We list some themes that have animated scholarship below, and would like to encourage contributions that creatively engage with the mythic imaginary and envisage mythic forms of change and renewal:
Marketing Myths. Exploring the ghosts in the marketing machine. Celebrating, critiquing and re-imagining the founding narratives that pervade marketing. Perhaps exploring the high-mindedness of marketing scholarship as a response to the low deeds of marketing practice. The idea of myth is foundational to the interpretive and cultural turn that took place in marketing and consumer research. This was visible in argument and debate about epistemology, but also a fundamental aspect of the popularity of anthropological and cultural approaches to the study of consumption.
Can we explore the mythic basis of our academic praxis? Enquiring into the myths that give shape to current marketplace ideals, for instance, that Puritanism constructed and continues to sustain the American Dream? As marketing and consumer research mature, they are themselves subject to heightened internal critical attention, a major focus of which is to expose, debunk and celebrate the disciplines’ mythologies and myth making practices. Perhaps, because marketing theory has yet to develop a history of the field, its accounts of the past are essentially mythological and narrative?
It is argued by some that the politics of finance capital today are reliant on a powerful mythology, to which theory in marketing and consumer research are key signatories. What then of the mythic basis of ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ marketing? Does myth permeate critiques of the market? Can we enlist ancient myth to better understand our relation to the market, or to re-imagine marketing and the market? Or is myth, wherever we find it, to be identified as mystification to be exposed and exorcized? What then of the paradox that the rational and objective system of modernism itself constitutes an ideology that vouchsafes its own meaning, constituting the ‘big lie’, that we can experience the world as meaningless (Curry, 2012: 82)?
Journey. Homer’s classic journey involves encounters with giants, Hades, Sirens, gods, monsters, and strange peoples. Remaking Ulysses for the modern world, whether through the genius of Joyce, or the consumer odyssey, animated by the hope of understanding quotidian marketplace behaviour in new ways. But where is this taking us? Is western marketing and its creature, the consumer, on the road to nowhere?
Place. Exploring the mythologies of the market-place, from the agora, to the pluriform market spaces that exist today. Deconstructing the myth of the market as natural and eternal. Revisiting the idea that myth provides a place of respite from modernism, whether this is perceived as the ‘barren and frustrating’ revelations of quantitative surveys, or as a refuge from the market.
Spirit. Academic misrecognition - before the Berlin Wall came down most western academics mistakenly believed Soviet citizens were atheists. Acts of consecration (Heaney, Wintering Out, 1972) and desecration (Heaney, 2008) in relation to the commodity. How myths and myth-making might reshape Enlightenment ideals in the context of the 21st century. How myth (re)-enchants the marketplace and production systems, and the morality of such enchantment.
Mythic Heroes. From Cúchulainn and Síle na Gig to the Green Giant. From Achilles and Heracles to Marlboro Man. Hero worship and our need for heroes to frame our understanding of time, history and consumption.
Mythic Things. Mythological readings of quotidian products. Why are our longings for freedom, or our need for heroes, linked so readily to travel guides, plastics, and laundry detergent?
Selective Bibliography
Barthes, Roland (1957) Mythologies, Paris : Éditions du Seuil.
Belk, Russell W. (1987), The role of the Odyssey in consumer behaviour and in consumer research, in, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14, Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson (eds.), Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 357-361.
Belk, Russell W. & J.A. Costa (1998) The Mountain Man Myth: A Contemporary Consuming Fantasy, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 25(3): 218-240.
Belk, Russel W., Melanie Wallendorf & John F. Sherry Jr (1989) The sacred and the profane in consumer behaviour: Theodicy in the Odyssey, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jun., 1989), pp. 1-38.
Belk, Russell (1997) The goblin and the huckster: a story of consumer desire for sensuous luxury, in S. Brown, A.M. Doherty & B. Clarke (eds.) Proceedings of the Marketing Illuminations Spectacular, Belfast: University of Ulster: 290-299.
Bradshaw, Alan Stephen Brown, (2008) Scholars who stare at goats: The collaborative circle cycle in creative consumer research, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 (11/12):1396 – 1414.
Brownlie, Douglas & Michael Saren (1997) Beyond the one dimensional marketing manager” the discourse of theory, practice and relevance. International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol. 14(2): 147-161.
Brownlie, Douglas & Michael Saren, (1992) The Four Ps of the Marketing Concept: Prescriptive, Polemical, Permanent and Problematical, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26 Iss: 4, pp.34 – 47.
Curry, Patrick (2012) Enchantment and modernity, PAN: Philosophy, Activism, Nature, no. 9: 76-89.
Derrida, J. (1978) Violence and metaphysics, in Writing and Difference Alan Bass (Trans.), London: Routledge: 79-153.
Douglas, Mary (2007) Thinking in Circles : An Essay on Ring Composition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Freud, Sigmund (1946) Totem and taboo, New York: Vintage Books.
Glukitch, Ariel (1997) The end of magic, Oxford University Press.
Goldman, R. (1992) Reading ads socially, London: Routledge.
