Dr Timothy Hill – The Retailing and Contemporary Consumerism Research Lab

Welcome to a new seminar in the Bath Retail Lab Seminar Series on Wednesday 27^th April at 14:30-16:00 on Zoom.

This time we have the great pleasure of hosting Dr Leighanne Higgins from Lancaster University. Some may have come across some of Leighanne’s previous research investigating contemporary pilgrimages. In this seminar, Leighanne will introduce and present preliminary findings from an on-going art-based research project, “The Marketplace and I.” This participatory piece of research has worked with disabled persons and asked them create artworks that represent their commercial experiences. There are artworks comprising of retail, hospitality and tourism experiences and showcasing experiences of mobility, autism and sensory impairment.

If you would be interested in attending, please contact Tim Hill (trh37@bath.ac.uk)

Abstract

What fuels capitalism and what stops it from collapsing? Does marketing communications support and sustain the economic and political status quo?

This book is not about describing the ways in which businesses can optimize the messages they put across or about adding to the marketing communicator’s toolkit. This book argues that marketing communications plays an increasingly important role in bolstering contemporary capitalism. Drawing on conceptualizations of the ‘market’ from political economy and sociology, it focusses on five logics that underpin and sustain the form of capitalism in which we live: the logic of competition, the logic of sustainability, the logic of individualism, the logic of objectivity, and the logic of distraction. It does this by exploring those arenas which are increasingly dominated by the communicative activities of business: sport, CSR, social media, statistics, and entertainment.

Bringing theories from marketing and consumer research, sociology, cultural studies, technology and media studies to bear on marketing communications, this book is necessary reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics who wish to understand the broader role of marketing communications in the reproduction of contemporary capitalism.

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