The Critical Imagination: Emancipatory Interests in Consumer Research

1991/09/01 by Jeff B. Murray, Julie L. Ozanne · 356 citations
Psychology · #Cognitive and psychological constructs research #Computer science #Construct (python library) #Critical theory #Empirical research #Epistemology #Process (computing) #Psychology #Social psychology #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1086/209247

published in Journal of Consumer Research 18(2), 129 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 1991/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Critical theory is presented as an interdisciplinary approach to seeking knowledge about consumers. Critical theory holds that social problems often result from groups in society being constrained by social structures and processes that they themselves construct and maintain. Critical research involves grasping both the intersubjective understandings of the groups involved and the historical-empirical understanding of the potentially constraining objective social conditions. Contradictions that are discovered provide the stimuli for change. Through the process of critique and dialogue, the critical researcher tries to help people imagine alternative social organizations that facilitate the development of human potential free from constraints.

Citations

• Designing Research for Application

Cited by

• Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research
• Can Consumers Escape the Market? Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man
• Participatory Action Research
• Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming the “Public” in Public Place
• Consumer research, interpretive paradigms and methodological ambiguities
• Operationalizing Critical Race Theory in the Marketplace
• Remembering motivation research: toward an alternative genealogy of interpretive consumer research
• Assessing the Societal Impact of Research: The Relational Engagement Approach
• Community Action Research
• Political Ideology in Consumer Resistance: Analyzing Far-Right Opposition to Multicultural Marketing
• Politicizing Consumer Culture: Advertising's Appropriation of Political Ideology in China's Social Transition

Related

• Critical psychology: A geography of intellectual engagement and resistance.
• The Transformative Consumer Research Movement
• Critical praxeological analysis: respecifying critical research
• Researching on the edge: emancipatory praxis for social justice
• Development and Validation of the Critical Consciousness Scale