes diverse
bodily symptoms, such as tension all over the body, a lack of concentration and the
bass jerk pounding in the inner body. Similarly, the energetic ow characterised
1 e term ‘Om’ refers to a sacred sound that attunes yogis towards a ”state of mindful, physical and
emotional awareness”. Om may be chanted in yoga practice (Yogapedia, 2020a).
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earlier in Chapter 5.2.3 in the yoga place practice is disabled. e usual transition that
takes place naturally and “almost immediately when people reach the sacred place”
(Sudbury-Riley et al., 2019, p. 455) does not occur as the ow of “life-energies” (see
Philo et al., 2015, p. 39) is disturbed. For me, it felt more like a physical exercise
instead of a yoga practice. Later in the evening, while going to bed and before falling
asleep, I notice how the sounds continue vibrating in my body (Massumi, 2002, p.
28-29) – maybe they were dwelling within my body the entire night aecting my
embodied knowing long aer the event (see Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). Finally,
the sudden discordant aectivities aect the external practices as well as expressed
in the last sentence of the vignette.
5.3.3 Kundalini yoga practice and Mantra chanting
My rst contact with “kundis” (a nickname for kundalini yoga among its practitioners)
was awakening and energising. is took place during my rst yoga retreat holiday in
2016. At the end of our holiday, our yoga teacher asked our group whether we were
familiar with or would like to familiarise ourseles with kundalini yoga practice. If I
remember correctly, this style of yoga was not familiar to any of us at the time, but we
were excited to try something new. To start with, our yoga teacher instructed us to wear
the white outts found in our rooms for the kundalini yoga practice. She told that in
kundalini yoga, it is customary to wear white clothes as well as a white headdress or
scarf. In kundalini yoga, white clothing is said to strengthen the practitioner’s healthy
white aura (energy eld) as well as its vibration. Wearing white is said to make it easier
to stay connected with your inner self, your own truth, power, and the energy we hear.
In kundalini, as in yoga in general, natural garments in cotton or linen are preferred,
since energy is understood to transfer best through natural materials. Because in
kundalini yoga practice the practitioners “moe” and work with their own energy ow
and life force, synthetic bres may potentially interfere with this subtle energy and its
moement.
In the evening, we arrive at our Yoga Shala wearing the hotel’s white outts. Everyone
seems to be a bit shy of the upcoming practice, which is new to us all. Someone has slipped
an orchid ower behind her ear, maybe to beautify the appearance. I settle in the semi-
circle near my own place which I have become acquainted with during the week. I open
my yoga mat. Before each yoga practice, many of us have the habit of taking a moment
for themseles before the actual practice begins, to search their own inner space as an
orientation to the upcoming practice. Me too, I settle to lie on my back, and pull my knees
on the top of my chest to Apanasana. I close my eyes. I wrap my arms gently around my
legs and let my breathing swing my body back and forth in a calming way.
Aer a while our teacher arrives. She greets us following the kundalini yoga tradition
by saying “Sat Nam”, the truth is my name. We follow the teacher as she is settling into
our joint circle. e atmosphere is both comical and expectant. Here and there I hear
benevolent laughs at our white “robes”. e teacher jokes that aer the practice we will
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take a group photo of us wearing these outts and publish the photo on the yoga studios
website. In fact, the traditional collective photo of a yoga holiday is always taken wearing
these white outts. However, the photo is not published but remains in private folders.
Taking a picture of us wearing the white outts and the conersations around it always
evokes hilarity. Well, the teacher starts, today we are trying something new, and urges us
to settle into a cross-legged pose (or lotus sitting pose).
For this evening and for us, the teacher has chosen a kundalini yoga kriya (a specic
sequence of physical actions that work toward a particular outcome) for stress relief.
Sitting in a cross-legged pose, we begin the practice by reciting together the traditional
mantras of kundalini yoga. “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo,” the teacher recites in a
chanting manner, meaning “I bow to the subtle, divine wisdom and teacher inside of
me.” I try to follow along.
e rst mantra is followed by the Mangala Charan Mantra, a protective mantra
to avoid external dangers. We recite each mantra three times. I stutter. e words in
Indian (gen. Gurmukhi) are dicult, and we do not receive a printed version of the
mantras. In any case, I learn that the purpose of the rst mantra is to connect with our
inner teacher and remind us that our practice is not controlled by the Ego.
Our teacher chants in ont of us, keeping her eyes closed and guiding us to do the
same. Since the practice is new to me, I have to glimpse every now and then at the body
language of the teacher. I try to read the mantras om her lips. Usually in yoga practice,
I keep my eyes closed as much as possible. at way I am able to concentrate better on the
bodily doing, being and listening to my own body. Closing out external visual stimuli
helps me to concentrate on the practice itself. At the same time, it is a path to my inner
space, into listening to my body and being guided in my practice by my inner body. In
kundalini yoga, it is also useful to concentrate the look behind closed eye lids on the
so called third eye in the middle of eyebrows. is is said to stimulate the hypophysis
which is an endocrine gland, an organ producing many hormones and regulating many
bodily functions such as blood pressure, body temperature, and sexual activity and is also
inoled in the regulation of pain.
Aer the starting mantras, we continue to warm-up our body and especially the
spine. Still sitting in a cross-legged pose, I place my hands on the shoulders and rotate the
upper body to the le and to the right. We continue to do this for some time. Aer that,
we grab our ankles with our hands, and open our chest forward in inhaling and arch our
spine backwards in exhaling.
With these moements we awaken the dormant kundalini energy inside of our spine.
As the kundalini energy releases, it feels like a ow of energy in the body. Aer warming
up, we continue to the core of the kriya. We remain in sitting cross-legged pose as our
teacher is urging us to raise our arms straight towards the sky. We are advised to cross
our ngers so that the forengers are pointing straight towards each other and the sky.
e intention is to reach out to the sky with our hands and at the same time recite
the mantra of “Sat”, and secondly, while reciting “Nam” to relax the moement. is
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part of the practice is simple enough even for the rst-timer, also in terms of lyrics and
moement. At this point, I can close my eyes and get “in the ow” of this practice. “Sar
Nam, Sat Nam,” we repeat the mantra together, “I am the truth”.
A single moement in kundalini yoga is usually repeated for about 11 minutes.
However, since this is the rst kundalini yoga practice for us, our teacher wants to keep
the practice as a gentle one. Instead of 11 minutes, we only recite and chant the mantras
for ve minutes. At the end of the moement, I put my hands on my knees with my
palms downwards, thus following the example of our teacher. Aer the kriya we keep our
bodies still and eyes closed. e teacher urges us to feel the inner body vibrations caused
by the moement. Although the chanting and moement of the mantra is over, I feel the
vibrating sounds produced by the mantra chanting inside my body, on the inner lining
of my mouth, on my lips, on my tongue, on my throat, and in my upper body. Even
though I have been practicing yoga for decades, including diverse types of yoga, I now
feel a whole new kind of ow and vibration pulsating around my body.
I open my eyes tenderly and we continue to the next stress relief session while sitting
cross-legged. Hands are guided to be placed relaxed on the knees with the palms facing
up. e teacher instructs us to take the mudra (Engl. a hand gesture). In this mudra, the
thumb and middle nger are brought together in each hand so that the tip of the thumb
is touching the nail of the middle nger. e other ngers should keep still.
e intention is to click the middle nger outwards separated om the thumb while
repeating the mantra “Har”. e teacher suggests us to use as strong oice during this
moement. I close my eyes again and surrender to the moement and mantra chanting.
“Har, Har, Har, Har”, my strong r-voice comes out of my mouth sometimes more loudly,
sometimes lighter. I am even a bit ashamed of my vigorous mantra chanting. Oh well,
so what? I let go and surrender to this part of the practice, aiming to liberate yogis om
blockages. I can also hear the resonance of r-voices chanted by the other participants and
their variations, but I mostly focus on my own practice and just let go. Aer ve minutes
the teacher stops chanting, and it is a sign to stop the moement. I pause and listen to
the eects of the mantras within my body. e ‘r’sound is still vibrating powerfully on
my tongue and palate. I still feel a click in my thumb and middle ngertips. I later hear
that “Har” means ‘creative eternity’, one form of divinity, and connects the one who is
chanting this mantra to the eternity.
In order not to make the practice too strong for us beginners, this evening’s kundalini
practice includes only two kriyas. Kundalini yoga also includes various breathing
exercises and background music. I would become familiar with the intense re breathing
and breath control over time by practicing kundalini yoga later on.
e roaring sea, the chirping of birds and the wind serve as our choir today. ey
play in the background as I settle back for nal relaxation, which is meant to deepen the
eects of the exercise in our bodymind. Aer about ve minutes the teacher urges us to
calmly get back into the cross-legged pose for the ending meditation. We sit quietly… I feel
the vibrations of the practice inside of my body before the closing song.
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e closing song is called “Long Time Sun” and we sing it in English. Filled with
both sleepiness and energy, I try to sing along without knowing the words. When the
teacher sings, the melody sounds beautiful and gentle. She says the words can be found
on YouTube. Aer the closing song, we bring our hands together in the ont of our
hearts. Our common practice is over.
Slowly waking up… we are wrapped in silence and some magic… created together.
Aer a while I hear sleepy laughs and silent chatting about the practice, how it was. I
feel that I am still in another reality. Chanting has felt good. It was completely new to
combine yoga and mantra chanting. Usually aer the evening yoga I prefer to stay in my
inner reality before returning to ‘this world’. It feels like there wouldn’t be time at all. As
usual, time has passed quickly, this time even faster. e passage of time is not noticed
in yoga classes as there is usually no clock on the wall. With a yoga mat in my armpit,
feeling a bit dizzy and with foggy eyes, I walk along the beach in the darkening evening
to my room with the dancing chords of mantras in my body.
Aer a shower the mantras continue dancing in my inner body … e bodymind
is lled with inner warmth, calmness, a steady ow of energy… om where I am now
wondering about the beautiful world around me. In this steady ow, it feels like noting
can make me nervous. I am oating in this immersive inner body ow… “May the long
time Sun shine upon you. All loe surrounds you. And the pure light within you. Guide
your way on, guide your way on, guide your way oo-on…” ere are several dierent
versions on YouTube of the closing song we chanted at the end of our kundalini yoga
practice. I sing slowly with the videos in my bed, following the lyrics sensitising the
words… word by word. Little by little, my song turns into a hum, and I slowly ow
towards lying position. e nal song within my body. I fall asleep.
e adjusting practice illustrated in this detailed vignette takes place at the end of
my rst yoga retreat holiday. It shows how luxury emerges within the embodied
sociomaterial practice of kundalini yoga. e adjusting takes place as shiing into
knowing of “inner peace and freedom, a sense of ow, transcendence of the small self,
[and] connection with something greater” (Sheldon, 2020, p. 1). In this practice,
the external and inner body movement entangle with each other within diverse
rhythmic bodily activities (see Gherardi, 2019; Massumi, 2002). is entanglement
unites as aective vibration, inner body pulsation which attunes the body to the
knowing of luxury.
e vignette describes how the body attunes to the coming within various
preparative practices (Kuuru & Närvänen, 2020), such as clothing and grounding
practices. Firstly, adjusting takes place within a particular clothing practice that in
this vignette materialises as wearing white clothing. e clothing practices are guided
by the yoga teacher. e organic nature and colour of clothing represent the essential
epistemic practice of kundalini yoga as they allow the ow of energy as depicted in
the vignette. e nature of the clothing, the colour as well as the organic fabric is a
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meaningful part of the practice, similar to knowing the texture of sand with our bare
skin (Obrador Pons, 2009). We know the world rst and foremost through our skin,
which might not be registered by our conscious mind (see Massumi, 2002). e
most natural qualities of clothing allow capacity to connect into the “energetic eld”
as described in the vignette.
Secondly, closing the eyes enables us to enter into the more sophisticated knowing
through sociomaterial practices. e pre-practice attuning occurs in grounding,
being open and allowing the body to be aected by the rhythmic gravitational eld
of the earth (Massumi, 2002, p. 103; see Menigoz et al., 2020), as also discussed
in Chapter 5.2.3, Reconnecting. e embodied knowing of luxury begins to form
already as my lying body and the rhythms of the earth entangle (see Massumi, 2002).
is way, the body tunes in, grounds and is rooted to be part of the surrounding outer
space. Further, while lying on my yoga mat, knowing takes place as my bare hands
touch the grass and soil (see Obrador Pons, 2009) grounding me into the present
time, place and my core, the central spot in my body. ese pre-practices (that I have
discussed earlier in Chapter 5.2.3, e Sacred Yoga Shala) are meaningful as it is
only with the capacity they aord that I am able to be present to myself, to practice
and to others.
In the vignette, I move my body along the external order, movement belonging
to the kriya (a specic sequence of physical actions that work towards a particular
outcome) (Yogapedia, 2018) and in co-motion with the other yoga bodies.
Collaborative mantra chanting and rhythmic, controlled breathing speed up the
ow of the air in our shared space as well as in my inner body. More specically,
the ow of air in the outer space and inner space entangle and materialise in the
inner body as “living impulses within the body” (Gatt, 2020, p. 3; Massumi, 2002).
It is an entangled continuous becoming together within which my body knows
especially during the pauses of outer movement as the “teacher urges us to feel the
inner body vibration”, as illustrated in the vignette. In this vignette, releasing the
ego (see Sheldon, 2020) is thus shaped within the mutual ongoing practice ordered
by the “voiced breath” (Gatt, 2020, p. 16). In accordance with Gatt’s notions, the
vignette sheds light on the adjusting practice through the embodied knowing arising
from the order aorded by the entangled voiced breath, mantra chanting and bodily
movement within the practice of kundalini yoga.
However, as can be read in the vignette, I begin with the meaningful preparative
practices before the social practice of kundalini yoga. In addition to the particular
clothing practice, kundalini yoga kriya holds mantra chanting (Engl. “a sound, word
or phrase that alters consciousness through meaning, tone, rhythm, or physical
vibration”)(Yogapedia, 2020) and forming mudras (Engl. a hand gesture) in order
to perform a particular kriya. Our bodies chant mantras in a foreign language and
we move our bodies according to the kriya. e teacher facilitates the practice in
translating to us the main message of the sacred mantras (Engl. “tools of thought”)
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which are “used as means of harnessing and focusing the mind” (Yogapedia, 2022).
In guidance, I form a particular mudra with my ngers which activate the nerve
endings to “create a subtle connection with instinctual patterns in the brain and
inuence the unconscious reexes in these areas” (Mad hav University, 2022). Mudras
“guide the energy ow to specic areas of the brain” and forming a mudra “leads to
increased ow of prana (vital life force energy) in the body” (Madhav University,
2022). According to Yoga Journal (2022), the practice of mudra channels the prana
into the “areas of the body that need healing”. Further, each mudra has its own
particular intention and “moves the energy in a specic way throughout the body to
create subtle physical, mental, and emotional changes” (Yoga Journal, 2022). In sum,
these particular elements of the kundalini yoga support the body’s immersing into
the practice and allow the emergence of luxury.
