About the eBay project at The University of Essex

The idea for this conference originated from an ongoing ESRC project (RES-000-23-0433) at Chimera, a department of the University of Essex, which began in February 2004 and is due to end in January 2006. Results of this research project will be disseminated at the conference.

This section of the website is devoted to explaining more about the eBay project.

The project has an active steering group of 11 people, made up of members of relevant businesses, voluntary groups, the policy community and academics. The purpose of this group is to review the progress of the project, discuss potential future directions and offer advice.

Brief description of the project

The project was called: ‘Virtually second-hand: Internet auction sites as spaces of knowledge performance’ in our submission to the ESRC.

It is a detailed study of a phenomenally successful form of e-commerce, the Internet auction site. Such sites have revolutionised the way we shop for and sell second-hand and collectible items. However, they also provide potential new ways and spaces to perform and display knowledges and 'knowingness,' particularly in relation to material culture and wider site-specific 'communities'. Yet these alternative consumption spaces of e-commerce have been relatively under-researched, as have, until recently, their offline equivalents (boot sales, charity shops). This project is a case study of one such Internet auction site, eBay.co.uk - chosen for its market dominance. The research seeks to explore, through an innovative mix of qualitative methods, the relationship between participation in the eBay site and the expression of social identities and knowledges. An understanding of these processes is of considerable importance for developing future structures and systems of e-commerce.

See the links below for more details of the project:

Non-technical summary.html

Aims and objectives.html

Longer document (ESRC section 27).html

Media interest & PR.html 

The project also has its own, separate website - which includes the project's ESRC end of award report (results, methodology) and links to publications and dissemination activities so far. Please click here.