Narrating the anxious market: in search of alternatives during global crises

Abstract

In this virtual roundtable, the editors of the special issue convened a discussion between three leading scholars in the fields of critical communication studies, CCT and marketing, to explore the roles, challenges and tensions that arise from the engagement of consumption and markets at the juncture of global crises. In the eclectic conversation, they critically probe the power imbalances in market narratives between the centre and the margin at moments of global crises and look towards alternative forms of markets and consumption culture. While sceptical of counter-market narratives that are appropriated by market mechanisms, they probe the opportunities for radical changes in the future that will subvert neoliberal arrangements and open the way to more equitable infrastructures of survival and overcoming, essential to our future.