With the entangled co-movement, in rotating, and with the back and forth
movement we awaken the kundalini energy sleeping in the spine. As I chant, I move
my mouth, lips, bones, joints and the tissues of the skull. e external movement of
my body aords movement in my inner body. Chanting, in turn, aords a particular
character to the simultaneous breathing and rouses the “inner winds” of the body
that “ow in the veins” (Low & Hsu, 2007, p. S1). I can feel this active movement
as owing impulses inside my body that bring vitality, aliveness to my body (see
Gatt, 2020; Massumi, 2002), on my lips, on my tongue, inside of my mouth, inside
my chest, in my spine (see Merchant, 2011, p. 230). Chanting arouses intense
aectivities and transports me to the present (Lefebvre, 2004) in a dierent way
than normally, as I consciously perceive the knowing brought by the proprioceptive
and interoceptive senses (Massumi, 2002). ey bring embodied knowing within
chanting, rhythmic breathing, and bodily activity. I breathe consciously, the air
ows between the interior and exterior of my body, aording vitality into dierent
parts of my body (Massumi, 2002).
For the emergence of luxury, both the aectivities aroused within the rhythmic
outer and inner movement as well as their unication into the kundalini energy
bringing strength and consciousness are equally important. Still, the pauses of
outer movements between the sequences become meaningful as it is through the
externally stilled body that the nuanced embodied knowing of luxury can be felt
in a more intense way. Pauses, the silencing of the outer movement of the body,
are an opportunity to allow the releasing into the luxury of unity to emerge. Our
joint outer movement may stop, but the movement continues inside my body.
e powerful recitation of vowels and consonants in the form of mantra chants
resonates in the inner cavities of my entire body, in the material esh, organs, veins
and nervous system, lling my entire bodymind with a particular ow (Gatt, 2020,
p. 3; Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002). During pauses, consciously breathing in the
movement, I sense this inner movement, resonance, vibration which brings me a
dierent, embodied knowing of luxury beyond rational knowledge. ese vibrations
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that I sense in my inner space bring me into a physical and soulful state of conscious
presence, balance and connection. e life force pulsates strongly inside my body
(Gatt, 2020, p. 4). is kind of aective knowing can be related to Hemetsberger
et al.’s (2012, p. 485) notions of “self-integration and self-other relations” through
vibration or oscillation that aord unexpected moment of luxury. Dwelling in these
inner body sensations and a dierent state of being aords me embodied knowing of
being alive in my whole body. e embodied knowing materialises in my inner body
as pulsating aects, feeling the ow of “life force” (In Sansrit: prana) through all my
tissues and cells. Moreover, in the vignette the body is also aected by the chanting
of fellow yoga bodies’ and their vibration. us, there is an ongoing collaborative,
entangling vibration in which bodies aect and are aected by mantra chanting,
which in turn aects their knowing together. is implies a release through a new
practice that has a capacity for the knowing of luxury to arise. Similar ndings can
be read in the study of Kreuzer et al. (2020, p. 487), where the authors make notice
of “experiencing interpersonal synchrony”, “perceived energy” between people
and the togetherness contributing to the moments of care in their study on luxury
experiences of healthcare consumers. In addition of showing how to adjust to the
new way of embodied being, the vignette also illustrates how the body is liberated in
the practice of kundalini yoga. As also demonstrated by Hemetsberger et al., (2012,
p. 485): both integration and liberation are experienced as luxury.
ese nuanced intensities of releasing practice within this new social practice of
kundalini yoga while being surrounded by nature, aords reaching another level of
aective consciousness as an “intense existential experience” of luxury (Hemetsberger
et al., 2012, p. 486). However, contrary to ndings presented by Hemetsberger et al.
(2012, p. 486), the vignette demonstrates that this unexpected sensory state of being
is ordered by the activity, i.e. bodily movement of kundalini yoga and is not merely
a result of pure being.
At the end of the practice, the knowing of luxury appears within the pulsating,
vibrating ows in dierent parts of my body and in a half-awake sensory state as
illustrated in the vignette (see Gherardi, 2019; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). I am
still aected by the kundalini yoga practice and remain in another sensory state (cf.
Merchant, 2011, p. 230) though feeling energetic (Massumi, 2002). Despite the
unfamiliar practice, the body is aected by the intensive ow of kundalini yoga. In
liberating my normative self (Hemetsberger et al., 2012), I have again been open (e.g.
Massumi, 2002) to be aected by this new yoga practice that indeed (Merchant, 2011,
p. 230) “enriched and rened my knowledge of the body”. Collective movement and
the connecting with fellow present bodies aords my body an aective liberation to
engage into the practice. is resulted in the feeling of being attuned to something
bigger at the same time (see Sheldon, 2020; von Wallpach et al., 2020).
Finally, the practice arouses intensive knowing of luxur y. Even though the practice
itself is over, the vignette shows how the knowing and enjoyment of equilibrium
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remains within the body. e embodied luxury continues to dwell within the
inner body long aer the practice is over, and entails the potential to aect all
sociomaterialities around me in bringing joy and harmony.
5.4 Guarding
Guarding refers to the practices in which the state of luxury might not emerge as such.
However, guarding practices are meaningful due to their supportive nature. ey
support the aective attuning to the harmonious ow of luxury (see Hemetsberger
et al., 2012). e lack of guarding practices, in turn, may cause arrhythmia or
discordance to the ow. Signicantly, they may take place months before arriving
to the yoga retreat holiday, starting from the booking of ight ticket. Still, they
also occur while in place, for instance within the particular eating practice. at is,
eating only at times appropriate to the body and not being guided by the normative
cycle of meal times such as breakfast – lunch – dinner. Performing the guarding
practices may thus also mean leaving out something, which might traditionally be
considered being a part of tourism practices or luxury experience such as having a
glass of champagne at the airport upon departure or enjoying fancy dinner with
exotic dishes. I will now proceed to elaborating guarding practices in detail.
5.4.1 The body en route
Feeling stuy and swollen. My stomach has not functioned properly, even though
it is already the third day here. On the way here, I already spent a couple of days in
Bangkok to ease the time dierence, and my digestion worked miraculously aer the
ight. I wonder what is now causing this constipation... even though I am totally at
ease with this familiar place, its people and practices... However, I have noticed that my
metabolism oen slows down while travelling, at least in the beginning of the holiday.
Yet, by this time of the holiday, my body would usually have recoered om all the strain
associated with travelling and the intestines would work quite normally, eeing energy
and enabling me to concentrate on other matters.
I wonder if this constipation has something to do with not being able to follow the
normal daily rhythm of eating habits so well during travelling hours. Aer all, while
travelling the eating rhythm and quality of the food are dierent om what one’s body is
used to. One is obliged to eat irregularly and what happens to be available, have comfort
food, nibble several (unhealthy) snacks, enjoy the same food with the others for social
reasons as well as sleep and moe in the pace of the travel schedule which might imply
night time as well. I have skipped the ubiquitous airport menus lled with conenience
food like pizza, pasta, burgers, antipastos, salads, Asian food, food with additives…
Instead I looked for a meal prepared om pure ingredients and served in a peaceful
enironment – though this is not so easily found at airports. And it does not have to be
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ne dining. In the beginning of the journey, a glass of sparkling wine would be a perfect
start, but I only ordered spring water. Drinking alcohol is no good to the ying body, or
otherwise. I just wanted to enjoy a healthy, warm meal because I knew that this would
not be available until arriving at the resort.
In this vignette, the sociomaterial practices during the travelling phase of the
holiday are depicted. e vignette illustrates how the en route practices form a
meaningful part of the holiday, even if this phase is oen less discussed, and more
attention is given to the destination experience (Small & Harris, 2014). Moreover,
the vignette elaborates the en route phase practices through the intimate knowing
emerging within the body. e interoceptive senses of the inner body space bring
me information about the inner workings of my body (see Massumi, 2002). e
interoceptive knowing guides me to analyse the arising internal knowing, the
dysfunction and arrhythmia in my metabolism as well as the en route practices
aecting it.
Travelling involves a variety of changes to the normal rhythm of life: hectic
practices, new people, objects, habits, instructions and regulations, early wake-ups to
catch the ight, short nights, temperature and time dierences, crowds and rushing.
e diversied en route practices may upset and stress the body, thus launching it
into a state of alertness (see Simpson, 2021; Small & Harris, 2014; Wilson, 2011).
It is the agencement of several en route practices which prevent the embodied
knowing of luxury to emerge and all retreat holiday’s sociomaterial practices are
thus aected. Luxury food is commonly discussed as related to ne dining in luxury
hospitality services, gastronomic experiences, special occasions, to being rare, exotic
or expensive or, nally, as a way for social distinction (Batat, 2020; van der Veen,
2003; Yang & Mattila, 2016). However, the vignette exemplies a novel approach in
which food receives its luxury meaning through various practices around eating and,
moreover, through the positive eects of food on the body during en route practices.
e functional and experiential nature of food experiences in the luxury
gastronomic eld has previously been recognised in luxury literature (e.g. Batat,
2020; Yang & Mattila, 2016). Healthy food and the sensory, aesthetic are found
to be essential in the formation of sustainable food experiences (Batat, 2020).
e notion of sustainability is discussed in relation to the corporate social
responsibility which, however, is said to entail people (companies’ and customers’
perspective), the planet and prot as its pillars. However, these discussions do
not entail the aesthetics and ethics of a body which are regarded as inborn and
aects the food experience practices. Further, the functional and emotional well-
being of tourists as related to the destination’s gastronomy is also forwarded in
literature together with how the capacity to aect through the appropriateness
of food, healthiness and nourishment in relation to practices around food is
entailed (Björk & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2017). In another study, functionality
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aords value through quality food and immaterial actors, such as attentive service
and environment (Yang & Mattila, 2016). Tourists’ culinary experiences are
also discussed in relation to the body’s external spatio-temporalities (Bjork &
Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016). Still, more importantly, it has also observed how the
understanding of a luxury food is dened within each culture and community
(van der Veen, 2003). It has been suggested that healthy eating is understood more
as being related to “feeling great, having more energy, stabilising our mood, and
keeping ourselves as healthy as possible” rather than relating the healthiness solely
to nutritional facts (Hrelia, 2015, p. 1).
e unfolding of the emergence of embodied knowing of luxury as expressed in
the thoughts above, might be connected with the notions arising in the vignette. e
illustrated sociomaterial practices of eating allow one to disclose the inner body eating
practices which are innately aected by the (ir)regular eating rhythm, although they
are also aected by the epistemic practices of a particular community. As I observe
it, the luxury emerging within eating practices is largely based on the functional,
qualitative properties of food, a regular eating rhythm suitable for my body, and slow
eating. Still, to this form of luxury I don’t always have time to focus on in my busy
quotidian life. Notably, functionality does not exclude the aesthetics of food and
eating, which are also an essential part of the luxury in my retreat holiday. On the
other hand, alcoholic beverages, white sugar or wheat our are not part of my retreat
holiday (or rarely everyday) pleasures, because they again cause arrhythmia in my
body’s natural function, block my intestines and decrease immunity. ese notions
support the body’s well-being and, therefore, also the emergence of luxury. Indeed,
in the vignette I am not feeling lively or fully present and my thoughts are constantly
driing into the stuy feeling of my body (Colls, 2012, p. 439; see Nichter, 2008, p.
173) due to the en route irregularities upsetting the body.
Apparently, the stagnation in my metabolism stops me from enjoying the food
or the yoga practice, which aects the state of my entire bodymind, energy level
and all the activities in my retreat holiday practices (see Macnaughton, 2020, p.
18; Markuksela, 2013, p. 159; see Massumi, 2002). e bodymind feels blocked,
irritated and restless. e gut is connected to our nervous system, brain and through
that to our mind (Massumi, 2002), my aective state and thus aecting the knowing
of luxury. Accordingly, a normally functioning body and the daily functioning of
metabolism would aord well-being luxury in my knowing. Incidentally, it is only
through a functioning metabolism that I am able to enjoy the retreat holiday practice
the most.
Even though I do not consider my stomach sensitive, worrying about the next appropri-
ate restroom is a constant concern while traveling and may cause stress. ere may not
be hygienic, clean, pleasant-smelling restrooms available in many cases, I mean ones
that would full my criteria. During travelling it is common that one also has to regu-
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late one’s natural ow of metabolism. It is no good for the body and mind to restrain
atulence which, however, is necessary in public social spaces. It makes me irritated and
restless. Sometimes even being a bit ashamed if – for some reason – there is an increased
need to urinate. For example, in the aircra I am obliged to numerous times bother
people sitting next to me to nd my way to the aisle and restroom because of the intense
drinking of water during the ight. e sanitary facilities on the planes are small and
oen unclean due their heavy use. During the minibus drive, the bus has its pre-dened
pausing stops. e time allocated for the stops must be used wisely as it takes time to
queue to the restrooms and to the checkout counter in order to perform all the necessary
tasks within the limit of the given time.
e above illustration continues with the disruption of embodied knowing of luxury
within the intimate practice of metabolism. It shows how the most mundane and
natural inner body practice of waste removal is essential and aects the emergence
of luxury. In the vignette, the practices around metabolism are elaborated not only
through the particular aesthetic criteria of restrooms, but also through the situated
rhythms that dominate and order the aordances to en route waste removal (see
Edensor & Holloway, 2008; Lefebvre, 2004). Along my regular yoga practice I had
also become familiar with Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine and their understanding
of the ow of energies in the inner body and how the process of cleaning the internal
organs is allocated in the course of dierent times of the day (see Mora et al., 2018).
Restraining intestinal gases disrupts the ow of energy. I nd it very uncomfortable
not to let the body follow its natural functioning, to remove the accumulated
gases. It does no good to my body, which inherently aligns towards its natural state.
Holding back only increases swelling and irritation as well as causes pinching in the
stomach. Further, well-being practices are related to embodied hydrating practices
in drinking lots of water during the ight which, however, aects relationships
between passengers and the emotional climate/ aective culture within the micro-
environment of an aircra (see Reckwitz, 2012; Small & Harris, 2014). Moreover, it
brings out how the knowing is aected by the dominating external rhythms which,
in turn, aect the embodied knowing days aer arriving at the destination. Small
and Harris (2014) have noted how little attention is given to relationships between
passengers during a journey.
I nd that my blocked metabolism causes irritability and restlessness, an inability to be
fully present. e middle body feels heavy and it aects all my being and doing. My con-
centration is directed there. It is as if the energy is blocked in my gut. Even yoga practice
feels dierent with a blocked stomach. I lost my appetite, too. How liberating would it
be if my metabolism worked normally now? It would release a huge amount of energy,
cleanse and I would also be able to enjoy eating, the meals on my sheltered terrace or join
the others at the beach breakfast and in interesting conersations… I continue to drink a
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lot of water and swing myself in a yoga squat to launch the moing of waste in the inner
body space. Well, I wish my tummy would begin to function.
