Consumption Markets & Culture

In an age of political turmoil, ecological change and financial crises, Marxist thinking holds the potential to shake marketing and consumer researchers out of their dogmatic slumber.  Indeed, while such scholars have long ignored Marxism (Brown, 2007), considered it ‘taboo’ (Firat, 2009), and even likened it to Nazism (Hunt, 1993), many brands now affirm ostensibly Marxist themes of redistribution, equality and solidarity (Middleton and Turnbull, 2021; Rhodes, 2021; Peñaloza et al., 2023). This Special Issue opens a space where marketing and consumer researchers can speak of ‘that M word’ (Bradshaw and Dholakia, 2012: 121-131), without the need for lengthy apologies. It also encourages neo-Marxists to take marketing seriously, without simplistically reducing consumers to passive dupes and advertisers to malevolent manipulators. We invite work which, among other avenues:

• Challenges core elements of Marxist thinking in light of contemporary consumption and marketing practice.
• Contrasts Marxist thinking on foundational consumer and marketing concepts (value, circulation, labour and so on).
• Explores the reception of Marxist thinking in consumer and marketing scholarship.
• Develops a historical materialist account of the emergence and development of marketing within different modes of production.
• Questions the understanding of consumption and marketing within different areas of Marxist thinking.
• Considers the political economy and radical potential for post-capitalist consumption and marketing.

Contributors are encouraged to present initial drafts of their work at a paper development workshop in Edinburgh on the 10^th of April, 2024. This will be a hybrid event for which your physical presence is desirable but not essential. Participants should register their interest in attending the event – whether in person or online – on or before the 13^th of March, 2023. Abstracts/short papers of c. 1000 words should be submitted to the organisers for consideration on or before the same date. The deadline for full paper submissions is the 30^th of August, 2024.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article