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The paper surveys selected standpoints in the Polish humanities that are visibly critical toward neoliberal assumptions and claims of economics. The resources used in the text are: Andrzej Szahaj’s philosophical postulates and assertions; Tadeusz Kowalik’s view; criticism and postulates of social economics articulated by the quarterly magazine Nowy Obywatel (The New Citizen). The purpose of this paper is to construct a possibly cohesive picture of this type of criticism by indicating important similarities between the approaches mentioned above, its strongest arguments, philosophical premises and political inclinations.

A conceptual synthesis and interpretation of theoretical standpoints and its philosophical premises, a comparative analysis of the text/content of the magazine (The New Citizen).

Each of the three standpoints discussed in the paper proves to be an interesting example of social economics. It is also symptomatic that they share a similar, critical attitude toward the way in which the transformation of the Polish economy from a socialist to a capitalist system had been carried out. The transformation is thereby interpreted as a process that is not accomplished at all from the point of view of the ideals of social justice and integrity.

The popularization of Polish normative views of economics taking into account the problem of social justice, and the possible transformation of the way in which economic problems are publicly understood in Poland.

The discussion of non-standard interpretations of Polish transformation and its effects that undermine and challenge neoliberal ideology in economics.

Societal marketing emerged in the early 1970s, promising a more socially responsible and ethical model for marketing. While the societal marketing concept has attracted its adherents and critics, the literature on societal marketing has remained sketchy and underdeveloped, particularly with respect to its underlying (and largely implicit) moral agenda. By making the moral basis of societal marketing more explicit, this article primarily seeks to offer a moral critique of the societal marketing concept. By situating discussion within notions of psychological and ethical egoism, argues that, in moral terms at least, the societal marketing concept is clearly an extension of the marketing concept, rather than a fundamental reconstruction of marketing theory. While acknowledging the use of the societal marketing concept in practice, this use is problematized with respect to a number of critical moral issues. In particular, the question of who should and can decide what is in the public’s best interests, and elucidate the moral deficiencies of the rational‐instrumental process upon which marketing decisions are frequently rationalised. Suggests that attention should be refocused away from prescribing what “moral” or “societal” marketing should be, and towards developing an understanding of the structures, meanings and discourses which shape and explain marketing and consumption decision making and sustain its positive and negative impacts on society.

Reports on a survey carried out in the USA into the opinions of leading marketing managers and consumer advocates with respect to consumerism. Investigates, also the response of US business to consumerism. Offers several points to illustrate this, concluding that concepts of consumerism appear to have been institutionalized in the economic system of the USA.

In an era of global economic expansion, the harsh underside of capitalism clearly affects human subjectivities and consciousness.¹ Emotions, which both express and structure subjectivity and consciousness, reflect and manifest the social reality of human life in its various globalized dimensions. My argument in this chapter thus concerns the ways in which the contradictions as the harsh underside of capitalism affect the subjectivities of racial minorities. For this reason, the relationship between emotions and commodity capitalism is an especially pressing concern for the formation and expression of racial identity in the United States today. To understand the social reality of race in the U.S. capitalist system is to take seriously the affects that express and constitute the critical social thought of racial minorities. As African Americanist scholars such as Cornel West (1994, p. 42) have argued, the ideology of unregulated capital in corporate consumerism creates market moralities and market mentalities that “erode civil society.” The critical thought of black Americans, West (1992, p. 42) avers, suffers irreparable damage by images that relentlessly commercialize the so-called good life:These seductive images contribute to the predominance of the market-inspired way of life over all others – and thereby edge out nonmarket values – love, care, service to others – handed down by preceding generations. The predominance of this way of life among those living in poverty-ridden conditions, with a limited capacity to ward off self-contempt and self-hatred, results in the possible triumph of the nihilistic threat in black America.Corporations thus capitalize on civil rights gains while commodifying the activist politics of communities and governmental organizations. In effect, the “status quo” of government that promotes economic justice and civil rights protections is fragmented and replaced by corporate domination and the rule of the free market. Instead of turning to non-commercial avenues of civil society to change oppressive relations of power, Americans opt for consuming social change in a laissez-faire economy that equates individualism and free choice with purchasing merchandise. In her powerful critique of class privilege and consumption-based individualism, Bell Hooks (2000, p. 81) explains how the media's use of race to promote a “shared culture of consumerism” vitiates community values and deflects attention from class antagonism. Such consumerism, Hooks maintains, promotes ambitions for lifestyles of conspicuous consumption and celebrity that renders incoherent and undesirable a democratic sensibility that made civil rights gains for women and minorities possible in the first place (Bell Hooks, 2000, p. 77).

The purpose of this paper is to review Advertising in a Free Society – a defence of the advertising industry – by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and to evaluate its status as a justifiable forgotten classic of the marketing literature.

Advertising in a Free Society is placed in historical context (the Cold War), summarised and reviewed.