Even though I know my body and I try to support its natural practice, as demonstrated
in the vignette, I am unable to nd a reason for the congestion, arrhythmia in my inner
body, as I am not able to fully control it. I can consciously and subconsciously control
my body’s performance only partially, yet my body has the power to override my control
(Macnaughton, 2020; Massumi, 2002). is power becomes visible especially in the
dysfunctional or painful states of inner body (see Macnaughton, 2020) aecting my
aective state. Freedom from such arrhythmia in the inner body space or the dispute
about control – in which I remain at a loss - brings a new dimension to the luxury of
freedom from the body’s point of view (see Llamas, 2015, 2016).
5.4.2 The luxury of sleeping tight
e third night in a row when I sleep poorly. I wake up at three o’clock in the morning,
aer which I´m tossing and turning nervously in the sheets for the rest of the night. How
can it take so long for my body to adjust to the time dierence?
Before the retreat holiday, I already spent a couple of nights in Bangkok levelling the
ve-hour time dierence. Or what could be the reason for this poor sleeping? I feel safe
in this familiar enironment… I am in the shelter of my regular room, I have appeased
my evening, followed my evening routines… e air conditioner is operating normally,
so that cannot be blamed. Nor can I blame the full moon as the moon is just growing.
And last night I didn’t even fall into the trap called social media aer going to bed, I just
sent good night greetings to my family. Most of the time I am able to leave my mobile
phone in peace. In my leisure time, I am almost allergic to it. I wouldn’t want to see and
touch or spend my time on my mobile taking up my valuable ee time. I am and wish to
be here, fully present, to myself, with everything around me, physically and mentally, in
this time and place. Now. I surrender into being and experiencing life.
In the dark hours of the night, I revole in my bed. I almost start missing my 9–10
hours of sleep at home. Now, instead, I crawl up om the bed, slightly irritated. Getting
up at seven o’clock feels dicult, although this morning yoga begins an hour later,
exceptionally. My head feels swollen, my body sti and restless. My smart ring indicates
that my “readiness” is 85 points. Hmph, according to points, I’ve recoered well last
night, and that “Today is a good day to challenge yourself”. My foot! I don’t always
believe in the diagnoses presented by my smart ring, even though I am still following its
measurements. I do my morning activities in a groggy state, slip into my yoga pants and
head towards our Yoga Shala.
is morning’s yoga is a “gentle practice for tired jet lag bodies, reeaal calming” our
instructor gently emphasizes her words. She urges us to rst inhale through the nose
and then to slowly exhale the air out of the mouth. To myself, it sounds appropriate for
this state of being, even though I don’t think my body is as tired om the journey as it is
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om the time dierence and last night’s poor sleep. I moe in the pace of the breathing,
allowing the breath to reesh me om the inside of my body. e yoga series with “basic
moements and poses” feels just enough this morning to keep up with the practice. In fact,
I don’t feel very well. I try to breathe the nausea away, but the malaise rises at the same
rate with the sun and heat.
is morning the sounds of the street and the waking village – the confusing beeps
of mopeds, the chatter of a roadside construction site and the songs of a rooster – sound
surprisingly loud. Could this be because the surrounding village is already starting to
wake up at this time, since we have started our practice an hour later than normally? Or
are my senses just more sensitive this morning due to a poorly slept night? e so back
bendings increase the feeling of malaise inside me. Ok, I give up of back bendings today,
although usually my morning practice is more intense. I fold my body on Balasana – a
child’s pose to breathe the malaise away.
Sleeping is an inherent part of the tourist’s everyday practices (Rantala & Valtonen,
2014; Valtonen & Veijola, 2011). Sleeping well is not merely a hedonic act, but a focal
inborn practice taking place in the background of the extraordinary while still being
the prerequisite for enabling capacity to other successful holiday practices. Sleeping
well aords the capacity for well-being, balance and good energy for the following
day (see Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002; Philo et al., 2015; Waitt & Duy, 2010)
which is anticipated especially in a holiday practice. Attaining “luxurious states of
harmony” demands “stocking up energy” (Hemetsberger et al., 2012, p. 486), for
example, a good night’s sleep which can even be the purpose of a luxurious holiday
(Valtonen & Moisander, 2012). erefore, the vignette illustrates how being able
to wake up feeling lively correlates with knowing luxury through feeling alive (see
e.g., von Wallpach et al., 2020). Indeed, it shows how luxury is not emerging solely
in practices while the body is awake. Rather the embodied knowing in day time
practices is related to the sensory states and practices taking place already earlier in
the night (see Valtonen et al., 2017).
e vignette shows how the unruly, defying body that is resistant to sleep aects
the knowing of luxury. As has been noted, in the vignette the sleeping practices
allowing capacity for the luxury of sleeping are in order – at least in regards of the
functional actors, premises of the luxury hotel room (see Iloranta, 2019). e room
is quiet and dark, the bed is comfortable and “appropriate” for the body, the air
conditioning is functioning properly, i.e., blowing a silent ow of air with adjusted
temperature and not blowing air towards the head. More importantly, like illustrated
also in previous vignettes, the body is sleeping in a familiar environment and feeling
safe. However, the foundation that luxury hotel forms for performing the luxury
of sleeping is only partial. e knowing of luxury is entangled with the inner body
performing which has inherent power to disrupt the emergence of luxury regardless
of the luxury hotel premises.
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In the course of several years of overnighting in global high-class hotels, I have
developed diverse bodily techniques to balance the inner body jet-lag with various
success from evening milk to carrying my own pillow with me (see Eskola et al.,
2022). In the vignette, I apply these bodily techniques contributing to soothing
evening practices, for example not being engaged with the mobile phone and social
media as the blue light shining from the phone increases the alertness of the body
(see Lefebvre, 2004, p. 83). However, as exemplied, I have the habit of sending
good night wishes to my loved ones while going to bed. is way the retreat holiday
practices are dominated by the practices of bodies living in two dierent time
zones. By this I mean the time zone my body is present in and the other one my
family members and close friends inhabit. Even though my family members are
not accompanying the retreat holiday, they are present in my thoughts and I am
aware of being present in their thoughts as well, thus, they are co-participating in the
formation of knowledge. In other words, our bodies aect and are aected by each
other even if there are thousands of kilometres between us. is is evident in the
evening practice of anticipating and sending the messages via social media platforms
which, naturally, aects the sleeping practices. e other times of the day, I avoid
being engaged with mundane mobile phone practices. I wish to stay in my ow.
Opening the mobile would break this attuning to embodied luxury vibrating in the
form of secret rhythms inside my body (Leban et al., 2020; Lefebvre, 2004). Instead,
I am dwelling in my inner body and continue chanting in my hotel room and into
the world of dreams.
e vignette further acknowledges the embodied knowing which emerges in an
agencement in which the inner body space is connecting with the cosmic “outer
space” (Massumi, 2002, p. 201; see Lefebvre, 2004). e vignette illustrates the
relationality of knowing with the various phases of the moon, how a full moon aects
the inner body functioning and, therefore, sleeping, just as in the nature where the
movement of tides are aected by the phases of the moon. In sum, knowing together
with the cosmic world is a natural way of knowing in the world, to understand the
bodies as corporeal entities being aected by cosmic activities as well (Lefebvre,
2004; Massumi, 2002; Nichter, 2008).
In the morning, my smart ring provides information which contradicts the
knowing arising through my body. e rational mind –mediated by the technological
device of a smart ring – overrules the knowing arising from the inner body, and
I decide to attend morning yoga as programmed. However, even though I apply
various bodily techniques also over the course of the yoga practice, like breathing
techniques, they turn out to be of little help. Forcing the body to make external
moves against the knowing arising in my inner body (Lefebvre, 2004) results in the
aectivities of nausea and “poor performance” in the course of the sociomaterial
practice of a morning yoga (see Valtonen et al., 2017). us, I am disconnected from
the inner ow of luxury.
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rough attending the morning yoga I aimed to “mediate [my] physical and
biological ows” Schatzki (2010, p. 137) in the hope of raising the “matter-energy
ow” to make my bodymind to feel better. Nonetheless, it is in vain as illustrated by
the vignette, and also suggested in Schatzki (2010, p. 138) as follows: “organisms
and matter-energy ow through practice-arrangement nexuses regardless of whether
and how labour and technology channel, shape, or capture the ows involved”.
Specically, the emerging inner body knowing overrides the rational knowing
through technological devices. e arrhythmic body has its own rhythms which
dominate the rational mind orders (Valtonen & Närvänen, 2016, p. 382) aecting
all states of being and shaping the daytime practices. is also aligns with Schatzki’s
(2010, p. 138) notion that “materiality [of the body] pervades social life regardless of
the extent and the ways… that labour and technology contribute to its presence”. To
specify, in the vignette luxury may have emerged through “obeying” the knowledge
arising in the matter-energy ow of a human body even though that would mean
skipping the social event of morning yoga, the regular peak experience of the day.
Instead, the end part of the vignette demonstrates the eects of the emerged practice
agencement. Here, the eects of bad sleeping are illustrated in relation to one of the
peak moments of the holiday, namely the yoga practice. Still, they aect the knowing
throughout the entire day, as continued in the following vignette that introduces the
chapter on Me time.
5.4.3 Me time
I am enjoying breakfast on my terrace but for some reason I don’t seem to have an
appetite. I have a poorly slept night behind me, I am tired and feel a bit of malaise.
Fortunately, I didn’t promise to join the others for a day trip to the neighbourhood. It
would have been challenging to join in this state of mine. My “sightseeing” are found
in my own little, sweet routines that run along the axis of my hotel room, Yoga Shala,
beach, sea and spa. I have noticed that during my yoga retreat holiday, I avoid getting
out of my own circles. My own familiar daily routines and rhythms keep me happy.
Fortunately, there are no major temptations, attractions, shopping malls or a selection
of appealing restaurants in this small village. My biggest external excursion is probably
having a dinner with fellow group members in the local restaurant at the small main
road crossing the village.
Once during a retreat holiday, our group is usually having dinner in another
high-end hotel at the village main street. Sometimes I participate, sometimes I don’t,
depending on my mood, if I feel like dressing up or applying some make-up. Most
of the time the opening and closing dinners at our own hotel are oen sucient for
me. Occasionally, I have also taken part in our joint one evening shopping trip to a
bigger city nearby. While these visits and deviations om my routines have been quite
inigorating, I nd that they may acture something… e “magic” of my retreat
holiday somehow breaks. e social evening gatherings leave less time for evening
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relaxation and my own routines, as well as for a good night’s sleep. And this decreases
the energy level the following day.
It feels good not to have a need – or temptations – to go anywhere om the hotel
premises or to deviate om my own familiar routines. In this place, there is no internal
need or burn to go and do some sightseeing or experience something outside of regular
retreat holiday routines. It is somehow very reassuring. Well, I do go on my inner
journey every day. Even though the enironment and yoga holiday are the same, I am
not the same as I was the previous day, week, month, year as I am constantly in the state
of becoming. Similarly, practicing the same ashtanga yoga series: the practice is always
the same, but the bodymind arriving on the mat is always dierent. e life in me is
constantly changing shape.
Due to my low energy level, I decide to retract to the hammock situated in ont of the
terrace. I close my eyes. e wind swings me soly... At some point, the midday’s burning
sun makes me awake. e wind has put me to sleep. Still feeling groggy, I crawl slowly
up om the hammock. I gently stretch my limbs to wake myself up. Something makes
me smile… a warm feeling oats in my body… Hmm, I might have seen a sweet dream
though, I don’t remember the details.
At this point, I return to Chapter 5.1.3, Orienting, where I already discussed the
holiday advertisement that caused reassuring aectivities in me. is advertisement
by a Finnish yoga studio did not suggest any forceful, pre-scheduled performing of
a holiday or acting according to dominant external rhythms (see Lefebvre, 2004),
but rather advertised the liberty to use the time according to one’s own wishes and
rhythms. In the vignette above, I am now settled in place, living true the emanating
“aective eld” ( Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017, p. 189) that takes place in the rhythmic
entanglements of diverse actors and spaces, bodies, nature and the cosmos (Lefebvre,
2004; see Massumi, 2002). In the vignette, I discuss attuning to the ow of luxury
within the continuously emerging natural rhythm of the inner body. Again, luxury
is released as the situated sociomaterial practices allow the body to be their orienting
centre, thus adapting to the dynamic rhythms of a touristic body (Lefebvre, 2004,
p. xii). is ongoing, processual “ow of becoming” is a complex entanglement
of “planned and unplanned happenings, always and inevitably embodied, sensual,
aective” informed by its context “within which it occurs and unfolds” (Edensor
& Holloway, 2008, p. 483; Gherardi, 2019) which aects the emerging knowing
of luxury. e vignette also demonstrates how the body is attached in two dierent
realities and how the eect of the world of dreams brings unexpected joy to the
awake state (Valtonen et al., 2017).
In the beginning of the vignette, I discuss how the limited attractions or
shopping opportunities in the hotel’s surroundings support stillness and harmony
and therefore allow capacity to attune to the ow of luxury. ere are not many
disruptive external temptations, stimuli, in that particular environment. Due to the
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few external disruptions, I do not feel the need to deviate from my familiar, ordinary
practices that support my attuning. With the familiar practices and my own habits,
I am able to focus on my routines that bring me more vitality and balance than
deviating from them (see Chaplin, 2002, p. 227; ompson et al., 2005). However,
I bring out how myself: my bodymind and my inner body, are constantly in the state
of becoming (Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002). e “secret rhythms” vary from day
to day (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 18). I listen and appreciate the knowing arising in my
inner body and let my ongoing energy level “take” me, intuitively, and my days are
shaped based on this processual becoming (see Chaplin, 2002; cf. Katila, Kuismin,
et al., 2019). It is challenging to plan the sensory state in advance due to the body’s
secret rhythms – like those aecting the luxury of sleeping – since those tend to not
obey external rhythms and cannot be tamed with dierent bodily techniques (cf.
Katila, Kuismin; et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2010. p. 378), as demonstrated by the
earlier vignette. erefore, I rather withdraw from the pre-programmed activities.
In the hammock, the wind bounces o me, soothing my body with its gentle pace.
I thank myself for not having committed to the external, dominating rhythms, to
move my body to join the other bodies of our group leaving on a day trip to the
surrounding area. is grants me the capacity to follow my own daytime rhythms
the way they emerge in my “free time” (Valtonen, 2004, p. 72) connecting my ”secret
rhythms” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 18) and routines. To possess the capacity to use all the
time between the morning and evening yoga intuitively, listening to my own body,
paced by the current vitality and rhythms of my own body, in my own routines (see
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014; Saldanha, 2002) allows for luxury to emerge. I have my
own daily “dressage” that forms continuously according to the energy level of my
biological body and aords the capacity to engage into the ow of luxury - bringing
me joy and inner peace (see Hemetsberger et al., 2012).
