IMCA Research seminar - Olga Kravets - Royal Holloway's School of Management

Historical Research in Marketing as Critique: Sketching the Possibilities

Abstract:

This talk is one part reflection and one part provocation, with a simple aim: to encourage a commitment to historical thinking in times when the past is intensely commodified and is used to sell us not only goods but policies. I reflect on the role of historical research in marketing and consumer studies, and, in particular, I consider the opportunities afforded by different historical approaches to advance critical perspectives. Then, taking my own archival work as a starting point, I draw on critical historical scholarship to discuss the challenges of the archives amidst ever greater availability of archival material and a technology-driven, at-scale digital production of 'historical records.'

Bio:

Olga Kravets is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Royal Holloway University of London and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research interests are in history of marketing and consumer culture, with the focus on critical theory and feminist perspectives. She has been a co-organiser of Consumption, Markets, and Culture Theorisation PhD Seminar (since 2007) and regularly serves as a mentor in research development workshops. She co-edited The SAGE Handbook of Consumer Culture and The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Feminism. Her research has been published in Journal of Marketing, Business History Review, Journal of Material Culture, Marketing Theory, among others and edited books.