Andreas Chatzidakis

Anti-Consumption as the Study of Reasons against

Anti-consumption studies are gaining in popularity, but doubt remains as to whether they can add anything unique to consumer research and marketing that other similar topics cannot. This article attempts to explain the distinctive nature of anti-consumption and how it can contribute to the understanding of marketing beyond other related phenomena, such as ethical consumption, environmental consumption, consumer resistance, and symbolic consumption. Drawing upon reasons theory, the article contends that the “reasons against” consumption are not always the logical opposite of the “reasons for” consumption and there are important differences between phenomena of negation and affirmation. By focusing on the reasons against consumption, anti-consumption research acts as a lens that scholars and practitioners may use to view similar phenomena in a new light. The article illustrates this point by offering anti-consumption as an overarching perspective that spans a range of behavioral and thematic contexts, thereby revealing its unique contribution to marketing.

Heterotopian space and the utopics of ethical and green consumption

Abstract In this article, we illustrate how Exarcheia, an Athenian neighbourhood that is renowned for its capacity for revolt and anti-capitalist ethos, provides a rich site for utopian praxis, particularly in relation to a range of green and ethical marketplace behaviours. Arguing that space and place are essential to questions of ethics, ecology, and politics, we explore Exarcheia as a heterotopian space that fosters critique and experimentation, generating new ways of thinking and doing green/ethical behaviours. Drawing on data from a two-year ethnography, our findings not only challenge individualised and de-contextualised notions of the consumer, but also expose moralistic and post-political assumptions that often go unnoticed in ethical and green consumer research. We point to the need for a counter-strand in the literature that reviews instances that we recognise as ethical or green consumerism not in terms of identity projects or given ideas of ethics but rather with reference to the particularity of the spatial contexts in which they occur and their political implications.

Guilt and ethical choice in consumption A psychoanalytic perspective

Research into consumer ethics has grown substantially since the 1990s. However, it is predominantly influenced by socio-cognitive and attitudinal models that treat everyday consumer decisions as the outcome of carefully weighting abstract moral principles against utilitarian outcomes. This article counter-proposes a psychoanalytic approach to consumer guilt and moral choice that draws on Freudian and Kleinian contributions. In particular, conceptualisations of unconscious (rather than conscious) guilt, the notion of guilt being the cause rather than outcome of moral behaviour, and the distinction between persecutory and reparative anxieties. In doing so, it corroborates a view of everyday morality as less rational, less deliberate and firmly embedded in psychodynamic processes that largely escape individual awareness. Potential implications and avenues for more psychoanalytically inspired treatments of consumer ethics are discussed.

Introduction to the Special Issue: A Macromarketing Perspective on Alternative Economies

Alternative economies respond to the precarious conditions underpinning the everyday lives of individuals, and their lack of access to and scarcity of resources and competences. Recently there has been increasing interest in the field of macromarketing towards such alternative forms of exchange and marketplaces. Nonetheless, current studies of alternative economies remain fragmented. The objective of this special issue is to advance our understanding of alternative economies and stimulate future research within this domain. Seven articles are included in this special issue of the Journal of Macromarketing. Each article presents forward-looking research exploring one of three aspects of alternative economies: (1) the paradigms used within alternative economies, (2) the institutional logics that guide action within these systems and (3) the implications to individuals, localities, markets, and society. The editors of the special issue briefly introduce the topic, provide a definition of alternative economies, offer an overview of the articles and their contributions, and direction for future research bringing together alternative economies and macromarketing.

Are consumers’ reasons for and against behaviour distinct?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to add clarity to current conceptualisations of attitudes towards giving versus not giving and to identify an approach that better informs interventions that seek to promote particular types of pro-social consumer behaviour. Despite a considerable body of research that provides insights into why people give to charity, there is comparatively little understanding of the reasons why others decide not to give. More generally, existing applications of attitudinal models do not differentiate between decisions to perform and not to perform a behaviour. This paper challenges the assumption that attitudes towards performing and not performing a behaviour are logical opposites. Drawing on reasons theory, the paper examines the incremental and discriminant validity of attitudes for charitable giving versus attitudes against charitable giving, and the extent to which they correspond to different rather than opposite underlying reasons. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-meth...

The skins we live in

This article explores the skin-ego, a theory associated with Didier Anzieu, which holds that we experience life as encapsulated by an outer shell. This insight is used to push understandings within consumer research of how we might regard the body, not as a finite entity bound in absolute time and space or as a canvas to be decorated, but as a porous and sprawling entity that bears unconscious and historically formed relationalities open to transformation. This vein of insight allows us to consider anew how music and noise is consumed in terms of containment, holding and individuation.