In the practices of this particular hotel, it is possible to live according to my own
rhythm and energy level, because as shown in the vignette, the hotel’s practices are
exible, they adapt to my rhythms and not the other way around (see Lefebvre,
2004). Luxury is shaping through the “free ow of being” (Chaplin 2002, p. 222)
not acting according to the dominating rhythms of events that are tightly bound to
linear time (Lefebvre, 2004). Instead, acting according to the natural rhythm, energy
level, vitality and cyclic time of my own body creates a “deep feeling of satisfaction”,
inherent aectivities of belonging to the nature and cosmos (Kolehmainen &
Kinnunen, 2020, p. 102). My knowledge of time arises from my body following the
circulation of the sun, not from the time shown by the watch on my wrist. “It is the
nonlinearity and profundity of inner time that ‘gear’ the listener into the world”
(Saldanha, 2002, p. 55).
Aer waking up from the hammock, I nd myself aectively in an intermediate
state, inbetween sleep and awake, inbetween two realities. e world of dreams
becomes part of my awake state’s knowing of the world, the “reality of being”
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(Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 531). In addition to renewing my material body in napping,
the knowing of the world is complemented by the arousing sweet, unknown dreams.
e dreams pulsate sweetly within my body as I awake into a more conscious state.
is way dreaming taking place in an unconscious sensory state adds an unexpected,
refreshing, intimate dimension that aects the knowing body for the rest of the
day. us, it is not only rational dreaming of luxury, but also dreaming that appears
outside of our rational control as a creation of the subconscious, that has its own
luxury value as long as it is appreciated (cf. Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016).
Here, it is the ‘sensory release’ instead of ‘sensory attachment’ that enhances the
bodily capacity to re-engage with the knowing (Valtonen et al., 2017, p. 520) of
luxury.
5.5 Releasing practices
5.5.1 Undressing – freeing from clothing and sociomaterial constrains
Finally I am in my hotel room aer the long journey. I open the doors leading to the
balcony, and with the help of oile curtains I close the doorway to proide privacy om
outside. I am eager to undress my travel clothing to allow my body and skin to breath.
My skin is screaming for esh air aer the long winter season. Aah… also my swollen
stomach is happily released while I am undressing om layer to layer. Flying at night
and irregular and inappropriate nutrition during the journey have accumulated gases
into my intestines and stomach.
Aer having a shower, I saunter into my room without any clothing. I enjoy the sense
of purity, and the warm, humid warm air touching gently my skin and wrapping my
entire body. My stomach is now ee to breathe naturally – expanding and contracting.
Even wearing a bikini would feel too tight for this moment. e rough stone oor
massages my nude soles. I am unpacking my luggage in my birthday suit – fullment
and inner joy are infusing my body and mind.
In the Orienting and Reconnecting practices, I already discussed the luxury of a
single room. I now continue to unfold what privacy might mean in practice. As
depicted in the vignette, private practices in a single room allow the body to be
released from the sociomaterial restrains of travelling. Along the long travelling of
almost twelve hours, my body has been dominated to move in the ‘rhythm of the
others’ (Lefebvre, 2004), to comply with external sociomaterial practices, rules and
regulations. Correspondingly, the movement of my inner body has been disrupted
by the dominating rhythms of travel. e luxury of a single room enables intimate
practices that allow capacity for luxury to arise.
During the journey, the body has been ordered to sit in a narrow airplane seat
close to many other strange bodies, eating and drinking what is available at airport
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restaurants or in the aircra as well as walking and queueing long distances in the
middle of a night in crowded and noisy airports and in their security checks (see
Adey, 2009; Small & Harris, 2014). e night ight and ying over several time
zones have ordered the body to adjust to the rhythm of ight timetables (see von
Wallpach et al., 2020, p. 496). e travelling practices have prevented the body from
following its natural external and inner “rhythms of the self” (Lefebvre, 2004, p.
95); they have set the body’s natural, inner rhythms and the function of intestines
into the aective state of arrhythmia (Lefebvre, 2004; see Rantala & Valtonen,
2014). However, the private room in the hotel allows the body its intimate practices
(Valtonen & Närvänen, 2016) as the body is in the quest for its natural equilibrium
(see Lefebvre, 2004, p. 80).
In my private room, the body is liberated from the gazes (see von Wallpach et al.
2020, p. 496; cf. Holmqvist et al. 2020) and from the en route “weaving between
and among bodies” (Edensor, 2001, 2000a, p. 340). us, I am nally able to free the
body from all clothing, the “microsocial order” that “makes our bodies acceptable to a
social situation” (Entwistle, 2000, p. 326). My naked body enjoys the aective touch
of the tropical climate instead of my body being wrapped by cold winter season and
thick clothing (Obrador Pons, 2009; see Holmqvist et al., 2020; Massumi, 2002).
is nude practice and being able to engage my own rhythms allow me to release
my body to function in its natural rhythm which, at the same time, releases luxury.
e vignette shows how freeing the body from all clothing aects the knowing
(Obrador Pons, 2007) of luxury. is is a controversial view in regards to the more
conventional understanding of luxury being tied to the practice of dressing up or
wearing a special (branded) clothes. In the vignette, dressing practices related to
luxury are not related to being admired by my appearance (Holmqvist et al., 2020),
or becoming the “ideal version” of me (Banister et al., 2020, p. 462), or indulging
me with something unnecessary or even liberating myself in the mere psychological
sense (Hemetsberger et al., 2012). Instead, luxury emerges within freeing (see
Llamas, 2015, 2016; von Wallpach et al., 2020) the body from all clothes down
to its most inborn state. Undressing releases the whole body to breathe not only
deeply with its lungs, but through the entire body, skin, cells and tissues. Similarly
to Macnaughton (2020), I am aware of the expansion, the free movement of my
abdomen, as my diaphragm contracts in inspiration and releases as I am exhaling.
is free movement releases, little by little, the body from the arrhythmia caused
by the clothing. In luxury literature, the prerequisite for the well-being of a body is
related to the luxury of breathing clean air (Cristini & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2020).
Still, the calming aectivities of luxury arise also in the rhythm of breathing enabled
by undressing practice which allows for the capacity to free the ow of the air. Freeing
the air ow is also related to releasing the atus accumulated in the intestines during
the sociomaterial practice of travelling as the body in seeking its equilibrium (see
Lefebvre, 2004, p. 80). As Allen (2020) states, a living body is a dynamic metabolic
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actor (see Colls, 2012; Lefebvre, 2004). Further, these precognitive bodily functions
are related to the aectivities arising in the body (see Kuuru, 2022) and part of the
knowing of extraordinary experiences (e.g. Murphy et al., 2019).
e embodied knowing of luxury is also emerging within releasing the feet, soles
and toes from the shoes as they have been restricted by winter boots for months. is
resonates with Ingold’s (2004) understanding that knowledge can also be formed
through the feet and in intra-acting with the ground (see Edensor, 2000b, 2000a;
Strati, 2007). e feet are freed to their natural state of being and aectivities arise
through “muscles and ligaments” (Massumi, 2002, p. 58) and diuse a dierent kind
of aectivities than having the shoes on. Additionally, the proprioception registers
the quality of the ground as the nude skin touches it (Massumi, 2002). Again, here
luxury arises not in combining beautiful shoes and skilful movement as expressed in
the study by Holmqvist et al. (2020), but, rather, in the capacity to engage the natural
rhythm of a body (Lefebvre, 2004) through breathing, and aective knowing through
the nude skin in intra-acting with warm air, visceral sensibility and slow rhythmic
embodied movement (see Gherardi 2019, p. 104) – in a sauntering sensed as luxury.
5.5.2 Having a spa treatment
e space, spa treatment room is located almost entirely in the open air, on a high,
rooop deck, between the sky and earth, half outdoors. I nd the space very picturesque
and healing as the nature and sea are so close, as do light and darkness, moement and
stagnation. It is a kind of healing atmosphere. In the evening, when it gets dark, this
space feels dierent than it does today, as it is now early aernoon. is time of the day,
the space and air are vibrating om the heat and sun and reeshed by the breezes of sea
wind. ere are no other guests in the spa. Just me and the Massage erapist. Calming
stillness.
As usual, I start my retreat holiday with the hotel’s two-hour Signature treatment. I
nd this treatment to be a magical start for my retreat holiday as it coers my entire body,
balmy touches reaching the whole body. During the two hours, the body surrenders and
the tensions are released. Today, this Signature treatment is tailored for me to include
two shorter treatments: foot reexology and a Crown Chakra head massage. ese two
treatments are also my favourites during my stay here. I listen to my body and vary the
spa treatments accordingly.
e spa treatment always starts om the feet. With reassuring, but gentle, slow
rhythmic palms and ngers, the Massage erapist presses on the soles of my feet, their
reexology pressure points, and proceeds toward the toes, opening between the toes with
a wooden stick. e touches resonate all the way to my head. It feels a bit uncomfortable,
but at the same time it releases tensions om the body, leaving a tingling feeling of well-
being in my body.
e healing pressures proceed at a slow pace om the soles of the feet to the legs and
through the thighs to the upper body. Without a sense of rush. ere is ample of time. I
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hear a gentle request to turn onto my stomach. I have already plunged into somewhere
far away as her oice seems to reach my ears like om behind a curtain of mist. I feel the
pressing of warm hands, the spiral moement on my tight upper thighs, back, shoulders
and palms. By the end of the week, at the latest, these parts of the body will also be soer,
liberated om accumulated metabolic waste and stress, blockages.
She caresses the top of my head with gentle touches, thus signalling my body of a safe
touch. She brushes and pulls my hair with tiny moements, going through dierent
parts of my head. Feels like a small eternity. I feel smooth and accommodating pressings
on my head. e pressings resonate all the way through my body, as if my bones would
be settling into their own natural alignments.
e pressing of the ear’s zone therapy points rouses pleasant glimmers. Touches and
presses on the right ear arouse dierent glimmers than the feelings on the le ear. en
the Massage erapist presses her warm hands on both my ears simultaneously. I can
only hear the hum inside my head. e bones of my head are pressed against each other
and when the pressure releases the bones feel to align naturally.
e hands retract slowly om my head. Nothing happens during the moment, there
is only stillness. It is a wordless sign to indicate that the treatment is over. I am not
rushed to leave the space. I can still linger here for a while, enjoying the world of caring,
rhythmic, gentle touches that are still playing in my body.
e vignette illustrates the sociomaterial spa practice which allows for luxury to
unleash. In the sociomaterial agencement of a spa practice the body relates to various
social, material and natural actors within a rhythmic touch (see Gherardi, 2017a;
Lefebvre, 2004; Strati, 2007). e knowing of luxury arises through the “balmy
[aective] touches” (Paterson, 2016, p. 165; Strati, 2007). However, attuning to
this engagement demands openness (see Ingold, 2010; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019;
Massumi, 2002) from my body for the “interpersonal synchrony”, “energy ow”
(Kreuzer et al., 2020, p. 487) to emerge inbetween our bodies. Bodies aect and are
aected (Massumi, 2002). ey are mutually “vibrating” in collaborative interaction
(Kreuzer et al., 2020, p. 487; Massumi, 2002) in which luxury may emerge.
e practice takes place in a semi-open roof-top room which opens to the sea.
e open architecture of the spa room creates a constant state of becoming within
the practice, and therefore the knowing is aorded by the diurnal cyclic movement
which also aects my knowing of luxury. Behind my closed eyes, I can sense the
surrounding nature and movements within it during the duration of the treatment.
In addition to being touched by human touch, my body is also touched by warm
and humid air (Ingold, 2010; Kolehmainen & Kinnunen, 2020). I feel the changing
breezes on my skin, the landing of humid air on my skin, changing temperatures,
mild breaths of air whispering in my ears, I can sense the evening winds arriving,
the subsiding of the sea waves, the arrival of darkness (Ingold, 2007; see Massumi,
2002). is knowing with nature; the changing of weather and aernoon turning
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into evening represents an elementary part of attuning to the knowing of luxury.
Knowing appears dierent as the day progresses: at noon, later in the aernoon or in
the early evening (Kolehmainen & Kinnunen, 2020; see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014).
Despite the dynamic movement of wind, sea breezes and light in the spa room, I feel
safe behind my closed eyes (see Sudbury-Riley et al., 2019).
As I mention in the vignette, having a spa treatment is almost a daily routine for
me. e names of the treatments, the “Foot reexology” or the “Crown Chakra
Treatment”, symbolise and disclose their particular nature. ey are not ordinary
massage treatments, instead their names refer to energy treatments (Lea, 2019).
In reexology, the body is divided into dierent energy zones, which are pressed
in order to open blockages and balance the functioning of dierent organs and
thereby the bodymind. Crown Chakra, in turn, refers to the seventh energy centre
of the body, which is located at the top of the head. e Crown Chakra is said to be
the gateway to cosmic energy, the universal life energy. During the treatment, the
Massage erapist touches certain points in the area of my head to open the energy
ows located there, so that they would spin in a more balanced manner and could
thus merge with the cosmic energy eld (Lea, 2019; Yoga Journal, 2021).
In the depicted treatments, the luxury emerges within embodied sociomaterial
practices through the ow of external and energetic touch (Lea, 2019; see Massumi,
2002). e rhythmic ow of the touching embraces not only the movement of the
Massage erapist’s material body: hands, ngers and arms but also the nature of
her voice, words, gestures and gaze (Strati, 2007; see Massumi, 2002). e Massage
erapist’s bodily movements encase diverse shapes and intensities to which my
body responds in various aective ways. Having a spa treatment is an intimate
sociomaterial practice which receives its luxury meaning within the aectivities
arising in my body as well as in the vibration of energy (Lea, 2019; Paterson, 2016,
p. 163).
e familiarity of the nature of the spa treatment creates condence in an aective
feeling of safety, which supports immersing in the treatment with my whole sensory
body (Simpson, 2021; Strati, 2007). As I mention in the vignette, the treatments
I choose are the same every day, yet my body is dierent every day. Each time, at a
dierent phase of the holiday, on dierent days, at dierent times of the day, I arrive
for treatment as being a dierent material becoming body. at is why the same
treatments I take never arouse completely identical aectivities. e luxury unveiling
in these treatments resonates as the same, however, with a variation in intensities as
the bodily sensations vary in dierent times and sensory states. My bodymind is in
a constant state of becoming, moving in the changing inner and outer states of the
body as part of a dynamically forming agencement of actors, nature and the cosmos
(Lefebvre, 2004; Massumi, 2002).