During the 1950s, as the UK experienced a period of affluence and growing consumerism, the advertising industry was again subject to the criticisms that had been levelled at it by influential scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Against this context, Advertising in a Free Society deserves to be remembered as one of the earliest defences of advertising and remains highly relevant. Harris and Seldon were leading figures in the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), joining shortly after its inception, which became an influential group both in the UK and abroad, influencing policy on free markets.

Although Advertising in a Free Society attracted few citations (going out of print between its publication in 1959 and 2014 when it was republished by the IEA), and largely forgotten by marketing scholars, it provides a significant source for marketing historians interested in advertising criticism, the growth of the British advertising industry and the role of advertising in democratic societies. A reanalysis of the text situated in its historical context – the height of the Cold War – reveals that the text can be viewed as an artefact of the conflict, deploying the rhetoric of the period in defending the advertising industry and highlighting the positive role that advertising could make in free societies.

Emphasises opportunities for positive responses to consumerist phenomena by marketing managements, despite the growing political nature of European consumerism, and that in this new, complex and dynamic environment the marketing man must learn to operate. States in the last two decades of growth markets, the number of products available to satisfy a particular consumer need has dramatically increased. Posits that, luckily for both consumer and marketer, the normal process of consumer satisfaction tends, in the long run, to shake out unviable or invalid products. Investigates consumers' perceptions of consumerism, discussing both male and female views about information, health and safety, repairs and servicing and product quality. Gives results of a survey from a consumers' hot line installed by a US Attorney General in the autumn of 1971 — there were 3,000 calls of which a random sample of 150 were used — these results are included for reference. Discusses businessmen's perception of consumerism, marketing stands, objectives and policies of consumer organisations, future trends in Europe, and marketing's response by firms who practice the marketing concept. Summarises that the time is at hand to apply, in its true meaning, the marketing concept.

Points out some deficiencies in consumer attitudes. Confirms that the emergence of consumerism has, generally, been welcomed, not only by customers, journalists and educators, but even by businessmen who, ostensibly, have most to lose from the activities of an organised consumer movement. Demonstrates, herein, that the actual behaviour of consumerists is given as evidence that there are aspects of the consumer movement which are of help to no‐one, least of all consumers. Confirms the concern specifically with consumerists' expressed and implicit attitudes towards the effects of consumer protection measures on private and social costs; the realities of consumer behaviour and the needs of the customer; and the workings of the modern competitive marketing system. Sums up that consumerism leads to decisions being made on behalf of consumers, rather than by consumers, which can only harm consumers and this cannot be disregarded.

This study aims to investigate the viewpoints of heterodox economic thoughts and Islamic economic thought concerning the concept of waste. Additionally, it explores the shared criticisms that both perspectives hold against mainstream economic thought in relation to waste.

First of all, the concept of waste is examined and the global effects of waste are investigated. Criticisms directed in the context of waste in mainstream economics in the context of heterodox school thoughts are examined. Likewise, criticisms directed in the context of waste in mainstream economics in the context of Islamic economic thoughts are examined. Finally, the common and different aspects of heterodox and Islamic economic thoughts were discussed, and the common criticisms of mainstream economic thought’s point of view toward waste were examined. This study is a theoretical, qualitative study.

Although both ideas have different aspects, heterodox and Islamic economic thoughts believe that the mainstream economy, which is based on capitalism and materialism, creates waste by ignoring the long-term social and environmental consequences of economic activity. They argue that the pursuit of profits and growth, without considering the impact on society and the environment, leads to an inefficient and unsustainable use of resources.

The best author’s knowledge, by emphasizing the common and different aspects of Islamic economics and heterodox thoughts, this study is the first to examine the concept of waste in the context of the common aspects of these ideas.

This paper discusses the representation of “green consumerism” in the prevalent institutionalised discourses of green consumerism, and in the self‐narratives of people who identify themselves as ecologically oriented citizens, focusing on the construction of the self and the other in these texts. The aim is to investigate the ways in which “radical” ecologically oriented citizens, who are largely “marginalised” and positioned as the other in the dominant discourses of green consumerism, engage in resistance towards western, materialistic consumption culture. Drawing from the Foucauldian ideas of political struggle as the “politics of the self”, and personal ethics and moral agency as a mode of self‐formation, this paper analyses the ways in which these “green consumers” reject their received subjectivity as consumers. The focus is on the practices of self, and on the ways in which they invent and promote new forms of subjectivity that are more in line with their environmentalist ideology.

Examines consumerist developments in progressive Western economies. Studies present literature about consumerism, developing some propositions forming the basis for a theory of consumerism. Goes on to test the propositions, based on empirical data, to form the foundation for a framework to enable marketing to encompass consumerism. Examines in the first part the USA and the consumerist movement there, looking at various public interest groups active in the USA. Addresses the phenomenon in Europe in the second section stating that Sweden is the most consumer‐friendly, followed by the UK, France and Germany. Concludes that the consumer has a right to expect safety, quality, health; information, education and protection; and truth, authenticity and choice.