CFP – Consumption Markets and Culture (Deadline 31 January 2017)

Consumption Markets and Culture

Special Issue: Marketplace Exclusion

Deadline: 31 January 2017

Guest editors Michael Saren, Christina Goulding, and Elizabeth Liz Parsons

 

The marketplace is not a level playing field. In all but theoretically perfect markets power relations between actors are far from equal. Participation in the market and the accompanying rights and responsibilities that allow individuals to act and be valued as legitimate consumers is an essential aspect of social cohesion and social relations.  One of the consequences of consumer culture has been the merging of categories concerning social and market participation, access and exclusion. Alongside the rise of consumerism there has been a shift away from values of community and citizenship towards those of materialism and competition. 

This is problematic for society as a whole because some people are better equipped to thrive in this context than others. Not every marketplace participant is able to compete on equal terms and various types of mechanisms operate to marginalise and exclude certain groups. Nowadays digital exclusion is a major concern for people without access to the Internet who may be increasingly left out of the networked economy. In physical markets exclusion can result from poor education, lack of communication and support at home, and limited access to jobs, finance or credit.  It can also result from the activities of retailers, marketers and cultural intermediaries in advertising, broadcasting and social media who shape the messages and measures of success, identity and belonging in terms of the market. 

Aims of the Special Issue
Since its inception, CMC has actively encouraged research that challenges the doxa of the mainstream market. As such papers that question orthodox theory or include the excluded have appeared in the journal helping to cement both the critical and cultural agendas of an interdisciplinary body of scholars. Two themes that have featured in various forms over the years are those of exclusion and marginalization. The focus of these has been wide-reaching from issues of poverty (Hill 2015: Langley 2014); religion (Sekhon and Szmigin 2011; Wong 2007); race (Hu et al 2013; Jafari and Goulding 2008); diversity (Gopaldas and DeRoy 2015); modes of resistance (Henry and Calwell 2007) and anti-consumption (Kozinets et al 2010). In this special issue we set out to build upon and extend this growing critical tradition of research into those groups largely deemed irrelevant in the managerial literature. In doing so we aim to expose the inherent structures of inequality and importantly, the strategies of overcoming such inequality, often in the face of adversity and positions of powerlessness.

This topic was the basis for a recent UK Economic and Social Research Council funded seminar series designed to create links between academics, early career researchers, business leaders, community groups, activists and policy makers interested in the dynamics of marketplace exclusion and means of countering it.This special issue of CMC invites papers both from those who attended or presented at the seminars and equally welcomes contributions from others with an interest in marketplace exclusion. The special edition will focus on representations, resistances and responses of marketplace exclusion. It differs significantly from anti-consumption or resistance to consumption per se, which have been topics of recent special issues of CMC. We are not only interested in the experience of excluded consumers, but also the strategies, both at the individual or collective level for self-exclusion,  such as anti-consumption, or imposed exclusion through poverty, ignorance or prejudice. As well exclusion at the level of individual choice and experience we are also interested in examining the systemic, structural and contextual conditions of markets that lead to exclusion. The aim is to raise awareness of the whole concept of marketplace exclusion, which at present is poorly specified in academic and policy circles.

Potential Topics
We welcome papers and commentaries which identify, investigate or discuss the mechanisms which contribute to exclusion, specific experiences of exclusion, resistances to it and actual vs. desirable policy responses. The editors invite contributions from a broad range of academic disciplines and policy perspectives including marketing, social policy, housing studies, political science, social psychology, economic policy, consumer research and others. 

llustrative examples of topics are listed below.  All papers welcomed that address any aspects relevant to the special issue theme are encouraged and these by no means restricted those which;

–    Acknowledge and assess  the nature and/or causes  of marketplace exclusion
–    Conduct a critique of the discourse and rhetoric of marketplace exclusion
–    Identify and evaluate attempts to shape marketplace behaviours, e.g. through digital marketing
–    What does it mean to be excluded from networked markets?
–    Examine how consumers attempt to resist the mechanics of marketplace exclusion, e.g. by forming alternative modes of community-based exchange. 
–    Evaluate the operation of current policy designed to mitigate against the impact of marketplace exclusion
–    Investigate the role of space and place as a mechanism for exclusion
–    View market exclusion in terms of power and powerlessness
–    Consider issues of resistance, race, gender, class, subcultures related to exclusion
–    Analyse specific contexts and cases of market exclusion, e.g. housing
–    Identify current and potential future public policy options designed to tackle exclusion
–    Discuss international examples of marketplace exclusion, resistance or public policies 

Illustrative Readings

Callon M. 2016. “Revisititing Marketization: from Interface-Markets to Market-Agencements. »Consumption, Markets & Culture 19 (1): 17-37.

