CeMoRe Seminar with Prof. Kornelia Hahn

The emperor’s bathing experience: symbol universes on the move and the leisure industry 4.0

The seminar draws on the empirical case of a popular commodified spa body treatment that is marketed as the emperor’s bathing experience. The case can be referred to industry 4.0 giving rise to new service businesses. It is demonstrated that the emperor’s bathtub is based on intersecting diverse symbol universes (e.g. wellness, medical regimes, romance, status communication) primarily moved and organized by new media. The argument is that the sensual bathing experience is not – as promised – opposed to the digital world but specifically linked eventually rendering it a rather digitized experience.

Kornelia Hahn is Professor for General Sociology/Sociological Theory at the Department of Sociology and Cultural Science at the University of Salzburg which she is also chairing. She contributes mainly to the departmental research cluster Cultures of Modernity from a social constructivist perspective. Her research interest refers to transformations through media in (post) Modernity. Currently, projects and publications include theorizing phenomena and dynamics of the organization of (new) media communication, intimate relationships, body therapies and clothing. She received academic degrees (including habilitation) from the University of Bonn/Germany and awards for academic talks and academic publications from Leuphana University Lüneburg/ Germany.