Marketing ‘ethically questionable’ politics: the case of a xenophobic political party

The success experienced by the extreme right parties across Western Europe and the persistent loyalty of their voters has sparked the interest of academics and broader society. Some of their theses are controversial, if not unethical, but nevertheless increasingly successful in Western European democracies. This paper seeks to explain how extreme right parties address the voters and manage to overcome peoples aversion for racism and xenophobia in their marketing communications. Neutralisation theory is applied as a useful theoretical framework for uncovering the ways through which racism and xenophobia are reframed and normalised, ultimately providing a political “product” which is dissociated from its ethically questionable features and becomes less problematic for voters’ consumption. Thematic analysis of communication material from a particularly successful extreme right party, i.e. the Vlaams Blok/Vlaams Belang, provides an early indication that neutralisation may indeed be a viable route for understanding the rhetorical processes at play when communicating politically controversial positions and other ethically questionable issues more broadly. Concurrently, neutralisation theory stresses that such techniques are learned in the course of social interaction and ultimately, they are negotiated and (de)legitimised within broader socio-cultural systems. As such, it represents an important step in understanding how political parties and marketers draw on available repertoires of social and cultural narratives with a view to facilitate morally neutral consumption.

Special Issue on Alternative Economies: Journal of Macromarketing, 2017

Alternative economies represent an essential part of ‘‘cultures of resistance’’ (Williams 2005) to the increasing commodification of social life and the monolithic nature of global capitalism. For authors such as Gibson-Graham (2006) and Williams (2005), dominant (capitalist) readings of the economy overemphasize profit-motivated and monetized market exchanges. Yet, various alternative spheres of economic activity exist where exchange is not necessarily monetized and/or underpinned by motivations for profit. Alternative economies constitute responses to the precarious conditions in everyday lives of individuals, and their lack of access to and scarcity of resources and competences (Day 2005; Williams 2005). Alternative economic models rest on shared commitments to minimize economic domination and exploitation and thereby alleviate the subordinated position of local subjects (Day 2005; Gibson-Graham 2006). Specifically, alternative economies have (re-) emerged in local communities where various groups and movement actors work towards localized development and are driven by their hope to improve human conditions. These activities are enacted in different type of transactions, labor, and economic enterprises. They are sometimes ground in objection to, but also run parallel with institutionalized markets under such nomenclature as ‘‘social and solidarity economy,’’ ‘‘sharing economy,’’ and ‘‘neighborhood work’’ (Day 2005; Gibson-Graham 2006). Recently, the marketing field has shown increasing interest in such alternative forms of exchange and marketplaces. Issues addressed include the crisis of post-industrialism (Varey 2011) and the political construction of marketing systems (Arndt 1981; Layton 2009). Macromarketing researchers in particular have been studying the impacts of exchange on relational parties and their surroundings (Laczniak and Murphy 2008), responses to consumer society, such as anticonsumption (Chatzidakis and Lee 2013), social entrepreneurship and informal exchange systems (Viswanathan et al. 2014), and alternative forms of trade organizations (Geiger-Oneto and Arnould 2011; Golding 2009). Consumer research also has tackled collaborative forms of consumption (cf. Botsman and Rodgers 2010) such as access-based forms of consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012), sharing (Belk 2010), the fluidity of activity such as co-creation and prosumption (Arvidsson 2008; Ritzer and Jurgeson 2010), and creation of heterotopias (Chatzidakis et al. 2012; North 1999). Nonetheless, current understandings of alternative economies remain fragmented leaving larger scale questions about the intersections and interrelations of alternative economy movements largely underexplored and undertheorized. Correspondingly, questions around new discourses of economy and economic possibility, the cultivation of noncapitalist subjectivities, and alternative forms of political and marketplace participation remain presently underdeveloped. In the light of our limited understanding of these phenomena and how they play out in real life, we invite papers that specifically examine alternative economies both conceptually and empirically. Contributions are invited on (but not limited to) the following topics:

Consumption in and of Space and Place: Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue, themed ‘Consumption In and Of Space and Place’, seeks to contribute to the development of a more nuanced understanding of these two concepts in the context of marketing research. ‘Place’ is, arguably, one of the axiomatic principles of marketing as one of the four Ps, relating to ‘the element of the marketing mix that focuses on getting the optimum amount of goods and/or services before the maximum number of members of the target market, at times and locations that optimize the marketing outcome’ (Baines et al., 2013: 397). It is usually the subject of an obligatory chapter in introductory marketing textbooks. However, we wish to move beyond such an overtly managerialist – and possibly reductionist – perspective, to incorporate a more rounded understanding of the concept, and one which – perhaps inevitably – is informed by, and rooted in, other disciplines, such as geography and sociology. Taking a much more holistic perspective, in reviewing the history of the idea of place, Cresswell (2004) identifies three levels at which the concept is approached:

A Psycho-Social Approach to Consumer Ethics

Research into consumer ethics has grown considerably over the last two decades. However, most studies adopt either a psychological or a socio-cultural approach and there has been little in the way ...