Heaney, Seamus (2008) Heaney hits at ‘desecration’ of sacred Tara. Observer, Sunday 2nd March. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/02/northernireland.tara
Heaney, Seamus (1972) Wintering Out. Abebooks.
Hirschman, Elizabeth (1987) Movies as myths: an interpretation of movie mythology, in Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale, edited by Donna Jean Umiker-Sebeok, 335-373. Mouton de Gruyter.
Hirschman, Elizabeth (1985) Primitive aspects of consumption in American society.Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 12: 142-154.
Jones, Campbell (2013) Can the market speak? Zero Books.
Jung, Karl (1968) Man and his Symbols. New York: Dell Books.
Kavanagh, Donncha and O'Leary, Majella; (2004) 'The Legend of Cu Chulainn: Exploring Organisation Theory's Heroic Odyssey' In: Y. Gabriel (eds). Myths, Stories and Organizations: Premodern Narratives for Our Times
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1955) The Structural Study of Myth, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 68, No. 270, Myth: A Symposium: 428-444.
Levy, Sidney J. (1981) Interpreting Consumer Mythology: A Structural Approach to Consumer Behaviour,Journal of Marketing, 45(3):49-61.
Leymore, Varda Langholz (1975) Hidden myth: structure and meaning in advertising. Henineman.
Luedicke, Marius K.; C. Thompson & M. Giesler (2010) Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism: How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand-Mediated Moral Conflict. Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 36(6): 1016-1032.
McCracken, G. (1986), "Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 13, 71-84.
Marx, Karl (1970) Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’. Annette Jolin & Joseph O’Malley (Trans.), Joseph O’Malley (Ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Midgley, M. (2003) The myths we live by. London ; New York: Routledge.
Peattie, Ken & Andrew Crane (2005) Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophecy? Qualitative Marketing Research: An International Journal, vol. 8(4):357-370. Research in Marketing,
Schwartzkopf, Stefan (2011) The Consumer as ‘‘Voter,’’ ‘‘Judge,’’ and ‘‘Jury’’: Historical Origins and Political Consequences of a Marketing Myth. Journal of Macromarketing, vol. 31(1):8-18.
Vargo, S.L. & R.F. Lusch (2004) The four service marketing myths: Remnants of a goods-based manufacturing model, Journal of Service Research, vol.6: 324-335.
Williamson, Judith (1978) Decoding advertisements. New York: Marion Boyars.
Zeynep, A. & C. Thompson (2011) Demythologizing Consumption Practices: How Consumers Protect Their Field-Dependent Identity Investments from Devaluing Marketplace Myths, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 37(5): 791-806.
Marketing Myths. Exploring the ghosts in the marketing machine. Celebrating, critiquing and re-imagining the founding narratives that pervade marketing. Perhaps exploring the high-mindedness of marketing scholarship as a response to the low deeds of marketing practice. The idea of myth is foundational to the interpretive and cultural turn that took place in marketing and consumer research. This was visible in argument and debate about epistemology, but also a fundamental aspect of the popularity of anthropological and cultural approaches to the study of consumption.
Can we explore the mythic basis of our academic praxis? Enquiring into the myths that give shape to current marketplace ideals, for instance, that Puritanism constructed and continues to sustain the American Dream? As marketing and consumer research mature, they are themselves subject to heightened internal critical attention, a major focus of which is to expose, debunk and celebrate the disciplines’ mythologies and myth making practices. Perhaps, because marketing theory has yet to develop a history of the field, its accounts of the past are essentially mythological and narrative?
It is argued by some that the politics of finance capital today are reliant on a powerful mythology, to which theory in marketing and consumer research are key signatories. What then of the mythic basis of ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ marketing? Does myth permeate critiques of the market? Can we enlist ancient myth to better understand our relation to the market, or to re-imagine marketing and the market? Or is myth, wherever we find it, to be identified as mystification to be exposed and exorcized? What then of the paradox that the rational and objective system of modernism itself constitutes an ideology that vouchsafes its own meaning, constituting the ‘big lie’, that we can experience the world as meaningless (Curry, 2012: 82)?
Journey. Homer’s classic journey involves encounters with giants, Hades, Sirens, gods, monsters, and strange peoples. Remaking Ulysses for the modern world, whether through the genius of Joyce, or the consumer odyssey, animated by the hope of understanding quotidian marketplace behaviour in new ways. But where is this taking us? Is western marketing and its creature, the consumer, on the road to nowhere?
Place. Exploring the mythologies of the market-place, from the agora, to the pluriform market spaces that exist today. Deconstructing the myth of the market as natural and eternal. Revisiting the idea that myth provides a place of respite from modernism, whether this is perceived as the ‘barren and frustrating’ revelations of quantitative surveys, or as a refuge from the market.
Spirit. Academic misrecognition - before the Berlin Wall came down most western academics mistakenly believed Soviet citizens were atheists. Acts of consecration (Heaney, Wintering Out, 1972) and desecration (Heaney, 2008) in relation to the commodity. How myths and myth-making might reshape Enlightenment ideals in the context of the 21st century. How myth (re)-enchants the marketplace and production systems, and the morality of such enchantment.
