Dunnett Susan - Consumer vulnerability : Conditions, contexts and characteristics

Consumer vulnerability is of growing importance as a research topic for those exploring wellbeing. This book provides space to critically engage with the conditions, contexts, and characteristics of consumer vulnerability, which affect how people experience and respond to the marketplace and vice versa.

Focusing on substantive, ethical, social and methodological issues, this book brings together key researchers in the field and practitioners who work with vulnerability on a daily basis. Organised into four parts, it considers consumer vulnerability and key life stages, health and wellbeing, poverty, and exclusion. Methodologically the chapters draw on qualitative research, employing a variety of method from interview, to the use of poetry, film and other cultural artefacts.

This book will be of interest to marketing and consumer research scholars and students, and also to researchers in other disciplines including sociology, public policy, anthropology, and practitioners, policy makers, and charitable organisations working with vulnerable groups.

Kathy Hamilton is Reader in Marketing, University of Strathclyde, UK.

Susan Dunnett is Lecturer in Marketing, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Maria Piacentini is Professor of Consumer Behaviour, Lancaster University, UK.

Marketing has been widely criticised as being probably the least self-critical of all the business disciplines and has never really been able to escape the charge that it is socially, ethically and morally barren in certain respects. Marketers may talk about satisfying the customer, about building close relationships with their clientele, about their ethical and corporate social responsibility initiatives, but increasingly these claims are subjected to critical scrutiny and been found wanting. In a social, economic and political environment in which big business and frequently some of the most marketing-adept companies practices are being questioned, there has emerged a very active community of scholars, practitioners and students interested in Critical Marketing Studies.

Using the types of critical social theory characteristic of Critical Marketing Studies, this series will drive the debate on Critical Marketing into the future. It offers scholars the space to articulate their arguments at the level of sophistication required to underscore the contribution of this domain to other scholars, students, practitioners and public-policy groups interested in the influence of marketing in the structuring of the public sphere and society. It is a forum for rigorously theorised, conceptually and empirically rich studies dealing with some element of marketing theory, thought, pedagogy and practice.

1. Consumer Vulnerability

Conditions, contexts and characteristics

Edited by Kathy Hamilton, Susan Dunnett and Maria Piacentini

Consumer Vulnerability

Conditions, contexts and characteristics

Edited by
Kathy Hamilton, Susan Dunnett
and Maria Piacentini

First published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and in the USA and Canada by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 Kathy Hamilton, Susan Dunnett and Maria Piacentini

The right of Kathy Hamilton, Susan Dunnett and Maria Piacentini to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the contributors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Consumer vulnerability: conditions, contexts and characteristics / edited by Kathy Hamilton, Susan Dunnett and Maria Piacentini. pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Consumers. 2. Consumer behavior. 3. Consumption (Economics)

I. Hamilton, Kathy. II. Dunnett, Susan. III. Piacentini, Maria. HC79.C6C656 2015 339.47--dc23 2015001814

ISBN: 978-0-415-85858-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-79779-2 (ebk)

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Stacey Menzel Baker (PhD, University of Nebraska) is Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business Practices, University of Wyoming. Her research crosses boundaries between transformative consumer research, marketing and public policy, macromarketing and customer experience management. She focuses on attachment to possessions, material wellbeing, marketplace experiences and relationships, consumer vulnerability, and individual and community resilience in contexts such as disaster recovery, disability and social services.

Courtney Nations Baker (PhD candidate, University of Wyoming) has an MS degree in Marketing from Clemson University. Courtney is interested in consumer rituals, agency, and vulnerability for applications in service marketing and policy. She is published in the Journal of Macromarketing, has presented at several national conferences, and is currently working on projects in the contexts of death care services and social services.

Wided Batat is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Lyon 2 (France) and a United Nations Representative at the UNESCO in Paris. Her works focus on young consumer education, consumption cultures and tourism experience, vulnerability and wellbeing, and food and sustainable consumption. Dr Batat has published several articles in international journals such as the Journal of Marketing Management, the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Research for Consumers, Revue Franaise de Marketing, International Journal for Consumer Studies and Advances in Consumer Research.

Sara Bryson is Policy & Research Manager at Children North East a regional childrens charity. Founded in 1891 it has over 120 years experience developing responses to tackling child poverty. Sara leads on the Child Poverty work for the charity, developing initiatives with young people such as Poverty Proofing the School Day. Sara has worked with children and young people for over a decade to ensure their views and experiences inform policy and practice: leading award-winning initiatives at The Childrens Society; writing strategies for local authorities; and working for the Office of the Childrens Commissioner for England.

http://www.children-ne.org.uk/tackling-child-poverty

www.povertyproofing.co.uk

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@ChildrenNE

@SaraBryson1

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Elaine Chase is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. Her research broadly focuses on the sociological dimensions of wellbeing and the rights of individuals and communities, particularly those most likely to experience disadvantage and marginalization. She has recently completed a study with colleagues in seven countries exploring the link between poverty, shame and social exclusion, and the implications for anti-poverty policies.