ROLLS 18 Feb: Gerlinde Mautner

Research on Languages and Linguistics at Sussex: Wednesday 18 February, 13.00. Jubilee G36

This week we are pleased to host Gerlinde Mautner from Vienna University of Economics and Business for our ROLLS talk. All welcome, as always.
 
Marketing Textbooks: A CDA Perspective
Proponents of Critical Marketing claim that mainstream marketing pursues a performative and managerialist agenda; in other words, that researchers working in the mainstream are more on the side of business interests than of disinterested scholarship (Tadajewski and Brownlie, 2008). In this talk, I will substantiate that claim by applying a critical discourse perspective to introductory marketing textbooks (arguably key vehicles for socializing business students into the discipline). In particular, I will discuss (i) how these textbooks deploy semiotic resources to navigate the tension between analysing marketing and promoting it, (ii) how they deal with ethical issues and (iii) how they align themselves with corporate interests and distance themselves from critical voices (Mautner, forthcoming). Taken together, these acts of discursive positioning result in the idea of marketing being promoted, while the foundations of consumer capitalism are not challenged.
References:
Mautner, G. Forthcoming. Discourse and Management. Critical Perspectives Through the Language Lens. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tadajewski, M. and D. Brownlie. 2008. Critical marketing: A limit attitude. In: M. Tadajewski and D. Brownlie (eds), Critical Marketing. Contemporary Issues in Marketing. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.

Comments