Producing historical critical marketing studies: theory, method and politics

Abstract

PurposeThis 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/approachThis paper is based on a close reading of relevant Foucaultian primary and secondary texts.FindingsFoucault'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/valueThis 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.