Research
Critical Marketing
My approach to understanding markets and consumption is broadly critical and inter-disciplinary. The journal which I co-edit Marketing Theory reflects this viewpoint.
I have an interest in the intersections between the marketplace and social inequality. I was Principal Investigator on an ESRC funded seminar series entitled ‘Marketplace Exclusion: Representations, resistances and responses’.
Food, Family and the Marketplace
I am interested in bringing social and anthropological theory to bear in everyday consumption contexts. Along with Benedetta Cappellini (Royal Holloway, University of London) I have leveraged concepts such as gifting and sharing, sacrifice, abnegation, capital and class to explore the ways in which family identity and mothering are materialized through mealtimes and food consumption.
A second project which has recently been funded by a grant from the Heseltine Institute Social Economy Theme explores the issue of food poverty and aims to facilitate knowledge sharing across community groups. The project is called: Hungry for Change: Working together to tackle food poverty in Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent. The project involves partners from Keele and Royal Holloway Universities, we have also partnered with the New Vic Theatre to communicate our findings through a piece of theatre.
Gender and Subjectivity at Work
I am interested in gender in the workplace and also subjectivity at work more generally. One project here has focused on the ability of feminist researchers working in business schools across Europe to really make a difference. Another project is located at the intersection of marketing and HRM exploring how the brand might be leveraged as an employee management tool to engender employee commitment and motivation (see the Edward Elgar 2011 edited collection Branded Lives). This work has also been published in Gender, Work and Organization and Organization Studies.
Research groups
Research grants
Marketplace Exclusion: Representations, Resistances and Responses
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
November 2013 - March 2016