Abstract
Originally developed as a sales technique, marketing ended up playing an economic and political role globally. With the advent of globalization and sustainability issues, the importance given to the techniques of marketing in both analyses and in communication limits the possibility of mutual understanding and of social creativity. A profound understanding of what is at stake for society and culture is not what matters when the focus is on the ways to maintain the superficial link to the instrument of power.
The market plays a central role within the fields of marketing, economics and politics. Yet, questions of what the definition of the market is in these disciplines, and which premises can be considered as being the most fundamental ones in the marketing field, are ones that need answering. Attention is needed on why concepts such as legitimacy, desire, and sacred are fundamental ones for an understanding of evolving challenges.
An interdisciplinary approach can help reconstruct the outdated economic foundation of marketing, thereby ensuring that marketing does not undermine and counteract democracy. This the paper intends to help us to not only understand the historical legacy but also to be more attentive to market changes and social challenges of our times.
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Recommended Citation
Bouchet, Dominique
(2022)
"Marketing, Development, and the Question of Meaning,"
Markets, Globalization & Development Review:
Vol. 7:
No.
4, Article 3.
DOI: 10.23860/MGDR-2022-07-04-03
Available at:
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Author Bio
Dominique Bouchet was educated (masters, postmasters, Ph.D.) in business economics at ESSEC, international economics at Sorbonne, sociology at Paris 7, town planning at ENPC, and Latin American Studies at IHEAL. He has held appointments in international economics, sociology, and social psychology and has taught in five languages in 24 countries. Since 1991 Dr Bouchet has been Chair Professor of International Marketing at the University of Southern Denmark, where he served for 13 years as the Director of Doctoral Programs in Social Sciences. His interests span a wide area including epistemology, economics, sociology, philosophy, history, art, anthropology, semiotics, design, creativity, and markets as they relate to social change, cultural differences, cultures of consumption, education, and international relations. For “his capacity as an original and transcending researcher and scholar” Bouchet was awarded the Danish Researchers’ Prize in 2007. He has organized eleven international doctoral courses, each lasting for four to nine days, in Cross Cultural Communication, Business Research, Advanced Qualitative Methods, Consumption Theory, and Semiotic, Textual, and Visual Analysis.