Media and Communication Ph.D. Dissertations
Title
Toward a Better Understanding of Social Enterprises: A Critical Ethnography of a TOMS Campus Club
Date of Award
2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Media and Communication
First Advisor
Radhika Gajjala (Advisor)
Second Advisor
Barbara Bergstrom (Other)
Third Advisor
Alberto Gonzalez (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Kate Magsamen-Conrad (Committee Member)
Abstract
This dissertation explores the lived experiences of Millennials organizing around a social enterprise. It details critical ethnographic methods that include 12 in-depth interviews, and participation and observation for nearly three years of a TOMS shoe company campus club in Northwest Ohio. Visual analysis, political economy, and audience engagement add to a cultural studies perspective that frames this study. Grounded theory principles inform analyses and reveal that the organizing efforts of these particular Millennials involve three processes: living precarity, living affect, and making a local place from a global space. The processes intersect continually yet are distinguishable by various themes that influence a Millennial organizing experience. Laboring as an entrepreneur, laboring in servant leadership, doing charity, and defining needy, work throughout and within club communication in ways that affect members’ meaning-making about the club and the TOMS corporation. This research helps define the Millennial experience with one social enterprise in an effort to better understand Millennials and social enterprises in general.
Recommended Citation
Dillon, Jeanette M., "Toward a Better Understanding of Social Enterprises: A Critical Ethnography of a TOMS Campus Club" (2017). Media and Communication Ph.D. Dissertations. 37.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/media_comm_diss/37