Doctoral defence: Andrew Mark Creighton “Wolves as Signs of McDonaldization in Northern Manitoba”

On 14 October at 16:15 Andrew Mark Creighton will defend his doctoral thesis “Wolves as Signs of McDonaldization in Northern Manitoba” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Semiotics and Culture Studies). 

Supervisor:  
Research Fellow Nelly Mäekivi, University of Tartu 

Opponents:  
Research Professor John Michael Ryan, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru) 
Associate Professor Hongbing Yu, Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada) 

Summary 

The thesis studies the use of wolves to represent and brand a tourist economy in the city of Thompson, a small municipality in the northern region of the Canadian province of Manitoba. It draws from zoosemiotic and sociological theory to examine how wolves are represented in consumer media in comparison to their actual agency and bodily structures, and how such representations are used to promote and encourage economic development. I take a specific interest in how feelings and emotions associated with bonds between humans, wolves, and other animals are used to link these feelings of community towards consumer goods, services, and institutions to brand them, or to ‘enchant’ them as George Ritzer refers to the process.  

I studied this phenomenon by considering branding, development, community emotions, and animal experiences. I then used this theory to analyse and guide the study of 50 newspaper articles on the topic. I found that the development efforts tried to use emotions and messages of bonding with wolves to brand the development of a tourist economy, however this has proven difficult due to the local knowledge of wolves as well as wolves being difficult to fit into the tourist economy itself. 

Defence can also be followed in Zoom (Meeting ID: 921 1798 6338, Passcode: 693220).