Dumer, V. and Miles, S. 2009. “New Perspectives on the Role of Cultural Intermediaries in Social Inclusion in the UK.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 12 (3): 225-2421.

Elsharnouby, T.  and Parsons, E. 2013. “When Relationship Marketing Goes Wrong: Opportunism and Consumer Wellbeing in Consumer-Bank Relationships.” Journal of Relationship Marketing 12 (2): 141-163.

Gopaldas, A. and DeRoy, G. 2015. « An Intersectional Approach to Diversity.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 18 (4): 333-364.

Henry, P. and Caldwell, M. 2007. “Headbanging as Resistance or Refuge: A Cathartic Account.”Consumption, Markets and Culture 10 (2): 159-172.

Hill, R. 2015. “Marketing Poverty: How the Poor Transform their Lives.” Consumption, Markets and Culture18 (5):474-478.

Hoffman, D.L., Novak, T.P. and Schlosser, A. 2005. “The Evolution of the Digital Divide: How Gaps in Internet Access May Impact Electronic Commerce.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 5 (3) (online journal).

Hu, J., Whittler, T., and Kelly, T. 2013. “Reviewing Immigration Myths: Everyday Consumption Practices of Asians in America.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 16 (2): 169-195.

Izberk-Bilgin, E. 2009. “An interdisciplinary review of resistance to consumption, some marketing interpretations, and future research suggestions.” Consumption Markets & Culture 13 (3): 299-323.

Jafari, A. and Goulding, C. 2008. “We are not Terrorists: UK Based Iranians, Consumption Practices and the Torn Self.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 11 (2): 73-91.

Kozinets, R,  Handelman, M., and Lee, M. 2010. “Don’t Read This; or, Who Cares what the Hell Anti-consumption is Anyways.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 13 (3): 225-233.

Langley, P. 2014. “Consuming Credit.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 17 (5): 417-428.

Mitchell V, Walsh G. and Yamin, M. 2005. “Towards a Conceptual Model of Consumer Confusion.”Advances in Consumer Research 32: 143-150.

Pavia T. M. & Mason M. J. 2012. « Inclusion, exclusion and identity in the consumption of families living with childhood disability. » Consumption Markets & Culture 15 (1): 87-115.

Saatcioglu, B. and Ozanne, J, L. 2012. “A Critical Spatial Approach to Marketplace Exclusion and Inclusion.” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 32: 32-37.

Sekhn, Y. and Szmigin, I. 2011. “Acculturation and Identity: Insights from Second generation Indian Punjabi.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 14 (1): 79-89.

Stole, I . 2015. “Selling Under the Swastika: Advertising and Commercial Culture in Nazi Germany.”Consumption, Markets and Culture 18 (6): 569-582.

Williams, J.D.  and Henderson, G.R. 2012. “Discrimination and Injustice in the Marketplace: They Come in All Sizes, Shapes and Colours.” in David Glen Mick, Simone Pettigrew, Cornelia Pechmann, Julie L. Ozanne (eds.) Transformative Consumer Research for Personal and Collective Well-Being.  New York: Taylor and Francis: 171-180.

Wong, L (2007) Market Culture, the Middle Classes and Islam: Consuming the Market.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 10 (4): 451-480.

Submission Instructions

Submitted papers must comply with manuscript guidelines for Consumption Markets & Culture. Instructions for authors are available here. 

Any enquiries should be directed to the guest editors as below:
Michael Saren or Christina Goulding

All submitted papers should be sent directly to Elizabeth Parsons by closing date of 31 January 2017.

Editorial information