Overview

An anthropologist, folklorist, and literary critic besides being a marketing professor, Alf H. Walle takes a refreshingly interdisciplinary look at the impact of modern social thought upon marketing and social research. Tracing key ideas back to their intellectual roots, Walle shows how the evolution of social theory, and the controversies it has engendered, can and should transform the way marketers approach consumers. He provides a theoretic underpinning for qualitative consumer research and presents a lucid theoretical and methodological overview for qualitative methods in marketing, research that parallels what others, such as Shelby Hunt, have provided for scientific methods in marketing. His book is a provocative, thoughtful, and probing study of qualitative social theory and its important contributions to marketing and consumer research. It is of value to both practitioners and academics. Arguing that the social structural methods have been largely ignored, Walle rehabilitates this general method and compares it to poststructural alternatives. Walle shows that to understand the evolution of modern social theory, one must come to grips with the work of three towering pioneers: Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx, and that researchers must understand and appreciate the contributions and influence of pioneers in order to avoid the myopic vision of our own time. Praising Hegel's metaphor of cultures as living organisms and his forging of the concept we now call National Character, Walle points to Hegel as the pioneering social structuralist and as the man who, as a negative example, inspired the poststructuralists to action. Walle ends with a well reasoned analysis of poststructural thought in marketing-consumer research, and suggests that conflict theory--an alternative to poststructural methods that evolved from social structural roots--is often more appropriate than poststructural analysis in marketing and consumer research. Relating both conflict theory and poststructural analysis to the actual needs of marketing consumer researchers, Exotic Visions in Marketing Theory and Practice provides unique, practical insights for those who teach market research as well as practitioners who pursue it for a living.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alf H. Walle
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Praeger Publishers Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.607kg
ISBN:  

9781567203943

ISBN 10:   1567203949
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   30 December 2001
Recommended Age:   From 7 to 17 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction: Beyond Science Kant, Hegel, and Marx: Three Often-Ignored Pioneers Kant and the Tempering of Science: A Metaphor for Marketing Friedrich Hegel: Social Structure as Overarching Monolith Marxist Theory and Marketing/Consumer Research: An Anthropological Perspective The Intellectual Ancestors of Modern Qualitative Thought The Structural Paradigm and Its Variants Mental Structuralism: The Nature of the Human Mind Classical Social Structuralism: An Overview The Culture at a Distance Method: Social Structure and Individual Response Myth and Symbol Method: Social Structure and the Consumption of Art The Face to Face Method: Social Structure and Individual Response The Structural Perspective: A Synthesis Individualistic and Poststructural Perspectives Alternatives to Structural Analysis: The Existential Initiative Poststructural Leaders and Marketing/Consumer Research Conflict Theory: Individualism within a Social Context Individualistic Implications and Marketing Research Conclusion: A Diverse Cross-Disciplinary Toolkit--Implications and Options Index

Reviews

?In an interdisciplinary look at the impact of modern social thought on marketing and social research, the author traces key ideas back to their intellectual roots and shows how the evolution of social theory can and should transform the way marketers approach consumers.?-Business Horizons

In an interdisciplinary look at the impact of modern social thought on marketing and social research, the author traces key ideas back to their intellectual roots and shows how the evolution of social theory can and should transform the way marketers approach consumers. -Business Horizons ?In an interdisciplinary look at the impact of modern social thought on marketing and social research, the author traces key ideas back to their intellectual roots and shows how the evolution of social theory can and should transform the way marketers approach consumers.?-Business Horizons

Author Information

ALF H. WALLE has moved between assignments as a consultant and as a college professor. Walle specializes in qualitative methods in marketing and consumer research and translates the techniques and perspectives of the humanities in ways that serve marketing scholars and practitioners. Although he continues to work within the context of business, he publishes in other fields such as folklore, popular culture, and literary criticism. His previous Quorum books are Qualitative Research in Intelligence and Marketing and Rethinking Marketing (both 2000).

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