Publications Database
Welcome to the new Schulich Peer-Reviewed Publication Database!
The database is currently in beta-testing and will be updated with more features as time goes on. In the meantime, stakeholders are free to explore our faculty’s numerous works. The left-hand panel affords the ability to search by the following:
- Faculty Member’s Name;
- Area of Expertise;
- Whether the Publication is Open-Access (free for public download);
- Journal Name; and
- Date Range.
At present, the database covers publications from 2012 to 2020, but will extend further back in the future. In addition to listing publications, the database includes two types of impact metrics: Altmetrics and Plum. The database will be updated annually with most recent publications from our faculty.
If you have any questions or input, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Search Results
Vitor Lima and Russell Belk (2026). "Possessions and the Extended and Incorporated Self", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Abstract
Belk’s original theory of the extended self linked who we are, our sense of self, to tangible possessions, places, living people, and experiences with them. But today ownership liquefies, agency diffuses, and not even death stops the continued agency of self. What we call self is now increasingly enmeshed in carbon, silicon, and data, with every point of departure also a point of return. To explore these developments, we discuss four socio-technological forces emerging from our digital world: (1) post-ownership society, (2) artificial intelligence (AI), (3) human enhancement technologies (HET), and (4) digital immortality and the post-mortem self. These forces are reshaping our understanding of possessions and ownership, our data-driven relationships with things and people, our ever-evolving self, and creating new issues for marketing and consumer research. We conclude with suggestions for promising future marketing and consumer research directions and issues regarding the extended self.Tanuka Ghoshal, Russell W. Belk (2025). "From Kurtas to Crop Tops: A Theory of Postliminal Self-Transformation", Journal of Consumer Psychology, 36(2), 199–221.
Abstract
This research theorizes postliminal self-transformation, the process by which consumers adapt to new status positions following major life transitions. Prior consumer research emphasizes liminality—the “betwixt and between” ambiguous phase— but overlooks what happens after liminality as individuals attempt to fit in. Drawing on qualitative data regarding young Indian women migrants to metropolitan corporate contexts, we reveal that transformation does not end with liminality but unfolds through a reflexive and effortful postliminal process. Women strategically use consumption—particularly of clothing and accessories—to bridge self-discrepancies, mitigate exclusion, and gradually internalize their new professional identities. This stagewise progression moves from observation and mimicry to embodied transformation and identity mastery, often under constraints of patriarchy, class, and gender expectations. Contrasting with traditional (Western) models of adulthood that emphasize settling down, the women's postliminal adaptation is emancipatory and nonlinear, updating scripts for marking adulthood. By theorizing this postliminal adaptation, we challenge assumptions of instantaneous reincorporation, extending understanding of identity work. Our framework advances consumer psychology by showing how consumption facilitates ongoing self-reconstruction in dynamic and inequitable social hierarchies.Russell Belk (2024). "Apples, Oranges, and Self", Journal of Marketing Management, 40(7–8), 569–578.
Abstract
Extending Thompson’s discussion of the extended self, I contrast his view if the I Self (in William James’ terms) with my focus on James’ Me Self. I go on to discuss the Aggregate Self, the Digital Self, and various concepts of plural selves and cultural differences. Thompson’s introduction of distributed self fits nicely here and further expands the discussion of self. I introduce the concept of the Extended Object and briefly examine thanobots and AI and the way they may affect our concepts of self in the future.Belk, R. and Ruvio, A. (2018). "Strategies of the Extended Self: The Role of Possessions in Transpeople’s Conflicted Selves", Journal of Business Research, 88, 102-110.
Abstract
Identity conflicts are an integral part of our lives, yet little is known about the implications of such conflicts for people's strategic presentation of their extended selves to others. To explore this topic and the role of possessions within it, we considered an extreme example that puts the issue into sharp relief. Using data from personal interviews with transpeople and information gleaned from their online forums, we identified four self-extending strategies that participants use to cope with and attempt to resolve their identity conflicts: backward self-extension, parallel self-extension, forward self-extension and metamorphosis of the core self. These strategies are ascribed to the evolution of their extended self and the processes of undoing undesired identities while owning up to desired identities. We draw conclusions about expanding the theories of the extended self and performativity in order to better account for self-conflicts and the role of possessions in dealing with these conflicts.Belk, R. (2016). "Accept No Substitutes: A Reply to Arnould and Rose", Marketing Theory, 16(1), 143-149.
Abstract
Arnould and Rose raise some interesting issues regarding my sharing paper (Belk 2010). We agree on some points, but I find that most of their contentions are misguided and are based on misunderstandings of the original paper, social science, the extended self, and the theory of the gift. Their alternative offering of mutuality is also perplexingly self-contradictory, romanticized, and illogical. In this reply I point out issues on which we agree as well as reasons for disagreement.Belk, R. (2014). "Digital Consumption and the Extended Self", Journal of Marketing Management, 30, 79-92.
