Joel Hietanen, University of Helsinki

Søren Askegaard, University of Southern Denmark

Onni Tulensalo, Aalto University School of Business

This special issue seeks to address the significant absence of Baudrillard's social theory from contemporary marketing and consumer research, despite his foundational contributions to understanding consumption as a system of signs rather than need satisfaction. The editors argue that his radical critique of consumer society remains largely neglected or misunderstood within the field, despite being recognized as canonical work and despite contemporary calls to reconsider his insights for understanding current consumer culture.

The issue invites scholarly engagement with Baudrillard's complex theoretical framework, including his concepts of fatal strategies, hyperreality, and the intensification of signification toward implosion. Contributors are encouraged to explore how his work illuminates contemporary consumption phenomena—from sustainability discourse to market inequality—and to investigate whether fatal strategies and accelerationist impulses offer alternative perspectives on capitalist realism and consumer critique.

Appel publié par Consumption Markets & Culture. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Baudrillard's critique of consumer society and consumption as a system of signs
• Postmodern thought and its applications in marketing and consumer research
• The concept of fatal strategies and their relevance to contemporary consumer culture
• Hyperreality, simulation, and the collapse of meaning in consumer markets
• Sustainability, environmental discourse, and sign proliferation in consumer culture
• Symbolic exchange and death as critiques of political economy
• The relationship between subject and object in late capitalism and consumer behavior
• Critiques of emancipatory consumer narratives and resistive practices
• The role of excess, spectacle, and implosion in understanding contemporary consumption
• Applications of Baudrillard's theory beyond marketing, including social sciences broadly

Timeline

• June 30, 2027: Manuscript deadline

Alan Bradshaw, Royal Holloway, University of London

Joel Hietanen, University of Helsinki

Appel publié par Consumption Markets & Culture. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Histories of consumer culture as US soft power
• Flattery and imitation: the keen attempts to reproduce Americana across the globe
• American hegemony and the professionally polished field of consumer culture theory
• Anthropologists, ironically or otherwise, explaining exotic Americana for the benefit of the rest of the world
• Analyses of contemporary modes of Vassalisation
• Resistances of all kinds: attempts to counter and break from American consumerism through experiments in commodification and hyper-consumerism
• Submissions that are polemical, Gonzo, inspired by Baudrillard's America or Adorno's Minima Moralia or Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan that are radical of heart and stylistically break with the norms and expectations branded into doctoral students

Timeline

• June 30, 2026: Full paper submission deadline
• August 31, 2026: Manuscript deadline