Each Massage erapist has her own distinct way in terms of intensity and rhythm
of touching, movement, proximity, which I sense through my kinaesthetic sense, as
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described in the vignette. In an energy-type treatments, the Massage erapist’s role
is of a special signicance compared to ordinary massages because the treatment
materialises in a personal, “therapeutic touch” (Paterson, 2016, p. 166), i.e. in
a special way of “knowing together” (Lea, 2019, p. 15). erapeutic touch is not
mechanical or performative. Instead, I know it through their caring, safe, warm-
hearted (see Sudbury-Riley et al., 2019, p. 453) nature that “opens aective energetic
pathway” (Paterson, 2016, p. 167). In particular, touching the head is an intimate
act, but being touched by a familiar Massage erapist aords easier relaxation and
tuning to the ow of touches that balance and harmonise my body’s energies.
At the end of the treatment, the caring aective touch and movement withdraw.
Still their rhythmic movement continues to vibrate in my inner body and bodily
uids. e inner organs of the body, tissues and cells continue ordering following
their nature into the state of homeostasis (Lefebvre, 2004). erefore, allowing the
body gently, at its own pace, to wake up from the treatment is of greatest signicance
as opposed to being ordered by linear time. e Massage erapist’s gently spoken
words (Massumi, 2002) and the aective feeling of not being in a hurry are enabling
the hold of being attuned to the luxur y that has become available within the aective
energetic eld in the practice of the spa treatment.
5.5.3 Surprising play within nature
Aer the morning yoga and joint breakfast with the others, I return to my room and
settle down on the sun bed on my terrace. A long sigh rises naturally and I notice my eyes
closing. I feel somehow dizzy; chaos inside me. e discussions and topics at the breakfast
table keep crisscrossing inside me. I breathe, try to let these sensations balance. My heart
beats quite normally, but somehow supercially. I consciously breathe in and out and
try to calm down. I am suddenly running out of steam, even though I have slept pretty
well. My mind is pounding. My thoughts oat between the discussions at the breakfast,
this particular moment, a book which I try to concentrate on, matters raising om social
media groups… Sometimes this happens here, too. For some reason, I am disabled to
focus on anything. I concentrate my gaze on the beach and the sea. e red ag on the
beach seems to utter wildly. It is always more or less windy here. Would my restlessness
be partly due to the weather? I remember the rst time I was here I found the wind
somehow straining. I thought I was already used to it, used to living here with it. With
the moist, warm wind.
Well, weeping does not help at the marketplace. I have to get going. I get up, wrap
the hotel’s light dressing gown around me, and head for the beach. When I arrive at the
beach, I take the other direction than normally on my way to our yoga place. Instead of
my usual relaxed way of padding, my feet adapt a brisker way of walking. I push towards
the wind.
I don’t look at anything or anywhere. I just keep walking along the beach. Sand crabs
squeak quickly into their holes out of my way. At some point, I wake up om my brisk
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way of walking. I laugh at myself. Like walking away om ants and my restless state
of being. My brisk walking pace ees up a bit and my breathing stabilises. e dressing
gown utters wildly around me.
I come across some other people and couples walking hand in hand. Hardly ever there
is someone sunbathing on the beach here. No children playing on the beach. Usually
it is only the wind that rages here. I keep my gaze down and continue on walking my
rhythmic walk that gradually changes its tempo to leisurely steps. I don’t want to look
or think about anything. I just want to purify myself of all the information lling my
head – walking, my meditative moment. Even though during these holidays I regularly
take the time to go for a beach walk, it usually happens unplanned. e right time to go
for a beach walk usually arises naturally, sometimes when I for some reason feel restless,
sometimes just for the joy of walking.
I feel the rhythm of my walking in my body and the pressure of the soles of my feet
against the so, wet sand: heel, the outer edge of my sole, the toes. I now have the patience
to feel the moing of my body, sense it, aimlessly, to focus on the soothing rhythm and
arising sentiments. At some point, my arms are rising straight to each side. I enjoy the
wind fanning the long sleeves of the dressing gown. e moing wind continues its
journey towards my neck, which bends backwards aligning the wind. My chest and
heart open as the wind gently presses down my shoulders.
My mouth opens by itself. I let the air ow into my mouth and give space for it inside
my body, I expand. I am a sail that bulges in the wind. Floating, driing, closing my
eyes om time to time I am carried away with the wind. e salty and moist, warm and
sandy air twirls in my mouth, sometimes retreating, sometimes turning around inside
of my mouth like a feather touching the inside of my mouth, tickling me.
I laugh at my foolery. Or do I laugh at the eedom, the feeling of boundlessness. Who
cares if someone sees me monkeying around? I turn my body around, adjusting it to a
dierent angle towards the wind. I let the wind bounce my light body, I surrender to
the choppy wind. Occasionally, the gust of wind pushes me to step really fast, quick small
steps until the gust abruptly fades, and sets o a pause. I’m also taking a break.
An intuitive, unplanned, natural moement rises om my living body, being present
with wind, beach, heaven and earth, soness and hardness, exibility. I don’t know
what’s in it, but this kind of ee moement is somehow very liberating, common bodily
play with wind, moement and even the sand.
As I return, I come across someone om our yoga group. We nod, smile a little at each
other. Maybe this is also her meditative moment. I don’t want to disturb it. Or did he
notice me monkeying around? Somehow, I’m in such a “liberated” state that I don’t care.
Nearby the hotel, I undress my dressing gown and leave it on the beach sand. I don’t
walk deep into the water but sit in the shore water and set my back against the waves.
Bump, bump… waves hit quite hard, pushing me towards the beach. When the previous
wave withdraws, I can already expect the following. I feel and let the rhythmic waves rub
my back and shoulders. I close my eyes. e big waves bury me underneath them. e
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salty and mineral-rich seawater lls my ears and nostrils, sand ows inside my bikinis.
Once the waves have pushed me ashore, I wade back, a little deeper again. Like a child,
I want to continue playing.
Phew, enough... I sit on the sandy beach to dry myself. I wrap my arms around my
legs, aimlessly squeezing the sand with my toes. e dry sand sticks on my wet toes until it
dries and rasps between my toes. I can still feel the moements of the wind, sea and sand
all over my skin and body. Sitting there I am swaying lightly, catching my breathing,
and enjoying my inner state of being – stable again.
e vignette illustrates how the embodied knowing of luxury releases unexpectedly
in the practice of a beach walk. At the beach, my body is wrapped into the intensities
of windy weather and nature (see Valtonen et al., 2020). e restlessly moving wind
aects my walking rhythm and forms into a particular kind of embodied knowing
(see Chronis, 2015; Edensor, 2000b; Ingold, 2004). As I surrender my body (and
mind) into the common rhythmic movement with wind, earth and water (Rhoden
& Kaaristo, 2020) the walk turns into childish, joyful play (see Crouch et al., 2001;
Simpson, 2021). e eect of the rhythmic and aective embodied engagement
in the entanglement with the actors of nature releases my body (and mind) from
anxieties, calming them, which then turns into the knowing of luxury.
From the body (and mind) this again demands ‘openness’ (Ingold, 2007;
Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Massumi, 2002) towards the weather world – as
the topic of “being open” was discussed in Chapter 5.2.3 as related to becoming
embodied with the Yoga Shala. rough this openness the knowing is generated
together with the weather (Ingold, 2007, 2010; Massumi, 2002). e weather
materialises and suddenly receives a calming agency while walking (Rantala et al.,
2011). In luxury literature, many academics have highlighted how immersive nature
experiences create luxury moments (e.g. Hemetsberger et al., 2012; Iloranta &
Komppula, 2021; von Wallpach et al., 2020). In addition, the above vignette is a
detailed empirical and practical example of how immersing into the nature and even
more, into the weather practices emerges. I will now elaborate the aective knowing
of luxury arising within the practices involving the weather.
e vignette begins in depicting the bodily disharmony that circulates within
the inner space of my body. e “sensory and social overload” circulating within
the inner space of my body (Edensor, 2000a, p. 337) arouses aectivities of fatigue,
dizziness, a supercial heart beat and the inability to be present. e regular ways
to rebalance the body, e.g., through conscious rhythmic breathing, are not of much
help (see Waitt & Duy, 2010). is time, it feels challenging to be still. In addition
to the extra strong windy weather, the body seems to crave for livelier moving. In
heading for the beach, I have no anticipation of what the weather will be like during
the beach walk practice. Allowing the body to ow into this unexpected agencement
releases the embodied knowing of luxury along my ordinary beach walk.
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On the beach, I feel how the wind is extra moody – like my bodymind on that
particular morning described. By changing its direction all the time, the wind
throws sand on my body. As I have dipped my legs into the waves, the sand sticks to
my legs. e wind lis the tails of my dressing gown and opens the strings. At rst,
I try to hold the agency in me as I want the gown to protect my body from the sun.
I attempt to hold the order alone through my promptly advancing steps. Little by
little, I notice that trying to hold the order just maintains my restlessness (see Ingold,
2010). Instead, I surrender without noticing, open to the windy weather, adjust to
its movement and we are playfully moving together (see Ingold, 2007).
I let the wind move, push, make my body jump, carry my body hither and thither
on the beach. e salty wind penetrates my body. e turbulent air lls the sleeves of
my dressing gown and the tails dance wildly up and down. As my steps become more
frequent aer the wind, the cloth slaps agitatedly against my thighs. Between the
vortex-like wind, in pauses, the dressing gown lands back on my body. e cloth feels
dierent now, airy as it touches my skin. e moving wind is changing my knowing of
the dressing gown I am wearing as the wind penetrates the fabric. e aective feeling
of the dressing gown becomes dierent (see Ruggerone, 2017). us, the wind and
air are now part of my clothing. erefore, within the beach walk practice my body,
wind and dress become a sociomaterial part of my embodied knowing of luxury.
My eyes close as the wind blows tears from the corners of my eyes. e wind
penetrates my mouth, nostrils, ears, throat, lling my inner body space (see Massumi,
2002). e air moves inside my body in cleansing, healing twirls, blowing vitality
into my body (Low & Hsu, 2007, p. S2). e wind pierces my body on a physical
and mental level as well aecting my “bodily functions” (Low & Hsu, 2007, p. S7)
and my state of being (Ingold, 2010). Simultaneously, it feels as if the nature, earth
and sky are part of me; my embodied knowing about luxury takes shape as part of
nature, part of the universe (see Hemetsberger et al., 2012; Ingold, 2007, p. S30).
As I am walking, my nude feet sink into the warm sand. My embodied knowing
of luxury expands to include the freedom provided for my feet to walk without tight
shoes or sandals (cf. Holmqvist et al., 2020; see Ingold, 2004). Feeling the shapes
and quality of the earth through my naked feet arises as knowing of luxury that
supports grounding, becoming embodied with the earth. is earth is ne sand, wet
and dry, warm and it is sticking between my feet and toes. e ground moulds itself
to the shape of the soles of my feet as I step forward. When I walk more forcefully,
the soles of my feet sink deeper into the sand, and as my walking pace calms down,
the soles of my feet probe the sand more subtly, more lightly. is resonates with
the observations of Banister et al. (2020, p. 5) that luxury comes forth through
“particular modes of talking and walking” that guide the way into a transformative
state “facilitating the integration of luxury”.
In the nal passages of the vignette, the embodied knowing of luxury emerges
within mingling practices with the sea and ground. I cover my feet in the warm and
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dry sand. I rub the sand with my hands, aimlessly yet with intentity, on the top of
my footboards and on the sides under my heels. I pat sand on my footstools. e
sand feels heavy. My feet are inside the ground. Like plants, through the soles of my
bare feet I am rooted into the earth (see Ingold, 2010, p. S125). e earth is not just
a surface or the surface forms what we see (Carolan, 2008, p. 413; Reckwitz, 2012).
As the naked feet move touching the texture of the earth (see Obrador Pons, 2009)
the knowing of luxury emanates within the grounding practice of beach walking.
Similarly, the knowing arises as I am mingling with the rhythmic waves of the sea
(see Ingold, 2007, p. S19). Just like the earth is not just a surface (Obrador Pons,
2009), not all waves of the sea water are alike (see Rhoden & Kaaristo, 2020). e
moving sea creates smaller waves, bigger waves, foamier and more watery waves,
denser and gentler, bumpier and more caressing, the motion and texture aect
the knowing. Additionally, the texture of the sea entails “therapeutic” minerals
that endow capacity for pampering; a healing eect (see Little, 2013). e body
aords the knowing of luxury within the sociomaterial practice in which the body,
movement and texture of waves become connected and arouse intensive balancing
aectivities of well-being.
Aer immersing within the common moving, playing with weather and nature,
my inner body reaches a calm and peaceful state. Embodied “openness” (see Ingold,
2007, 2010; Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Massumi, 2002) and the sudden playful
surrendering to the weather (see Ingold, 2007) open the way to the harmonious state
that the body knows as luxury. e wind, which my body remembered as unnerving,
suddenly adapts a new form in play that calms the stormy winds inside my body
when I no longer resist it. To be entangled with nature, lled with wind, air, earth and
water (Merchant, 2011) emerges here as luxury (see von Wallpach et al., 2020). e
healing eect of touch is not limited to human touch (Kolehmainen & Kinnunen,
2020, p. 102) but the eect is emerging as the body touches the electronic eld of
nature, water, earth and air through the bare skin (Menigoz et al., 2020). It is the
connection with nature that grounds and balances my bodymind (Chevalier, 2015);
the restless state calms down. I am balanced – at least for a while.
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6 Discussion and conclusions
6.1 Summary of the study
In this study, I have theoretically and empirically explored and illustrated the
emergence of embodied luxury in using autoethnography as methodological
approach. To analyse the luxury phenomenon, I have interpreted luxury in
engaging within the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices that enabled to
study their aecto-rhythmic nature. e theoretical exploration of the study
draws on organisational sociomaterial practice-based literature that highlights the
knowledgeable and acting human body. e knowledge emerges as knowing-in-
practice as the body is engaging in practices (Gherardi, 2000, 2019). e body in this
thesis is seen as being in a constant state of becoming and dened as ‘an agencement
of embodied knowing in which the body as a resonant materiality is able to aect
and be aected by heterogeneous actors coming together in tourist practices’ (see
Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). e selected methodological
approach and being inspired by multidisciplinary studies enabled a disclosure of the
“micro-politics of everyday aesthetic judgements” (Strati, 2007, as cited in Gherardi,
2009b, p. 539–540) that unfolded the entangling rhythms and aects within
sociomaterial practices aecting the tourist’s knowing (see Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019). is approach allows to recognise the signicance of appropriate aecto-
rhythmic nature of sociomaterial practices in the knowing of embodied luxury.
is study was conducted within multi-sited, longitudinal autoethnography
which involved engaging within the situated practices of multiple yoga retreat
holidays in premises of a luxury hotel. Still, the attachment to the appropriate nature
of epistemic practices was learned within a community over time. e aesthetic
judgements on the nature of practices exceeded the physical context and emerged as
multi-sited. e theory, methodology and analysis were forming over the course of
a longer time span and as entangled.
