Wellbeing for sale:
Representations of yoga in commercial media
23rd August 2022
Last updated on September 14th, 2022 at 09:20 am
This article focuses on how spirituality and commercialism are intertwined
in the representations of yoga in the media. For this study,
articles on yoga were collected from seven Finnish popular magazines,
and analyzed using qualitative close reading guided by sensitizing
concepts of subjective wellbeing spirituality and prosumerism. The
results show that looks, wellbeing and health are found to be the main
selling points of yoga, whereas spirituality is used as a distinguishing
device and a tool for constructing a consumer identity associated with
‘spiritual’ values. The material also raises questions on the possibility
of anti-consumerist trends within contemporary yoga.
Author: LIINA PUUSTINEN, MATTI RAUTANIEMI