Consumer Culture Theory and Critical Marketing: epistemological reflections and research possibilities

Ana Carolina Assis Sampaio, André Luiz Maranhão de Souza-Leão
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21529/RECADM.2025013

Abstract

The growing interest in approaches that discuss contextual and critical aspects in marketing opens space for perspectives outside the mainstream, such as Consumer Culture Theory and Critical Marketing. Both approaches consider social and cultural characteristics, with the former being a 'brand' of interpretivist research with a culturalist lens and consolidated research interests, and the latter being a theoretical-epistemological approach with a well-defined axio-onto-epistemological stance. Envisioning the association between these two 'theories,' this work seeks to reflect on the adoption of the Critical Marketing approach within Consumer Culture Theory, initially exploring the onto-epistemic-axiological connections between the theories and subsequently debating the effective execution of research in Consumer Culture Theory within critical epistemological limits. As a result, it is presented that the articulation between the two mentioned approaches involves aligning critical boundaries – related to the onto-epistemic-axiological stance linked to ontological denaturalization, epistemological reflexivity, and a non-performative posture – and the empirical aspects of investigation – applying the critical stance to the domains of interest in Consumer Culture Theory.


Keywords

consumer culture theory; critical marketing; epistemological debate; critical marketing perspectives

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References


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