My primary empirical material appeared as bodily arousals; aectivities aording
embodied knowing in practices. e analysis is carried in engaging within the
situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices and attuning to the aectivities that were
arousing within my inner, corporeal body. I engaged in the owing body-reexivity
(Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018) inbetween the empirical material – that still resides
in my body-memory – and multidisciplinary research. Reecting the knowing of
luxury within situated, ongoing practices enable access to know the aecto-rhythmic
nature of practices, and the diverse emergences of embodied luxury within the
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tourist’s practices. is approach allows to determine how knowing is emerging as
practices of heterogeneous human, nonhuman and natural actors connect-in-action,
and beyond spatio-temporalities. e tourist engages in the situated, ongoing
sociomaterial practices in diverse sensory states that aect the knowing of luxury. e
knowledgeable touristic body is not always engaging in practices as attached to the
awake and alert state but rather owing inbetween dierent sensory states like being
half-awake, sleeping, half-asleep, or in engaging in the world of dreams (see Valtonen
et al., 2017). Touristic ongoing and future practices are aected by memories carried
within the body. In sum, the analysis illustrates the inconstant nature of embodied
knowing that complements rational-cognitive knowing of luxury.
e longitudinal engaging within the practices and the unfolding of intimate
practices allowed the following to be disclosed: it is the appropriate aecto-rhythmic
nature of practice that allow luxury to emerge. In this study I understand embodied
luxury as an aective knowing of harmony in the body(mind), as an epistemic object
of practice that is forming within the ongoing common negotiations among actors,
and emerges temporally as practices connect-in-action.
e analysis unfolds as agencements of aecto-rhythmic practices, and is illustrated
under the ve main practice agencements. I have named the main agencements as
follows: Orienting, Reconnecting, Adjusting, Guarding and Releasing practice
agencements. Each main agencement entails micro-agencements presented in the
chapters that demonstrate the emerging embodied knowing of luxury in tourist
sociomaterial practices.
Initially, the Orienting practice agencement illuminates inventing the proper
aecto-rhythmic nature of practices within dreaming practices that move inbetween
the past, present and future. It shows how aesthetic judgements are emerging as
the body ows inbetween various sensory states. Next, the Reconnecting practice
agencement focuses on how the body remembers in engaging with familiar and safe
sociomaterial practices, and how it is aected when attuning into the smooth ow
of practices. is is followed by the Adjusting practice agencement shedding light
on the knowing emerging in bodily negotiations and highlighting the aect of inter-
corporeal and within-corporeal rhythmic movement and vibration together with
nature that attune to luxury. e Guarding practice agencement, in turn, highlights
the eect of chronobiological rhythms and their eect as they connect-in-action
with natural and linear rhythms. Finally, the Releasing practice agencement unveil
the knowing arising within aective rhythmic touch. e ending vignette illustrates
the entanglement of practices with natural actors and the surprising unfolding of
embodied luxury.
In interpreting luxury while engaging within situated, ongoing sociomaterial
practices, and inventing how luxury emerges in knowing their appropriate aecto-
rhythmic nature, this study oers possibilities for understanding the luxury
phenomenon and the sensuous knowing of luxury in a more comprehensive manner,
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beyond the ve external senses, than presented in previous tourism and luxury
studies. Notably, this study approaches luxury as relational, situated, ongoing practice
agencement that exceeds tourism practices, temporalities and spaces. e practice-
based embodied knowing of luxury is thus seen as active open-ended practice that
is emerging in everyday practicing of a knowledgeable body in diverse situated
practices. is fresh approach to knowing luxury allows pathways for understanding
how the meaning of luxury is unfolding in practical tourism encounters rather than
solely on abstract mental level. In exploring the embodied knowing of luxury within
the epistemic sociomaterial practices of a yoga retreat holiday, the study has aimed
to contribute to the discussions of (luxury in) tourism research, luxury literature
and more specically, to the literature of unconventional luxury, practice-theoretical
luxury studies as well as luxury tourism discussions.
6.2 Contributions
Contributions to the luxury literature
In this study, I have coined a new concept that I have named ‘embodied luxury’
to complement the discussions on luxury literature and tourism research. e
debates around the evolving concept of luxury are multifaceted and complex as
I have pointed out in the introductory chapter. My aim in this study has been to
contribute to the discussions of unconventional and practice-theoretical luxury
studies although the contributions match luxury research in general as well.
Interpreting luxury within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices entangled with
rhythms and aect uncloses a novel approach on how luxury emerges as practices
of heterogeneous actors temporally connect. I have demonstrated how knowing is
aesthetically and ethically emerging as practices connect-in-action. is approach
allows to unfold the intangible nature of luxury and uncover the eect of situated
practices. e study reveals how sensuous and aective knowing of luxury arises
within corporeal body, beyond external senses. is thesis coins aects and rhythms
as new concepts in luxury literature. In sociomaterial practices, embodied knowing
is seen as an inherent form of knowing (Gherardi, 2000, 2019). Knowing precedes
knowledge formation (Gherardi, 2000, 2019). Knowledge emerges as knowing-in-
practice within aecto-rhythmic agencements (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019).
e practice-based approach (Gherardi, 2017a, 2019) problematises the
understanding that luxury would form solely as experiential and personal. is
study complements discussions in current luxury literature in drawing attention
to the sociomaterial practices, knowledgeable body and embodied knowing of
luxury. Referring to the rst practice-theoretical study in luxury literature, Seo and
Buchanan-Oliver (2019) pointed out that investigating social practices (Reckwitz,
2002) does not imply focusing on consumers’ psychological perceptions or on the
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meaning of material objects by themselves. Leaning on Shove and Pantzar (2005),
Seo and Buchanan-Oliver argue that the focus should rather be on the consumers’
performances in which mental perceptions and materialities are integrated to
determine what consumers really say and do that make (brand) luxury meaningful
in their lives. However, in their ndings, they illuminate the personalised meanings
of luxury, an approach that is followed in the prevailing practice-theoretical
and unconventional luxury discussions. In studying luxury within the situated,
ongoing sociomaterial practices, I have demonstrated how the meaning and
knowing of luxury take place as common embodied performing and together with
heterogeneous social and material actors. e researcher and her(his) body are
the carrier of practices; practices are social and non-individualistic. Knowing-in-
practice (Gherardi, 2000, 2019) is unbounded, aecting and aected throughout
cultural and societal practices to micro-level practicing. Exploring sociomaterial
practices showed how the knowing of luxury is not always performed as related to
luxury products and extraordinary or hedonic experiences. Contrary to how luxury
is oen understood in luxury literature, this thesis unveils how luxury emerges also
in mundane embodied practicing. e emerging knowing of luxury within the
aecto-rhythmic practices is illustrated in Chapter 5 through the ve main practice
agencements I call Orienting, Reconnecting, Adjusting, Guarding and Releasing.
e unfolding of these main practice agencements in Chapter 5 answers the rst research
question: In what kind of practices does luxury unfold in a yoga retreat holiday?
Researching the luxury phenomenon within situated, ongoing sociomaterial
practices allowed me to disclose varied embodied ways of knowing luxury theoretically
and empirically that evolved simultaneously within the research process. Exploring
embodied knowing of luxury with luxury literature was challenging as luxury
research has given surprisingly little attention to the sensuous, embodied nature of
luxury (Berthon et al., 2009; see Dubois et al., 2001). at is, even though in tourism
and hospitality experiences, inconspicuous sensory pleasure and intrinsic enjoyment
have been recognised to be especially signicant in the creation of luxury (Correia,
Kozak, et al., 2020; see Iloranta, 2022; Yang & Mattila, 2016). us, in reference
to my study, the practice-based approach and multidisciplinary research enabled to
explore how attuning to the luxury practicing happened as I know it in my body.
ere are some existing studies where luxury is examined through socio-material
practices. Yet, even though the notion of ‘socio-materiality’ is gaining some
ground in luxury literature, the social and material are oen conventionally seen as
separate elements. ese studies mostly approach practicing through an individual,
experiential perspective as they attempt to move away from the traditional luxury
marketing built around product or brand features (Banister et al., 2020; Zanette
et al., 2022). Still, the notion of sociomateriality, deliberately written without a
hyphen in this thesis, allows to highlight the diverse ways of how the social and
material are entangled in relational embodied practices. In relational ontology, the
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meaning, knowing, doing, culture and nature, among others, are situated in practices
(Gherardi, 2017a). More, exploring the luxury phenomenon ‘within’ enables me to
unfold the aecto-rhythmic nature of sociomaterial practices and its ordering eect
in the emerge of luxury (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019). In sum, this approach allows
me to illustrate the body as a resonant materiality as well as aective actor, with a
body that engages, acts and moves in dierent ways within various situated practices
that aect the knowing of luxury.
Studying practices ‘within’ permits to determine how the embodied knowing of
luxury arises also in the state of ‘not performing’, in ‘performing’ embodied stillness,
being (see Hemetsberger et al., 2012; Rantala & Valtonen, 2014), or in ‘sensory
release’ rather than sensory attachment (Valtonen et al., 2017). In luxury literature
and in practice-theoretical luxury studies, practices are commonly accomplished by
alert and awake consumers (practitioners). However, this thesis demonstrates how
the knowing of luxury emerges not only in the practices of an awake and alert body.
Rather, the knowing in practices is aected and emerges when the body is engaging
within practices in varied sensory states in moving inbetween half-awake, sleep, deep
sleep, engaging in the world of dreams, or inbetween the various states (see Valtonen
et al., 2017). Recognising the dierent sensory states suggests the knowing of luxury
to be entangled with the inner, corporeal body processes like the circadian rhythm
that may support or disrupt the practicing of luxury and thus bring out the inconstant
yet powerful nature of embodied knowing. Appreciating the dierent sensory states
also enables to unveil how the memories carried in the body aect the present and
future practicing of luxury. Indeed, Kapferer and Valette-Florence (2016a, p. 124)
question the conventional categorisations between luxury and dreaming and state
that “the paths toward the luxury dream do not always entail perceptions of luxury
[brand]”. Engaging within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices enables the
recognition of the heterogeneous actors that are entangled in the practices, where
the embodied knowing of luxury is aected through rhythms and aects such as
the diurnal movement, chronobiology, and dierent bodily positions. Against this,
reecting the knowing arising in my own corporeal lived and living body guided
my empirical analysis of luxury and simultaneously supported the theoretical
explorations. My multidisciplinary empirical and theoretical explorations within aects
and rhythms are demonstrated in Chapter 2, the theoretical part, and in the analysis of
Chapter 5 which together answer the second research question of this dissertation: How
does the embodied knowing of luxury emerge when engaging in practices? Instead of
looking for knowing that would take place solely through cognitive perceptions or
the external ve senses, the embodied knowing of rhythms and aects allows me to
disclose its more inconspicuous forms: ephemeral and physical intensities of luxury
that the unconventional luxury literature has called for (see omsen et al., 2020).
Within the body-reexivity (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018) ve practice
agencements were forming. e earlier practice-theoretical luxury studies have
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analysed practices through predetermined elements of practice (for instance with
Shove & Pantzar, 2005). Each of the ve practice agencements involves three ‘micro-
agencements’ demonstrating the micro-politics of aesthetic judgements emerging
in the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices. e illustrations of practices coming
together under each agencements answer to the rst part of the third research question:
What does embodied luxury empirically mean? e second part of the third research
question – how can the embodied knowing of luxury be methodologically studied? – is
discussed under the Methodological contributions. Analysing the emergence of luxury
within agencements enables to reveal novel connections-in-action inbetween actors
and practices in which luxury surprisingly unleashes. Agencements allow to unfold
matters that make sense to continue with practicing. Now returning to examine the
agencements as named in this thesis: Orienting practice agencement illuminates
how the embodied knowing of luxury is entangled with the aective memories
the body carries of past sociomaterial practices, how memories evoke aectivities
in the present time, and further aect future practices based on the arising taste
and criteria (Gherardi, 2009b). Reconnecting practice agencement shows how the
familiar, aective sociomaterial practices support in (re)connecting to the knowing
of luxury. Adjusting practice agencement sheds light on the knowing arising
through bodily negotiations and illustrate the emerging of embodied luxury as a
vibrating connection inbetween bodies and the within-corporeal body. Guarding
practice agencement highlights the eect of the inner, corporeal body functioning
and chronobiological rhythms. Finally, Releasing practice agencements unveil the
knowing of luxury emerging within aective practices of touch. Referring to the
ending vignette in my autoethnographic journey, it displayed the playful forming
of embodied luxury with natural actors. Embodied luxury thus oers a more
comprehensive interpretation of the formation of luxury in integrating the rational-
cognitive and embodied emergences of knowing in the situated practices that move
in time and space/place.
Exploring luxury in engaging within sociomaterial practices allows me to
broaden the aesthetic understanding of luxury to be related to all bodily senses,
not only the ve external ones commonly referred to in luxury literature. In luxury
studies, aesthetics is largely discussed though concentrating on the visual sense,
and even though the knowledgeability of the consumer is recognised beyond the
pure owning of the luxury product, the knowing of the body is neglected in many
parts. In contrast, this thesis leans on the practice-based aesthetic understanding
of appreciating the knowing emerging in the body as an inherent form of knowing
within sociomaterial practices (Gherardi, 2009b, 2019; Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019; Strati, 2007; Valtonen et al., 2017). Additionally, in previous luxury research
aesthetic taste regime is related to the features of a luxury product (Zanette et al.,
2022) whereas this study reveals how the aesthetic taste-based judgements of luxury
are ordered by the appropriate aecto-rhythmic nature of practices.
