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This article explores the concept of the extended self, which suggests that our possessions and experiences are a part of our identity. It discusses the work of Russ Belk, a prominent figure in this field, and his influential 1988 manuscript on the extended self. The article also examines different aspects of the self, such as the material, social, and spiritual self, and how they are shaped by our interactions with others and our environment. It emphasizes the importance of considering cultural differences when studying the self and discusses the potential impact of artificial intelligence and transhumanism on our understanding of identity. The text further explores various perspectives on the self in consumer research, challenging traditional assumptions and advocating for alternative viewpoints. It highlights the significance of power relations and calls for a more proactive approach in consumer research. The article concludes by suggesting future research directions in this area. [Extracted from the article]

Russ's (Belk, 1988) extension of William James' reflections on the self has been a significant accelerant of interpretive and Consumer Culture Theoretic research. In this paper, I will outline a different way we can engage with James' oeuvre; specifically via psychical research and parapsychology. These fields are subsequently linked to recent debates on quantum interconnectedness, nonlocality, brain-computer interfaces and capitalist-materialist telepathy. This endeavour initially responds to Russ's point that 'What we call "self" is really "selves". Besides distributed selves and multiple selves shared between individuals, there are also multiple selves within individuals' (Belk, 2024, p. 571). It builds upon Craig's respective accounts by proffering materialist and post-materialist perspectives on human-human dynamics and human-computer technological affordances. As we shall see, William James encourages us to recognise multiple selves, multiple levels of consciousness, and the psychical extension of self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Capability Approach (CA) as a means of identifying the barriers that individuals with disabilities face in achieving their goals, this conceptual paper aims to provoke discussion and identify how society excludes and marginalises individuals with disabilities. As framed through the lens of consumer vulnerability, reimagining how society, policy makers and the market can transform lived experiences, representation and symbolism of disability, this paper calls for a coherent and integrated set of actions. Central to these actions is a proposal for a transformative approach to marketplace access as a coordinated force to deliver positive change for people with disabilities. Through developing a new conceptual way of how the market should engage with disability, this paper presents proposals looking to ensure individuals with disabilities experience the conditions in which they can pursue their ultimate ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harlow Gale is often depicted as the first experimentalist in advertising thought. This positioning elides influences which impacted upon his thinking. In this article, we outline Gale's involvement with psychical research and its implications for advertising. These narratives are situated within a genealogy of subliminal processes across advertising and marketing theory from the late nineteenth century through to social cognition studies today. Gale's connection with psychical research, in conjunction with early practitioner reflections on the unconscious, formed the enabling conditions for his major contributions to advertising. Psychical scholarship spotlighted the centrality of the "multiplex self" to human functioning. While psychical framings scaffolded Gale's empirical, conceptual, and theoretical work, it also limited greater engagement with his insights. However, subsequent modifications of advertising theory and practice are underwritten by levels of continuity and discontinuity that facilitate the identification of psychically indebted bodies of thought from Gale's time to the present day. Taken together, these analytic associations provide a substantive reorientation of historical and contemporary accounts of advertising theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we want to show our appreciation for a major figure in our discipline by reading his work carefully, juxtaposing this material with historical narratives that place him in context. We think he would have appreciated the imbrication of his ideas with those of pertinent scholarly forebears, the reactions against socialism, impact of the Cold War, as well as the philanthropic politics that have shaped our intellectual parameters. As we make clear, M.J. Baker was a pioneer, justifying and extending the reach of marketing in the United Kingdom. He wore many hats: academic, editor, entrepreneur, and institution builder. Core themes in his writing are outlined, with attention devoted to his paradigmatic, epistemological and ethical commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prefigurative politics and social movement strategy: The roles of prefiguration in the reproduction, mobilisation and coordination of movements. Rethinking prefiguration: Alternatives, micropolitics and goals in social movements. The concept captures a variety of social experiments which critique the status quo (Cornish et al., [7]) whilst constructing 'alternative or utopian social relations in the present either in parallel with or in the course of, adversarial social movement protest' (L. S. Yates, [41], p. 236). [Extracted from the article]

I am a passionate advocate for historical research. It provides insight, context, illuminates the dynamics of our discipline and should anchor everything we think, write, and profess in the present. Careful historical research can question, undermine, and revise the existing set of representations that underwire our subject. It may help us untangle why certain views of the subject, topic, period, or person remain in wide currency, explaining the power relations, politics, institution building and wider discursive and non-discursive factors that foreclose, enhance, or otherwise influence what we think, write, teach, and practice. We desperately need more research that challenges everything we take for granted and fail to subject to scrutiny. This paper reflects a call to action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we acknowledge the politics of marketing pedagogy. Given recent neoliberal developments and the turn against critical perspectives in some quarters, it is proposed that those scholars taking a critical approach to their pedagogic labours might want to consider reframing them as fostering 'resistant curiosity'. We outline the parameters for a resistant (or critically curious) marketing pedagogy using the latest research from curiosity studies. Encouraging and scaffolding the development of resistant curiosity promises to facilitate reflexivity in lifelong learning and potentially opens the door to the social change that this world requires if it is to approach a basic level of intergenerational justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]