Mythic Heroes. From Cúchulainn and Síle na Gig to the Green Giant. From Achilles and Heracles to Marlboro Man. Hero worship and our need for heroes to frame our understanding of time, history and consumption.
Mythic Things. Mythological readings of quotidian products. Why are our longings for freedom, or our need for heroes, linked so readily to travel guides, plastics, and laundry detergent?
Selective Bibliography
Barthes, Roland (1957) Mythologies, Paris : Éditions du Seuil.
Belk, Russell W. (1987), The role of the Odyssey in consumer behaviour and in consumer research, in, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14, Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson (eds.), Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 357-361.
Belk, Russell W. & J.A. Costa (1998) The Mountain Man Myth: A Contemporary Consuming Fantasy, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 25(3): 218-240.
Belk, Russel W., Melanie Wallendorf & John F. Sherry Jr (1989) The sacred and the profane in consumer behaviour: Theodicy in the Odyssey, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jun., 1989), pp. 1-38.
Belk, Russell (1997) The goblin and the huckster: a story of consumer desire for sensuous luxury, in S. Brown, A.M. Doherty & B. Clarke (eds.) Proceedings of the Marketing Illuminations Spectacular, Belfast: University of Ulster: 290-299.
Bradshaw, Alan Stephen Brown, (2008) Scholars who stare at goats: The collaborative circle cycle in creative consumer research, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 (11/12):1396 – 1414.
Brownlie, Douglas & Michael Saren (1997) Beyond the one dimensional marketing manager” the discourse of theory, practice and relevance. International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol. 14(2): 147-161.
Brownlie, Douglas & Michael Saren, (1992) The Four Ps of the Marketing Concept: Prescriptive, Polemical, Permanent and Problematical, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26 Iss: 4, pp.34 – 47.
Curry, Patrick (2012) Enchantment and modernity, PAN: Philosophy, Activism, Nature, no. 9: 76-89.
Derrida, J. (1978) Violence and metaphysics, in Writing and Difference Alan Bass (Trans.), London: Routledge: 79-153.
Douglas, Mary (2007) Thinking in Circles : An Essay on Ring Composition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Freud, Sigmund (1946) Totem and taboo, New York: Vintage Books.
Glukitch, Ariel (1997) The end of magic, Oxford University Press.
Goldman, R. (1992) Reading ads socially, London: Routledge.
Heaney, Seamus (2008) Heaney hits at ‘desecration’ of sacred Tara. Observer, Sunday 2nd March. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/02/northernireland.tara
Heaney, Seamus (1972) Wintering Out. Abebooks.
Hirschman, Elizabeth (1987) Movies as myths: an interpretation of movie mythology, in Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale, edited by Donna Jean Umiker-Sebeok, 335-373. Mouton de Gruyter.
Hirschman, Elizabeth (1985) Primitive aspects of consumption in American society.Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 12: 142-154.
Jones, Campbell (2013) Can the market speak? Zero Books.
Jung, Karl (1968) Man and his Symbols. New York: Dell Books.
Kavanagh, Donncha and O'Leary, Majella; (2004) 'The Legend of Cu Chulainn: Exploring Organisation Theory's Heroic Odyssey' In: Y. Gabriel (eds). Myths, Stories and Organizations: Premodern Narratives for Our Times
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1955) The Structural Study of Myth, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 68, No. 270, Myth: A Symposium: 428-444.
Levy, Sidney J. (1981) Interpreting Consumer Mythology: A Structural Approach to Consumer Behaviour,Journal of Marketing, 45(3):49-61.
Leymore, Varda Langholz (1975) Hidden myth: structure and meaning in advertising. Henineman.
Luedicke, Marius K.; C. Thompson & M. Giesler (2010) Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism: How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand-Mediated Moral Conflict. Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 36(6): 1016-1032.
McCracken, G. (1986), "Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 13, 71-84.
Marx, Karl (1970) Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’. Annette Jolin & Joseph O’Malley (Trans.), Joseph O’Malley (Ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Midgley, M. (2003) The myths we live by. London ; New York: Routledge.
Peattie, Ken & Andrew Crane (2005) Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophecy? Qualitative Marketing Research: An International Journal, vol. 8(4):357-370. Research in Marketing,
Schwartzkopf, Stefan (2011) The Consumer as ‘‘Voter,’’ ‘‘Judge,’’ and ‘‘Jury’’: Historical Origins and Political Consequences of a Marketing Myth. Journal of Macromarketing, vol. 31(1):8-18.
Vargo, S.L. & R.F. Lusch (2004) The four service marketing myths: Remnants of a goods-based manufacturing model, Journal of Service Research, vol.6: 324-335.
Williamson, Judith (1978) Decoding advertisements. New York: Marion Boyars.
Zeynep, A. & C. Thompson (2011) Demythologizing Consumption Practices: How Consumers Protect Their Field-Dependent Identity Investments from Devaluing Marketplace Myths, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 37(5): 791-806.