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Contributions to tourism research
Even though the tourist body has been recognised as an inborn knowledgeable
actor in tourism practices (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994), and the body is seen through
its aective capacities (Everingham et al., 2021; Saxena, 2018), the notion of
embodied knowing in situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices has not received
enough attention in tourism research. is thesis complements the existing practice-
theoretical approaches in tourism research (e.g. de Souza Bispo, 2016; Rantala, 2010;
Rantala & Valtonen, 2014). A practice-based approach (Gherardi, 2000, 2019) with
the focus on the embodied nature of practices has rarely been applied. e thesis
explores the tourist’s practices with the aesthetic tradition of practice theories, and
complements the existing studies of tourism as practice (Bargeman & Richards,
2020; de Souza Bispo, 2016; Soica, 2016). An exploration of knowing within
sociomaterial practices enables to unfold the various situated, ongoing embodied
emergences of luxury in this study. A practice-based approach allows shedding light
on non-discursive, non-cognitive knowing that serves as a continuation in tourism
research discussions, thus contributing to non-dualistic knowledge formation. e
thesis shows how practicing is unbounded, and how non-individual practicing takes
place also within the corporeal body. As tourism is a complex phenomenon, studying
tourism within sociomaterial practices allows me to unfold the knowledge forming
taking place in unbounded tourism spaces/places (see de Souza Bispo, 2016). e
epistemic practices of a community are practiced in the multi-sited. e study coins
how embodied luxury emergences within the appropriate nature of aecto-rhythmic
practices as the practices of heterogeneous actors temporally connect.
e study complements the existing discussions of the body and embodiment
in tourism research in conceptualising the body in a fresh manner. e thesis
oers a theoretically and empirically founded conceptualisation of the embodied
practices emerging as aecto-rhythmic agencements (see Katila, Kuismin, et al.,
2019). Sensuous tourism research is still much conducted with a phenomenological
or psychological approach (Everingham et al., 2021; Pritchard et al., 2007). e
approach of this thesis enables us to see embodiment as unbounded and entangled
within sociomaterial practices beyond the object-body or subject-body. Analysing
the embodied practices emerging as aecto-rhythmic agencements brings forth
the temporal becoming of a body within sociomateral practices as an aective
entanglement within which luxury unfolds.
is thesis conceptualises the tourist’s body as ‘an agencement of embodied
knowing and resonant materiality that is able to aect and be aected by
heterogeneous actors coming together in tourist practices’ (see Katila, Kuismin, et
al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017) that represents a novel understanding in tourism
research. Moreover, this thesis leans also on Massumi’s (2002) notions of the body’s
capacity to aect and be aected, that is rarely applied by tourism researchers.
Embodied knowing in this thesis involves “all knowing” (Gherardi, 2019, p. 99) and
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emotions and feelings are seen to be entangled with aectivities (e.g. Strati, 2007).
Regardless of the inconspicuous, non-representational nature of embodied knowing
and of the fact that the arising aectivities may be beyond control, rhythms and
aects are demonstrated to arose powerful bodily arousals, feelings and emotions
that matter in tourism (d’Hauteserre, 2015). is thesis adds to current discussions
in illustrating the powerful but at the same time subtle, nuanced and ephemeral
nature of varied aectivities in diverse touristic practices of the tourist. Having the
focus on sociomaterial practices allows to see how aectivities are situated and aect
already prior to the rst visit to the tourist destination. Further, in this study the body
is seen in “constant need to keep itself in harmony” (Yakhlef, 2010, p. 421; Lefebvre,
2004; see Rantala & Valtonen, 2014) which draws attention not so much on the
practices per se, but on their nature, and further on their eects. Until today, there
have only been a limited number of studies that have researched diverse rhythms and
aects, and their eect in tourist practices (Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Rantala &
Valtonen, 2014).
Exploring the nature of practices is enabled in studying the sociomaterial practices
‘within’. e autoethnographic methodology and body-reexivity (Valtonen &
Haanpää, 2018) allowed to disclose how practicing is ordered by the aecto-
rhythmic nature of situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices. Although rhythms
and aects have been present in tourism research and their harmonising eect has
been noted (Rantala & Valtonen, 2014), the within corporeal, biological body and
its aect in practices has not yet been so much discussed. Finally, it is the appropriate
aecto-rhythmic nature of practices that enables the capacity for luxury to emerge
with a harmonising eect in tourist sociomaterial practices as the practices of
heterogeneous actors connect-in-action.
e study demonstrates how practicing may also largely take place within the
inventive corporeal body, and not only inbetween the external sociomaterial practices
in tourism. Studying the aecto-rhythmic practices ‘within’ enables an exploration
of sociomaterial practices emerging inbetween corporeal bodies but, importantly,
within the corporeal body as well. e study demonstrates how practicing takes
place as the body is owing inbetween dierent sensory states – like awake, half-
awake and sleeping – as well as being entangled in the world of dreams through
sensory release rather than external sensory stimuli (Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019;
Valtonen et al., 2017). e thesis illustrates theoretically and empirically diversied
ways the embodied knowing of luxury may emerge within situated rhythms and aects
in sociomaterial practices. In doing this, the thesis answers the second research question:
How does the embodied knowing of luxury emerge when engaging in practices?
Methodological contributions
Autoethnography oers a novel approach to luxury literature that has rarely been
applied as such (Eskola et al., 2022). is way the study responds to the calls of
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luxury literature for more diverse research methods (Atwal & Williams, 2009;
omsen et al., 2020). Within luxury studies, it is quite rare that the researcher
is even partly engaged in the empirical observations of the phenomenon, since
interviewing is the most common method (Ahmed et al., 2022; Holmqvist et al.,
2020). However, without engaging in autoethnographic explorations it would have
been even more challenging to make sense and co-generate empirical material of the
ephemeral and subtle aecto-rhythmic nature of practices as they are challenging
to capture in words. Further, bodies are dierent so it might not have been easy
for all possible study participants to know rhythms and aects (Strati, 2007).
It demands bodily and mental openness, i.e. sensitivity to be able to ‘access’ the
embodied material together with skilfulness and courage to put the ephemeral
notions honestly into written format. Autoethnography as a methodology makes
the researcher vulnerable, a position where many researchers would not feel
altogether comfortable. With its autoethnographic approach, this thesis contributes
to luxury research as it enlarges the existing qualitative methodological approaches
in exploring luxury within situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices that sees the
knowledgeable and acting human body as an inborn actor. e thesis complements
the sparse empirical explorations of unconventional luxury (omsen et al., 2020),
luxury tourism (Iloranta, 2021) and practice-theoretical luxury studies. It oers a
longitudinal study of luxury practicing which is quite rare as the empirical material
is co-generated and analysed in the course of ve years.
In tourism research, there has been a methodological call for an investigation of
tourism as practice and, more specically, through an aesthetically oriented lens
(de Souza Bispo, 2016). e autoethnographic methodology enabled a nuanced
aesthetic exploration of the emerging knowing of luxury while being in the eld, but
also along the whole process of analysing the arousing aectivities. Importantly, an
autoethnographic approach together with body-reexivity (Valtonen & Haanpää,
2018) within the situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices allowed me the access to
attune into the eeting, nuanced emergences of embodied knowing and aecting
physiological actors in my corporeal body and revealed how soothing engaging
in practices happens. Touristic practices, in which embodied luxury emerges,
are manifested as eeting, subtle and prereexive aectivities. Additionally, the
mundane activities of the living body entail an inherent organising order in the
formation of a holistic knowing of luxury through the bodymind. Body-reexivity
as a particular technique for autoethnographers oers a fresh opportunity to explore
physical intensities within a range of tourist sociomaterial practices – such as dressing,
walking, driving a car, scuba diving, mountain climbing, to name a few – that the
researcher may encounter in luxury and tourism research. Diverse sociomaterial
practices of heterogeneous actors that come together form the essential part of
knowing beyond yoga practice (Mora et al., 2018; see Eskola et al., 2022) in tourism
practice. e employed embodied and methodological approach complements the
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dominant rational-cognitive understandings of knowledge formation in tourism. In
luxury literature, practices have mostly been studied through interviews and to a
lesser extent external observations. e autoethnographic approach in this thesis
and ‘within’ explorations of the researcher in the situated, ongoing sociomaterial
practices supplement the dominant rational-cognitive knowledge formation,
individual and externally made perceptions of luxury in tourism and luxury literature.
Managerial implications
In this thesis, I have presented a novel way to interpret luxury for practitioners.
Luxury in this thesis is seen to unfold within the appropriate aecto-rhythmic ow
of embodied sociomaterial practices that here arouses as soothing aectivities of
harmony. Although the situated practices in this thesis emerged in a yoga retreat
holiday taking place in the premises of a luxury hotel, the ndings of this thesis
are not attached to the context of this study (see Gherardi, 2019). e similar
way of knowing luxury within practices may emerge in several other tourism and
hospitality contexts like in the practices of diverse other forms of holidays, retreats,
events, museums, restaurants, spas or premium taxi services. e aecto-rhythmic
nature of embodied sociomaterial practices arouses powerful aectivities in our
knowing of various spaces/places (as luxury). It may even be the elementary feature
in embodied brand aesthetics and in the formation of an aesthetic strategy (see
Kapferer & Bastien, 2009).
e embodied practicing is quite rarely consciously recognised or implemented
in experience development. In managerial practice the development of (luxury)
customer experiences is oen based on rational “data-driven management”. Notably,
our lived and living social body and its natural performing is conspicuously absent
in the designing of (luxury) experiences. However, management should understand
tourists as embodied human beings, as living and lived bodies that entail capacity
to produce knowledge. Additionally, an appreciation of the embodied knowing-in-
practice also oers a more ethical base for developing experiences than perceiving the
tourist solely as a rational actor who follows norms. is study, therefore, suggests
that the knowledge for managerial purposes should be co-generated more broadly,
to reect also the embodied nature of practices in tourism encounters, context and
service touch points as the arousing proper aecto-rhythmic aectivities might just
nalise the experience in being turned into luxury.
Further, a practice-based approach to luxury as a phenomenon that arises from
the societal level practices allowed this study to determine how the emergence of
luxury is related to quite ordinary and everyday practices such as sleeping, having
breakfast or walking. I recognise plenty of space to (re)design and ne-tune ordinary
practices in concentrating on their (soothing) aecto-rhythmic eect. In fast-paced
societies as in the hectic quotidian life, contemporary people are contesting the
rhythm of present life and long for a more harmonious being and living as attuned
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to nature. e interest of global tourists to travel to various kinds of soothing,
well-being holidays with various activities appears to be growing. is may indeed
assign a unique and highly competitive strategic position in tourism and hospitality
industry. Accordingly, the management is suggested to be advised by the bodies who
recognise the subtle embodied sensations; some bodies are born to sense the delicate
embodied dierences (see Strati, 2007).
For managerial purposes, Chapter 5 illustrates the emergences of embodied
luxury within appropriate aecto-rhythmic practices. It oers a fresh approach for
understanding touristic knowledge production through embodied knowing and eect
of practices along customer journey named as Orienting, Reconnecting, Adjusting,
Guarding and Releasing. In carefully studying practice agencements and by reecting
the tourist practices, the management may recognise opportunities to design high-
quality customer experiences which appreciate value formation through embodied
practicing. Although not in the focus of this thesis, all the practice agencements also
oer insightful material and nuances for managers to gain insight into solo travelling
practices, which in the case of this particular study are carried by a female body.
Orienting practices draw attention to tourist practices that take place in the
dreaming and planning practices of the holiday, thus aording fertile material
for management and marketing professionals. Although the signicance of pre-
experience is recognised in current customer experience literature, this thesis
unfolds the part which has earlier been much disregarded. e Orienting practices
demonstrate how already within the pre-experience practices powerful physical
intensities aect in the knowing of luxury.
Importantly, Orienting practices illuminate how the embodied knowing of luxury
is founded on aective memories the body carries of past sociomaterial practices,
how memories evoke aectivities in present time, and further aect the coming
practices and holiday planning. is evidences to the management how tourist
practices are unbounded and exceed the touch points beyond company practices.
e knowing of luxury in touristic encounters is aected by various social, cultural
and material aecto-rhythmic practices that move in time and place and reside in
the body memory.
Reconnecting practices continue to demonstrate the practices describing how the
body knows when visiting the familiar tourism site and its eect on tourist’s practices.
Reconnecting practices show how attuning to the familiar sociomaterial practices
arouses aectivities of physical and mental safety that support in (re)connecting
into the embodied luxury ow. e situated rhythms and aects entangled in the
diverse practices with employees, other customers, minibus, the hotel room and
nature aect the unfolding of embodied luxury.
ese ndings suggest that management should appreciate and take better care of
their ‘regular’ customers in order to ensure a delightful return visit. It is to actively
observe their regular customers’ ongoing (mundane) practices, discuss and listen to
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them carefully within everyday practices. Additionally, the regular customers could
be engaged in cocreation practices with various ethnographic means such as in diary
writing or photo shooting and organise joint workshops.
In employee training it is suggested to give special focus not only to the oered
product or storytelling of the ne history of the establishment, but also on the
embodied encountering with the customers. Learning much more of the substantial
role of body language in customer encounters would be advisable as beyond the
words, bodies communicate much through eyes, movement, prosody and bodily
postures. Further, the vignette illustrating the minibus drive practice advices
managers to make notice on the meaningful inbetween spaces. Here, the aecto-
rhythmic nature of the sociomaterial drive practice arouses a variation of detailed
aectivities from the appropriate ow of air to the driver’s driving skills, mode of
encountering the customer and noticing the needs as well as the choice of the road.
Adjusting practices shed light on the knowing emerging in negotiations within
the normative sociomaterial practices and other customers. Here management may
learn how the embodied luxury is negotiated within disruptive practices. In forming
the aesthetic strategy, for example the clothing practices of customers and employees
as well are a focal topic to reect on together with all actors.
Further, Adjusting practices highlight the negotiations inbetween the within
corporeal body like circadian rhythms and tourism practices that follow clock time.
is suggest that hotels for instance should rethink the rhythm of their hotel night
and how they could adjust the services to be available for the customer to use at
their own pace. Additionally, Adjusting practices draw notice on the playful nature
of embodied luxury practices. ey encourage management to notice the highly
human and energetic intensities of unfolding luxury within attuning to common
playful and imaginative practices in breathing, singing and moving the body in a
particular rhythm. e designing of these kinds of playful experiences sourcing from
the illustrated practices just attend unveiling, courage and being open.
Guarding practices highlight the eect of the within corporeal body functioning
and chronobiological rhythms. Management and practitioners should recognise that
the embodied tourists are not always in their fully alert and awake state. Touristic
bodies are quite oen engaging also in a half-awake state in which bodies might
be especially vulnerable, sensitive to voices or other disruptions. e (tired) bodies
might be more appealed with experiences, services and practices which aord ow
of sensory release rather than sensory attachment, external stimulus (see Valtonen
et al., 2017). is notion guides management to turn their attention more also on
developing the soothing nature of practices. For instance, there is plenty of space
to develop the ‘aecto-rhythmic art of sleeping practices’ all the way from linen
or bamboo bedding and appropriate lightning prompting melatonin diusion to
good night menus, mindfulness practice and curated yoga asanas performed in bed
to calm down the bodymind for a restful sleep. e good night menus could be
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developed with a nutrition professional, and mindfulness and asana practice with
professionals specialised in calming down the nervous system. erefore, in aiming
to design luxury experiences, the attention should be paid to not-performing:
that of being, stillness, silence and presence which are valued in the practices of
contemporary humans living in contemporary meritocracy. Further, rest and the
lying bodily postures oer numerous other possibilities for management to design
moments of luxury in day time practices as well.
Releasing practices suggests for the hospitality industry to take seriously haptic
knowing in diverse practices. Releasing practices denote the ways the body knows
through the aective touch in diverse tourism encounters such as in the hotel room,
in spa treatment and at the beach. e body is touched by the form and material of
the oor, air, human body and weather. e various textures, surfaces as well as the
nature of the air ow coming from the airconditioner or air-source heat pump aect
the knowing luxury. Too crowded premises make luxury dissolve so it would be
advised to restrict the number of visiting customers. e management is suggested
to book enough time for each customer as being rushed fades the magic of luxury.
