Some reflections on interdisciplinary CCT research: field boundaries, social impact and the semantics of consumer vulnerability

ABSTRACT

In this commentary, we reflect on our experiences of working together on an interdisciplinary project in which, despite our different disciplinary backgrounds, we share many overlapping research interests around themes of marginalisation, inclusion, and well-being. We consider how the labelling of people as consumers raises interesting questions about the often taken-for-granted nature of disciplinary language, and look at how researchers must balance idealistic and pragmatic concerns through processes of applying for funding, conducting research, and publishing findings. Whilst interdisciplinarity offers many benefits, it may also present challenges for early career researchers trying to establish themselves in academia. Furthermore, through combining feminist and CCT perspectives, we question what kinds of activities are valued in assessing the social impact of marketing and consumer research.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinarity
• space
• well-being
• language
• feminist

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Juliette Wilson and Sarah Edwards. It is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and entitled ‘Transformative Servicescapes and Consumer Vulnerability.’

2. Intersectionality is the concept, originally expounded by Kimberlé Crenshaw (see, Crenshaw & Bonis, 2005), that feminist analyses of patriarchy must also be considered in relation to other intersecting aspects of social identity such as race, ethnicity and class.

3. Post-Soviet studies encompasses perspectives from multiple other fields including cultural studies, economics, politics and Slavic studies, united by specialism in the historical background and contemporary context of former state socialist countries. For example, from a marketing perspective, this might involve studies on the transition from a centrally planned economy to a globally integrated market economy, or the development of wider forms of conspicuous consumption during this period.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kathy Hamilton

Kathy Hamilton is a Professor in Consumption, Markets and Society at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Her research projects have investigated how various contexts of vulnerability, such as poverty, transform market interactions. She is co-chair of the Consumer research with Social Impact Special Interest Group within the Academy of Marketing. Kathy is interested in interdisciplinary research and her work has been published in marketing and consumer research, sociology and tourism journals.

Holly Porteous

Holly Porteous is a Leverhulme-funded Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Since completing a PhD in post-Soviet gender and consumption at the University of Glasgow, she has worked on Scottish Government- and ESRC-funded projects studying how migrants from former state socialist countries made themselves socially, economically and culturally secure in pre-Brexit Scotland. Her research interests focus on how inequalities are produced and reproduced in society, particularly from a feminist perspective.