Centre for Consumption Insights

Real-world problems of consumption for public policy & marketing practice. Based at @lancasteruni, @lancastermanage, @lumsmarketing

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

Dr Sophie James & Prof James Cronin's recent article for @ConversationUK on #TheBackrooms has been featured by @Independent. The piece explores how an internet horror world built by its users evolved from online folklore into a global cultural phenomenon and major motion picture... Read more ➡️
https://t.co/lH8FnXKjLw @LancasterManage @LumsMarketing

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

Backrooms: why being trapped in the film’s endless corridors feels a lot like modern life... Prof James Cronin & Dr Sophie James review the the latest horror film from @A24 ➡️ https://t.co/mN0IgBQPR2 @LumsMarketing @LancasterManage @ConversationUK #backrooms

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

🎙️ What if tourism no longer required a physical destination? Dr Sophie James & Prof James Cronin joined The Last Show podcast with @dtcooper to discuss The Backrooms, internet horror, digital folklore, liminal spaces, and the rise of para-terrestrial tourism... where millions explore places that do not physically exist, yet feel strangely real.
Listen here: https://t.co/dc1LgTQiq4
@LancasterUni @LancasterManage @A24

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

Go inside the Backrooms with Dr Sophie James & Prof James Cronin via @ConversationUK — exploring how an internet horror world built collaboratively by its users became one of the most fascinating examples of digital folklore, liminal horror, and participatory online culture.
https://t.co/D5Gkgf5BgR
@LumsMarketing @LancasterUni @A24 @annalouwalker

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

@A24 Fascinating to see the Backrooms move into film. New research by Dr Sophie James & Professor James Cronin explores this as “para-terrestrial” dark tourism — where collective myth-making replaces physical travel🔗 https://t.co/I98rvpKZJR @LumsMarketing @cci_lancaster

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

The Backrooms is moving from internet folklore to cinema…

New research by Dr Sophie James & Professor James Cronin explores why these liminal spaces resonate — and how they function as a new form of dark tourism.

🔗 https://t.co/I98rvpKZJR

@A24 @LancasterManage @cci_lancaster

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

LAST FEW TICKETS REMAINING 🎟️

What happens in the hidden corners of the internet?

Join us at Lancaster Castle for Digital Underworlds — a one-day workshop exploring the obscure, the transgressive, and the unsettling edges of digital culture...https://t.co/m4hsbgXWYE

🎟️ @LumsMarketing @RISCS_UK @LancsUniSecure

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

🚨 Call for Papers is now OPEN 🚨 for the Cybernetic Culture Workshop 2026: Digital Underworlds 📍 Lancaster University, Friday, 10th April 2026, 9:00am-5.30pm ➡️ Submit your research: https://t.co/pQjGV2xkXe @LancasterUni @LancsUniSecure @RISCS_UK @LumsMarketing @cci_lancaster

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

🕯️ You’re Invited: A Digital Séance – Tuesday 28th October, 4-5pm A Special Halloween Session Hosted by the LUMS 🎃 @cci_lancaster 🎃
Join us for a FREE, online hauntingly 👻 creative roundtable discussion as we explore how the strange, the spectral, and the supernatural continue to shape consumption, technology, and identity... 👻 Tickets are LIMITED 👻 Open to all students, staff, and the simply curious: https://t.co/6P0XdzpobE #Halloween2025 #HalloweenVibes #spookymonth #Spooktober #lancaster
@LancasterSU @LancasterUni @LumsMarketing @LancasterUniLib @LancsGothSF

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

WOW! 🤩😱

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

🚀 Don’t miss this! ⭐ FULLY FUNDED PHD STUDENTSHIP ⭐ at Lancaster Uni + NHS Morecambe Bay @UHMBT: Operationalising & Branding Compassion⬇️

Title: Operationalising & Branding Compassion: Consumer Experiences & ‘Spaces of Compassion’ in UK Healthcare
🗓️ Start: January 2026 — Duration: 3 years (full-time)
📍 Lancaster University & University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
💷 Fully funded (tuition + maintenance stipend of £20,780 for 2025/26 + research expenses)
🔎 You will work directly with the @cci_lancaster — a globally respected research centre focusing on real-world problems of consumption, identity, emotion, health and well-being.

📩 Apply here!! https://t.co/tXRnB3WPq9

#PhD #PhDstudentship #ESRC #SocialSciences #HealthSociology #ConsumerCulture #Marketing #QualitativeResearch #LancasterUniversity #CompassionStudies

@LancasterUni @LumsMarketing @cci_lancaster @ESRC

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

Proud to celebrate our incredible colleagues representing the Dep. of Marketing at the @Acad_marketing 2025 conference in Cork 🇮🇪☘️ Sharing cutting-edge research, sparking ideas, & flying the flag for marketing scholarship 🎉 @LumsMarketing @LancasterUni #AcadMarketing2025

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

Excited to share: From Edgework to Edgeworking: The Interplay of Risk & the Life Course - a conceptual article by @irinah__ Prof James Cronin & @piacenti exploring how life’s transitions & turning points place us on ‘edges'...🔥 Read it here➡️ https://t.co/xYf06UdBqs @britsoci

[Centre for Consumption Insights @cci_lancaster]

🕯️🖤 Excited to share: Consumer Culture Gothica: Marx’s phantasmaterialist influence on critical consumer research - an essay by Prof James Cronin & Dr Sophie James 🦇📖 Read it here: https://t.co/YDRsVF6P7f @LumsMarketing