Epistemologies in the wild: local knowledge and the notion of performativity

Abstract

This article explores the indigenous epistemology of market research. Industry textbooks are here taken as examples of commonly held understandings about market research knowledge. They are made the object of an epistemographic investigation of how the production and transfer of market research knowledge is understood within the field itself. Particular interest is directed towards what such local epistemic considerations might imply for our scholarly understanding of how economic theories and models shape markets. Our exploration depicts an indigenous epistemology characterised by a number of interrelated tensions (market research as: description vs. recommendation; art vs. science; information vs. source of inspiration; and distance vs. engagement). The article contends that these traits of the indigenous epistemology are important for understanding how market research participates in shaping markets.

Keywords:

• performativity
• actionability
• market research
• epistemology
• epistemography

Acknowledgement

We wish to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers as well as our colleagues Neil Pollock, Robin Williams, Niklas PG. Svensson and the Values research seminar for challenging and constructive feedback during the writing and revision of this text.

Notes

Nilsson has gathered, coded, and performed first cycle analysis of the empirical materials. The two authors have jointly developed the analytical framework and conclusions of the contribution.

¹ There has, in parallel with the increased STS-informed study of markets, also been a growing broad interest to transform a sociology of knowledge approach to the making of social knowledge (see, for instance, Camic, Gross, & Lamont, 2012).

² On the related notions of ‘emic’ and ‘etic’, see Kephart (2006).

³ We would also stress that we see this study as more particular than accounting for the performativity of market research or its theories: such studies – using the framework of performativity to show certain connections between depiction and the wider world – would require materials where influence and workings (rather than just ideas about such matters) can be traced.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Johan Nilsson

Johan Nilsson is a PhD candidate in Technology and Social Change at Linköping University. He is trained as an anthropologist through the CREOLE master programme in Stockholm University and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. During these studies, Johan focused on local reflection on consumption practices. His research interests have come to turn towards questions of knowledge and the intersection between local knowledges and worldviews, the knowledge making of markets in particular. Theoretically Johan relates to market studies, economic anthropology and sociology, the anthropology of markets and consumption, as well as contemporary science and technology studies (STS).

Claes-Fredrik Helgesson

Claes-Fredrik Helgesson is professor in Technology and Social Change at Linköping University. With a background in business studies, his research interest concerns in broad terms the intertwining of economic organising, science and technology. The theoretical inspiration comes primarily from economic sociology and social studies of science and technology (STS). His interest in economic organising makes his overall orientation located at the conjunction between STS, market studies and economic sociology. In the field of market studies, he has published in journals such as Marketing Theory, Industrial Marketing Management, and Journal of Cultural Economy. Helgesson is co-founder and co-editor of Valuation Studies, a new open access journal that published its first issue in spring 2013.