<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<sec>
<h3>Purpose</h3>
<p>Markets are sites of collaboration as well as contestation between their various actors, including firms and consumers. In this respect, a narrative that consumers are more empowered than ever has been in vogue. Drawing from Kafka’s literature and philosophy and the paradigm of critical marketing, this paper argues for a broadened perspective.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3>
<p>Using a selective and exploratory-review approach, six dimensions of the state of today’s consumer emerge. These are subsequently assessed and developed as manifestations challenging the empowerment thesis.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Findings</h3>
<p>The depiction of intense subjugation in Kafka’s fiction and the lack of agency his characters portray furnish narrative frames to view the paradoxical state of contemporary consumption. Specifically, consumer choice and sovereignty, service failures and recoveries, privacy concerns, the capitalist nexus, transformation in service provisioning modes, and frontline employees’ lowered stakes comprise six analytical frames of consumers’ lives that depict their paradoxical simultaneity of empowerment and entrapment.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Originality/value</h3>
<p>The work contributes to critical marketing theory in particular and critical philosophy in general. Specifically, the proposed framework of consumption challenges depicted herein can serve as a mid-range theoretical taxonomy. The exemplar states highlighted reveal managerial and policy challenges.</p>
</sec>
</abstract>

Purpose
Markets are sites of collaboration as well as contestation between their various actors, including firms and consumers. In this respect, a narrative that consumers are more empowered than ever has been in vogue. Drawing from Kafka’s literature and philosophy and the paradigm of critical marketing, this paper argues for a broadened perspective.


Design/methodology/approach
Using a selective and exploratory-review approach, six dimensions of the state of today’s consumer emerge. These are subsequently assessed and developed as manifestations challenging the empowerment thesis.


Findings
The depiction of intense subjugation in Kafka’s fiction and the lack of agency his characters portray furnish narrative frames to view the paradoxical state of contemporary consumption. Specifically, consumer choice and sovereignty, service failures and recoveries, privacy concerns, the capitalist nexus, transformation in service provisioning modes, and frontline employees’ lowered stakes comprise six analytical frames of consumers’ lives that depict their paradoxical simultaneity of empowerment and entrapment.


Originality/value
The work contributes to critical marketing theory in particular and critical philosophy in general. Specifically, the proposed framework of consumption challenges depicted herein can serve as a mid-range theoretical taxonomy. The exemplar states highlighted reveal managerial and policy challenges.

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

International Journal of Contemporary Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Purpose
Markets are sites of collaboration as well as contestation between their various actors, including firms and consumers. In this respect, a narrative...

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 22, 2023

Page range: 58 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcm-2023-0010

Keywords
Critical Marketing, Kafkaesque, Consumption Challenges, Consumer Sovereignty, Consumer Empowerment

© 2023 Swapan Deep Arora, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 22, 2023

Page range: 58 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcm-2023-0010

KeywordsCritical Marketing, Kafkaesque, Consumption Challenges, Consumer Sovereignty, Consumer Empowerment

© 2023 Swapan Deep Arora, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Critical Marketing, Kafkaesque, Consumption Challenges, Consumer Sovereignty, Consumer Empowerment