Ultimately, the human touch is the most human way of communicating with each
other and an increasing number of customers is also willing to pay for services with
human touch (Kuuru, 2022).
In addition to the tourism and hospitality industry, the aecto-rhythmic ndings
of this thesis may also be applied throughout diverse other elds like in the practices
of wellness centres, coworking spaces, organisations, management practice, education
and coaching, diverse personal care services, and even in the gaming industry. For
instance, in the service sector, there has already emerged a trend or rising request
for services in which stillness practices are valued; hairdressers, cosmetologists and
retail stores already oer silent appointments or hours which means that there is no
background music and only necessary matters are discussed. Still, the appropriate
aecto-rhythmic ow may also arise within diverse other tempos than stillness. In
another context, fast, upbeat or alternating tempos may allow engaging in a luxury
ow that may emerge as tickling embodied excitement and can be found in the
practices of the gaming industry, sports or events, for instance. We tend to nd places
where we feel at home or even passion, and engage with these practices regularly.
Luxury does not need to be conspicuous, glamourous or expensive (see Kapferer &
Valette-Florence, 2016b).
6.3 Evaluation of the study
is thesis has been one of the rst studies to discuss the paradigmatic concept of
embodied luxury (Eskola et al. 2022). It attempts to understand the emergence
of luxury in exploring the phenomenon within sociomaterial practices rather that
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studying practices from the outside, and understands practices as social rather than
seeing them as activities of individuals. Engaging within the situated, ongoing
sociomaterial practices allows for an interpretation of embodied luxury as a relational
and entangled phenomenon accomplished together with heterogenious actors.
Moreover, the entangled nature allows to present two novel concepts in luxury
research: aects and rhythms. Appreciating the aecto-rhythmic nature of practices
gives room for examining the nuanced aectivities that unfold as luxury within the
body. e body in this study is seen as ‘an agencement of embodied knowing and
resonant materiality that is able to aect and be aected by heterogeneous actors
coming together in tourist practices’ (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et
al., 2017). I recognise that embodied knowing is inconstant, therefore, in this study
the unnished and fragmentary nature of my descriptions of practices is accepted
(see Simpson, 2021). Ultimately, there is always more than theorisation is able to
capture (Simpson, 2021).
is is also one of the rst studies exploring the luxury phenomenon with
autoethnography as the only methodology (Eskola et al. 2022). e study has a
longitudinal approach that evolved along and beyond the research process lasting in
total over seven years. is approach enabled me to become aware of the practices
that I naturally engaged with over and over again in my yearly yoga retreat holidays.
e selected approach allowed me to fully engage in exploring the knowing of luxury
and thus made the practices that really mattered easier to recognise. e specic
technique of body-reexivity (Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018) enabled me to unfold
the appropriate nature of practices that emerged as luxury.
Still, autoethnography in which the researcher shares her own intimate knowing
through narrative stories, vignettes, may also arouse questions and suspicion in
readers about the validity, reliability and generalisability of the research (see
Dashper, 2016; Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). It is evident that autoethnography
departs from traditional research, style of writing as well as disposition. However,
autoethnography also oers exciting possibilities as illustrated in the methodology
chapter (see e.g. Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018). My
sensuous knowing of the world is illustrated in the messy, blurred and sensitive
vignettes. Although they make me vulnerable, I hope my thesis enriches the academic
knowledge and inspires further evocative writing with creative, analytical embodied
research methods (see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018; Valtonen & Haanpää, 2018).
As consumers increasingly interpret luxury to emerge in their everyday practices,
the lack of empirical studies investigating luxury practicing in contemporary
consumers’ everyday lives is recognised, and thus there is a need to study the
changing ephemeral, physical intensities of luxury (omsen et al., 2020) aording
enjoyment with in-depth methodologies such as “self-reports” (Chandon et al., 2017,
p. 142). ere are alternative ways of knowing the world (ri, 2008), also argued
by Richardson and St. Pierre’s (2018, p. 821) in following terms: “CAP [creative
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analytical processes] ethnographies” – like the research practices in this study – are
neither alternative nor experimental but “valid and desirable representations of the
social”. ey embrace creativity and analytical research practices with for instance
an artistic touch, memory work and introspection, and they are challenged to keep
themselves free from somebody else’s research practices to nd the appropriate
research practices to make sense of the phenomenon (see Richardson & St. Pierre,
2018).
Autoethnography is also guided by research rigor, although these are applied and
assessed through other criteria than in traditionally conducted research (Ellis et al.,
2011; Dashper, 2016; Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). As I have explicated in the
methodology chapter, the contribution of an autoethnographic study is that it is
connecting the personal knowing to broader cultural practices (Dashper, 2016). e
researcher is an observer, a member of the particular culture who engages in real
time happenings, illustrates them in a vivid manner and analyses them systematically
(Ellis et al., 2011). is way, the aim is not to apply autoethnography as a form of
therapy or for the purpose of unveiling personal matters as such. Instead, in my
reections in this study and as a representative practitioner of the particular yoga
community under examination, I wish to unfold the practices which for humans
living in the contemporary society might be known as luxury. Additionally, my
position as a researcher being highly situated and entailing limitations should be
acknowledged throughout the study. e methodology chapter illuminated my
position as autoethnographerer and I describe the research process in great detail.
e leading autoethnographic researchers lean on criteria which may be applied
in the evaluation of an autoethnographic study (Dashper, 2016; Ellis et al., 2011).
Autoethnographic studies are multifaceted (Syrjälä & Norrgrann, 2018), and the
criteria shall be adapted in assessing each account (Dashper, 2016; Ellis et al., 2011).
Firstly, there is evocation that relates to the feelings that the narrative arouses in readers
(see Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). roughout my vignettes I have attempted to
express the emerging aectivities and embodied knowing as vivid, nuanced and
purposeful ways as possible. It is evident that in my mother tongue the narrative
vignettes would have been more evocative. Still, regardless of the written language
used, I have written the illustrations with all my heart and body. As mentioned in
the methodology chapter, I have rened the narratives along with the entire research
process and worked towards being able to share the diverse aectivities emerging as
embodied luxury as they originally were arousing in my body, and how they still do.
Secondly, the disarray that I rst had with unorganised written vignettes acquired
its nal form gradually. Notably, it was quite at the beginning of the analysis process
that I began to analyse my doings in a linear manner: before, during, and, in the
rst versions, also aer the holiday. e topics of the main practice agencements
guided my analysis structure and narrative ow. However, some of the micro-
agencements changed their position a few times as they are not organised strictly
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in chronological order but to align them beneath the main topics. is way I hope
the structure is appropriately structured for the reader, yet avoiding too much
categorisation –beautiful and making visible the soothing ow of luxury within
the complex negotiations of situated, ongoing sociomaterial practices (see Dashper,
2016). irdly, authoethnography is a post-structuralist research method and thus,
does not pursue to tell any single truth of any formation of knowing, experiences
or aectivities. Nevertheless, the narratives need to evoke credibility in readers, to
carry a sense of the real (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2018). In writing my aective
and embodied illustrations I have sometimes wondered whether I have the courage
to depict the arousing aectivities and practices with heterogeneous sociomaterial
actors the way they really happened. However, I have chosen to be truly honest
even though illustrating the aects of the disfunctioning digestion might not feel
convenient to illustrate in a research. I admit having quite many serious negotiations
with myself as I was writing the narratives, and in their analysis to show the things
that mattered in the knowing of luxury. At rst glance, some matters in the vignettes
might seem quite personal, though they are eventually related to quite normal
biological functioning of a human body. ese thoughts bring out the vulnerability
of the researcher that relate to research ethics.
e research ethics were extensively covered in the methodology chapter. I
realise that the story I tell touches ethically not only me as a researcher but also
other people around me, those being anonymously present in the vignettes, and
those that are not included in person in the vignettes. For instance, my family has
been very much present in my life during all those years of this research journey
and inherently aected my practices. However, in focusing on the cultural practices
and applying autoethnography to explore the practices within (Gherardi, 2019)
in the vignettes, the family practices are discussed on a general, societal level. My
family, friends, the yoga studio, retreat holiday participants and the hotel manager
have been aware of my research project. I have been open, discussed the research
with them, brought forth the question of anonymity, and answered to the arising
queries. In regards of the hotel employees, although the focus of my study draws
much on the emerging practices within my body, the temporal forming of practices
is entangled within practice of heterogenious actors. I much appreciate the joint
accomplishment. Giving voice to the employees could have enriched the ndings
of this study, although at the same time the scope of this thesis would have been
widened. I honour and wish to share my most sincere greeting to all sociomaterial
actors in the premises of this thesis. I highly appreciate the sensuous practices within
the premises of my empirical research and honour all the people around me as
equals. It is evident that my position as a tourist who is able to engage in the practices
illustrated in this thesis is priviledged.
With this kind of evocative autoethnography at hand I aim to contribute to
broader debates in diverse elds of luxury and tourism research studies. I admit
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it was not always easy to nd referencing literature, therefore, I chose to turn to a
broad scope of multidisciplinary literature in this thesis. Admittedly, I could have
narrowed down the numerous sources if the philosophical writings of Massumi
and Lefebvre had opened for me earlier, and I would have had the courage to
interpret them from the very beginning. Now it was over a longer period of time
and with the help of non-representational approaches that eventually facilitated
the interpretation of their philosophical texts. Yet, at this point being more familiar
with these philosophers will be helpful in conducting future research based on their
oeuvre.
6.4 Suggestions for further research
Interpreting luxury within sociomaterial practices has opened novel pathways for
understanding the less rational nature of knowing luxury through the human body.
Ultimately, the site of the situated practices of this study could be broadened to
other tourism and hospitality sites and other industries as well. is would entail
both luxury and non-luxury, commercial and non-commercial sites. With this, a
more comprehensive understanding of luxury in the lives of contemporary humans
might be co-generated. A wider scope of people and cultural experiences is needed
to understand how luxury might emerge in the various practices. Finally, the
applied autoethnographic methodology opens exciting possibilities for in-depth
investigations of luxury in tourism and hopefully new methodological acceptance
in luxury research.
is dissertation is one of the rst endeavours to explore luxury with the focus on
embodied sociomaterial practices entangled with rhythms and aects. erefore,
further examinations would be required to enrich the ndings of this thesis and
to develop further the theoretical understanding. More studies are needed on the
aecto-rhytmic emergences, and formations of embodied luxury within diverse
situated practices in various elds. is dissertation explored the practices before
and during the holiday, yet, it would be as important to investigate the practices
aer the holiday while already at home and sometime aer the return. is would
pave way for demonstrating the more lasting aectivities of luxury in the body and
life in general, since in this thesis they had to be excluded to limit the discussion
in the analysis chapter, already being extensive as such. It would also be intriguing
to follow by means of a practice-theoretical and/or phenomenological approach
the evolvement of embodied knowing of luxury over a longer period of time,
how aging and various periods of life aect practicing of luxury meaning, for
instance from adolescence towards middle age or even to older age. Further, more
longitudinal studies are needed with tourists living and being engaged in dierent
cultures. Additionally, gender issues were not in the focus of this thesis but they
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would need further elaboration to aord knowledge of their eect in the knowing
of luxury.
In this study I have oered a new concept of ‘embodied luxury’ and analysed the
human body as ‘an agencement of embodied knowing and resonant materiality that
is able to aect and be aected by heterogeneous actors coming together in tourist
practices’ (see Katila, Kuismin, et al., 2019; Valtonen et al., 2017). With this, the
study brought into luxury discussions two novel concepts: those of rhythms and
aects. is interpretation allowed me to unfold the diverse forms of embodied
luxury emerging within aecto-rhythmic practices: inbetween corporeal bodies,
within the corporeal body as well as knowing emerging as engaged with dierent
sensorial ows. In earlier academic literature aects and rhythms have been discussed
in tourism and management research in terms of to their soothing, harmonising
aectivities aording luxury. Nonetheless, I see that the aecto-rhythmic nature
of practices entails a capacity to unclose the emergence of luxury with opposite,
accelerated rhythms and rhythms with various alterations. ere is a range of
empirical studies waiting for an (embodied) analysis within the rhythms and aects
all the way from luxury limousine services to diverse cultural and public sport
events, down to even mundane walks. More explorations of luxury practices are
welcomed as being engaged with various states of knowing inbetween being awake,
half-awake or sleeping. Importantly, also pausing and stillness were discussed as a
form of embodied practices in this thesis. I see that aectivities aroused by stillness
and silence would merit more embodied explorations in this accelerating world.
I also brought into discussion the notion of energy body from earlier
multidisciplinary studies. At this point, I still ask what a knowing body is. I see that
there are multiple possibilities to continue with several pathways the exploration
of the human body as a resonant materiality that is all the time in the state of
becoming, thus aording knowledge (of luxury) when oating within many states
of consciousness from full alert and awake to diverse stages of sleep. Here, the aects
could also be measured with neuroscientic research methods to complement the
cultural interpretation of luxury. I assume we are still in the beginning of coming
across insightful studies of the emergences of luxury through the spiritual body
or energy body in our attempts to unfold more comprehensive forms of knowing
through the miraculous and intelligent human body.
In this dissertation, traces of the ethical practicing of luxury may also be found.
Gherardi (2019) calls this “ethics in practice” accomplished within aesthetic
knowing and embodied judgements in practices. is aspect, however, was not in
the focus of this study. In current luxury studies, ethics are understood through
rational lenses and, therefore, future luxury studies could investigate ethics within
embodied practices and accomplished with varied sociomaterialities.
At the same time, investigating practices might oer complementing views
on heterogeneous sociomaterial actors and shared practices. In our disruptive
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technological era, there could be comparative qualitative studies investigating
the arousing aectivities that emerge in interacting with robots as compared to
interactions with human touch. It would be interesting to explore how the emerging
aectivities dier from each other.
is study was conducted with autoethnography and luxury was interpreted
through the cultural lenses of the researcher. It would be insightful to conduct a
study which would juxtapose both the cultural knowing with the service provider’s
view. Moreover, the study could entail both the management and employee views as
service employees are crucial in the formation of luxury in service encounters.
In conclusion, I hope that the autoethnographic methodology and body-reexivity
has arisen curiosity among luxury and tourism researchers towards a cultural and
embodied approach in their luxury investigations and has encouraged to deviate
from dominant conventional methodologies. In future studies, practices could
also be investigated with less focus on embodied knowing in practices even though
social practices are innately embodied. On the other hand, a more autobiographic
approaches would also be welcomed in luxury literature as they might open insights,
be inspirational and applicable for researchers, and for other disciplines as well. Aer
all, luxury has traditionally opened pathways for others to follow.
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