Producing historical critical marketing studies: theory, method and politics

Abstract

Purpose

This paper calls attention to the importance of historical research within “critical marketing studies”. It seeks to articulate a historical perspective based on the work of Michel Foucault.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a close reading of relevant Foucaultian primary and secondary texts.

Findings

Foucault's scholarship provides a useful counterpoint to the calls for critical theory to form the central paradigm in critical marketing studies, revealing a complex constellation of power/knowledge relations underpinning marketing theory, thought and pedagogy.

Originality/value

This is a close reading and examination of a theoretically sophisticated, rigorous scholar who remains largely underexplored in relation to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.

Citation

Tadajewski, M. (2011), "Producing historical critical marketing studies: theory, method and politics", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 549-575. https://doi.org/10.1108/17557501111183662