Non-Western Cultures and Critical Marketing

In this chapter, I explore the study of consumption and marketing in non-Western cultures. Specifically, I trace the trajectory of research on marketplaces that fall outside the Western world and discuss the potentialities and possibilities of critical research approaches in studying these contexts. In pursuing these goals, the terms ‘West’ and ‘non-West’ present many challenges. My intention here is not to submit to a dichotomic view of the world and reproduce an illusionary separation between the West and the non-West. Rather, I use the terms to refer to characteristics commonly attributed to the West and the non-West in the social sciences and primarily as analytical signposts.