ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

: : : Posting : : call

Related ARContent:

---

Call for Papers – Marketing Theory – Special Issue
Boundary Work and Identity Construction in Market Exchanges

Guest Co-Editors: Nick Ellis (University of Leicester), Gavin Jack (University of Leicester), Gillian Hopkinson (Lancaster University) and Daragh O’Reilly (University of Sheffield)

This Special Issue seeks to build on the success of the Critical Marketing stream at the Fifth Critical Management Studies (CMS5) Conference held in Manchester in July 2007. Through the broad range of perspectives presented and the quality of discussion these provoked, the stream developed an initial critical understanding of what happens at and around the boundaries of firms in B2B or B2C contexts through deployment of the concepts of exchange, identity, self and otherness. With the aim of extending critical scholarship around this important theme we invite submissions to Marketing Theory both from stream participants and from the wider marketing community.

The key consideration for inclusion in the Special Issue is that authors explicitly pursue a critical analysis of managerial and/or consumer constructions of self and/or other, whether in terms of B2C or B2B exchanges. What insights do notions of identity, variously conceived, offer with respect to the individual’s and the organisation’s engagements with others? Possible ‘others’ that might be considered include consumers and other organisations which might be inter alia commercial, governmental or pressure groups. Key aspects of engagement are likely to include the range of exchanges such as social, economic and material, and the flow of (cultural) ideas, noted in the marketing field.

Contributions might consider a plethora of issues including, although not confined to:

• Which theories of identity consider how social actors (organisational or otherwise) make sense of, or ‘do’, participation in exchange?
• How may the role of markets, boundaries, their materiality or d/Discourses, be considered as productive of identity?
• How are repertoires, scripts, theories or narratives as well as material objects brought to bear in the construction of ‘the market’ and the legitimisation of the self as a market participant?
• Does ‘exchange’ help us conceptualise the individual manager, consumer or this thing called the organisation?
• Is ‘exchange’ even the most appropriate concept for this analysis of the performance of identity/self, a performance seemingly played out in the spotlight of the d/Discourses of marketing management and consumption?
• Can a critical view of the notion of ‘self-concept’ provide different insights into our understanding of consumer identity?
• How do participants negotiate and deploy, or how do they resist or subvert market exchanges (perhaps through ‘sharing’ rather than ‘exchanging’).
• In what ways are individuals and organisations excluded from participation in exchange?
• To what extent is identity a ‘consumable’, and are corporations ‘identity-factories’, such that ‘brand identity’ becomes a set of meanings produced by corporate interests as a means of structuring and camouflaging exchanges? Could certain brand identities be read as including covert legitimisations? Can ‘authentic’ brand heritage be manufactured?
• Can a multi-billion dollar corporation be a member of a brand community on the same terms as a consumer?
• How do corporations co-opt other identities by means of product placement, celebrity endorsement, sponsorship, etc.

Contributions might also consider ‘our’ engagement with the subject matter, for instance:

• How do scholars make sense of the sense-making of market participants?
• How do ‘our’ texts influence and pattern exchange and distribute power in economic and other arenas?
• Finally, what are the implications of this for ‘our’ research, writing, supervision and teaching?

We are particularly keen to encourage submissions from the multiple philosophical perspectives that constitute a critical marketing approach. As such we would welcome papers that pursue arguments from feminist, post-structuralist, postcolonial, (post- and neo) -Marxist, Actor Network Theory, critical realist, queer theory, critical race and postmodern perspectives inter alia. Contributions may be in the form of theory papers, speculative essays, review articles or theoretically-grounded methodology and empirical articles, or any combination of the above.

Submissions:

The publication of this Special Issue is scheduled for the latter part of 2009.

The deadline for papers is 31st August 2008.

If you have any queries regarding the suitability of your potential contribution please contact any of the guest co-editors:

n.ellis@le.ac.uk
g.hopkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
g.jack@le.ac.uk
d.t.oreilly@sheffield.ac.uk

Submissions should be sent electronically as Word documents to Nick Ellis (email: n.ellis@le.ac.uk). If this is not possible, then please send five copies to Nick Ellis, School of Management, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.

For specific manuscript submission guidelines, please go to:

---